Thank you for listening to the river.
Bend Church podcast Reverb in church exists.
Delete all people to know love and live New Life in Jesus
Christ. We hope that you enjoy this
message. We're diving into a new teaching
series. It's going to be a five-week
journey and it's called anchor for my soul.
And what it's going to do is walk us through the book of
Hebrews in the Bible. And so God has given me some
words, I've read this book. Over and over just kind of
meditating on it going God give me what you want me to hear as
we as I study this so that I'll know what to pour out.
And so here's my hope, I want to empty my cup of what God has
been poured into my heart over these next five weeks.
I want to empty out everything that I think God's put in me and
what he's been doing in me through this book of Hebrews.
And so I hope that you'll find Hope in this book as we read
through it. And so a couple of things were
we're going to do one is There's several pieces of this book.
There's thirteen chapters in this letter called Hebrews in
your Bible. We can't walk through all of
that in five weeks on Sunday morning.
There's no possible way to cover all of it.
What we're going to do is encourage you to read through
it, for yourself, in the lobby. Right now you can find Bibles as
the same version I read from. And so if you don't have one of
those, you know I'd really like to have one there.
They are available in the lobby. This morning on your way out.
You can pick up one. I strongly encourage you to get
in this word for your Yourself. So that you can see and you can
understand God will speak more to you than just what we're
going to talk about. But also during the week on
Tuesday and Thursday mornings at seven a.m., we're going to put
out devotionals online that you can jump on.
And it's going to connect the dots between the week so that we
can cover this entire book over a five-week span.
And so I want you to hear it for yourself as we go.
Now, as we talk about this book called Hebrews in your Bible, if
you want to get there, get there.
We can follow will have the notes.
Pierre, but who wrote This Book? Few interesting facts.
Did you know that it's one of the few books?
Maybe you could arguably the only book in the Bible, we're
not exactly sure who wrote it. And so most Scholars, say the
Apostle, Paul wrote the book If I had to just take a stab and
say, where do you stand after studying?
I'd say, I believe Apostle, Paul.
And here's the thing, most of the letters in scripture are
signed by someone. Now, here's the, here's what we
do know. We do know who it was written to
though. We know it was written by
someone who saw the life death. Death and burial of Jesus and
everything that he or she says we don't know man, or woman
wrote this book. Whoever it was they wrote this
book and it aligns completely with the rest of scripture.
Everything about the gospel is in alignment and so what we do
know is who it was written to, we don't know the location like
we do in some other books but we know racially who it was written
to. It was written to a specific
group, the Jews, the Jews and so the book of the the book is
called Hebrews, which is the title we put on it at a later.
Tom Hebrews, because it was written to the Hebrew people,
the rest of the letters in the New Testament, in large part of
the written to the Gentile church, this is one written to
Jewish followers. So, the Jews were the ones who
crucified Jesus Jesus was a Jewish man.
When he lived on the earth, if you read the first half of your
Bible, the Old Testament, tells the story of mostly the Jews,
God's people. The rest of the New Testament in
a large part, is written to us Gentiles those that are non
Jews. If you're Jewish descendant,
then you may know that. At.
But you may be part of the Jewish kind of tribe or
bloodline but for the rest of us were Gentiles and so although
it's written to Jews. Here's what I found, as I read
through it, there are so many struggles and challenges that it
speaks to and this letter speaks to us today.
And so, why are we calling the series anchor for my soul?
Why do we have this massive anchor up here on the stage?
That's a good question. The center point of this book,
lays out a key theme that we're going to see as we as we walk
through over the next five weeks.
I can unpack all of it today but I want you to see it.
So if you turn to the dead center of this book in your
Bible around Hebrews 6:18 and 19, here's kind of the theme of
the book overall. And here's what he says, the
Practical thing, what do we do? It is impossible for God to lie
and it was a lot of back story to that we'll get to in a few
weeks. It is impossible for God to lie
there, for we who have fled to him for Refuge can have great
confidence as we hold to the hope that lies.
Lies before. So this is not for the whole
world. It's not for just the Jews, it's
not for just the Gentiles. It is for who those who have
fled to Jesus for Refuge. Those who have decided at some
point in time, in their life. God, I know enough about you to
put my faith in you through Jesus Christ.
I have fled to you. That's what it means to flee to
Jesus. It says then we have confidence
as we hold to hope. Now let's hope hope is promises
that haven't been fulfilled yet but we have a confidence in our
God's promises to us. We have this hope that lies
before us. What is the hope that's before
us? Well, as the fact that Jesus is
with us now, and not only is he with us now, but he will be with
us all the way through death into eternity forever.
But it says, this this hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor
for our souls. It leads us through the curtain.
Now, this is an analogy to the Old Testament way of worship.
There was a veil that covered the holiest, place the holy of
holies and whenever Jesus died on the cross this Veil.
L was ripped in two from top to bottom.
It's kind of one of those weird things you may not understand
but here's what it was saying, the presence of God is now open
to all people. That's simply what it signified.
The presence of God, it says that Jesus is the one though
that leads us through the curtain.
Into the inner Sanctuary. This hope that we have, it
ensures us into the very presence of God.
So this idea of permeates the book of Hebrews, this little
letter called Hebrews that we have this hope that is an anchor
for our soul. Pause.
And so as we begin the study, here's what we're going to do
today. We're going to walk all the way
through chapter one. And we're going to talk a little
bit about chapter 2 but the theme is the same as we walk
through. But for the entire book and this
entire study, I want to give you four truths that I put in your
notes today that will guide us through all five weeks.
We will unpack these as the week's go on and here's the
first one, everyone anchors his or sold her soul to something.
Every single person has a soul anchor, every person.
And so I thought about it because I'm a visual person,
right? I got to have like weird picture
in my mind, you could see yourself like this, every person
has a soul line, something you're holding onto in your life
is connected to you. You can Envision it wrapped
around your heart, wrapped around, but you have a soul line
with a hook on it, you get to decide what you anchor yourself
to. And so this strong and
trustworthy. Anchor for our souls will call
this Jesus, right? The promises of God Jesus
himself. We have this ability to Anchor
ourselves to it, but here's what I've learned, people, anchor
themselves to all kind of things.
Let me ask you a question. What are you anchored to now as
cachet to help me this morning? So I want to pick on her a
little bit, so Shay. What are you anchored to now?
Here's, here's the thing. We anchor ourselves to so many
different things in life, right? But unless we get it anchored
down the something I had air and put this in.
And he used like a box of screws screw this thing to the floor.
So, it wouldn't fall over when we pull on it.
But here's the thing, whatever you ain't yourself to, that's
what determines the strength that you have in your life.
Sometimes we anchor ourselves to other people.
Now, show your pretty strong. I'm pretty strong right, anchor,
the other people. Now people can hold you pretty,
pretty steady at times, but do you know that people are
wishy-washy? When you anchor yourself to
somebody else, they'll be your best friend one day.
And then what happens, it will turn On you in a heartbeat right
now. I'm going to turn on you Shea.
But they will even good people. Here's the thing, even when they
don't mean to sometimes, people who you see is really strong,
they'll go through a valley. And if you've incurred yourself
to a person, then what happens when they get in the valley,
guess where you are, or when they start drifting, guess what
happens to you? We will anchor ourselves to
success in life. If I can just get successful, I
just want this platform or this Authority and while anchor
ourselves to it, here's what you find is soon as that goes away.
Guess what you? Feel like you have no soul
anchor anymore. You're holding on to it, but the
hooks is here, Is nothing there. As soon as life hits and storm
hits and Health crisis hits and all that what happens is as you
pull, there's nothing to hold. There's nothing to hold to.
And so, there's so many things that people anchor their lives
to, I found this people, anchor themselves to money, we never
say this out loud. But you know, do you know how,
you know, this is a wrestling for us, as Americans as North
Georgia. People, if I can just get a
little bit more, if I can just get my Nest Egg, a little bit
bigger. If I can just get Get my
retirement, a little more set and what we feel, like we hook
it on. And then you realize one day,
you can't take any of that with you.
Anyway, all the what you work for wasn't an anchor, wasn't
anything worth anchor and I think God gets we did before the
Lord one day after Believers. And he goes, hey man, you spent
your whole life, doing what? But also what you'll find is
money. Can't buy peace.
Money, can't give you. Comfort when the storms hit and
it can save you money. Nothing by stuff, like money.
I get it right. We need some money rise.
Like how you send the money my way.
Then if you don't want it, I'm not saying that.
What I'm saying is money is a tool God's given us.
It shouldn't be the anchor of Our Lives.
It can't be it. Can't hold us steady.
We sometimes anchor ourselves in our stuff, but here's the thing.
Everybody anchors our self to something.
Do you know what I hope? Thanks Shay.
I'll let you do that. Do you know what I hope?
By the end of this series, if you already know the Lord Jesus
Christ, I hope that you can honestly say I'm hooked on to
him. God no matter what happens in
life. I'm hooked on no matter what
comes my way, what storm? What winds blow Lord.
I got a solid anchor. That's not going anywhere.
Now, here's the second piece of this.
Look at this. The second piece, is this the
strength of your anchor determines the strength of your
life? I thought this this about it
this week. There's a precious woman.
Many of you guys may not know or she came in and out of the
church during the pandemic because her husband is a pastor
and was stuck in Colombia, but Patricia is her name, and some
of, you know, her and have prayed for.
And as a church, you may not even know this.
But we've tried to be a part of helping them, but she lost both
her legs of several weeks ago, and just a freak accident.
She was healthy woman. She all of a sudden lost both
legs. And we went to see her the other
night. I mean, Courtney, did we just
got burden? We're like she was she just Got
home from the hospital. We just, we went to see her and
I'm going to tell you what you talk about a woman who is
anchored, a woman, who is anchored in Jesus?
There's no, there's no anger towards the person who did it.
There was a piece in this woman so let me, she's just like
praising the Lord. I'm doing really good.
And I mean all of a sudden our whole life changed they're
having at are outdoors in her house to get her wheelchair
through. And I thought, you know what the
strength of your anchor, determines the strength of your
life. And for that, for that I was, I
was Humbled in her presence because here's a woman of God
who is anchored in Jesus so much that.
Even though she lost her legs and her house is being torn
apart and everything's up in the air.
It's like, but my God is good, the Lord.
So good to me, that's what she said and I'm going to read.
Are you kidding me? Sometimes, you just want to get
in your flesh and say, you've got to be kidding, you gotta
just be putting on a facade right now.
No, no. As you see the tears in her eyes
and the tears, Courtney, we tried to pray for and Courtney
just like, lost it, because we were both.
So humbled in her presence. But here's what it was.
Woman has an acre for her soul. I felt it.
I saw it. I experienced.
See, here's the thing. Your life will only be as
resilient and strong as whatever Your Soul Is Anchored to.
Now here's the third thing and you may not even agree with this
one yet and I'm okay with that because I want to walk you
through and I want to show you step by step in this word how
this holds true. But there's only one anchor
holds said that a hold steadfast in life and death and that's
Jesus. There's only one anchor and you
say well you know what? Joe the reason I have a hard
time as Jesus is invisible, if I could just have been there when
he was on the earth then I make it attached myself to him and
got really believe in him. But I love this analogy of an
anchor because you know, an Acres only doing its job when
it's invisible. You drop it down to the bottom
of the pond or lake whatever you in a boat and it digs in.
And when the invisible, you know, the do you know how, you
know the anchor though? You know, the anchor by the fact
that the vessel was held sturdy on top of the water?
See, storms will come. You're either in a storm right
now. You may be right now going man.
You don't even know how I need this today.
I got a health store, my family storm.
I got whatever it maybe I'm dealing with all this right now.
You don't even know me and I need to And what it's like to
Anchor myself, but if you're not in one, guess what?
Just keep living long enough. Something hits you out of
nowhere? Sometimes you're like why God
the questions where you go. Why why is it like this?
Here's the for truth in this. Going to guide us through this.
What you worship, not what you believe, reveals your anchor.
You go, hang on now but I believe in Jesus.
Worship reveals your anchor and also storms Reveal.
Your anchor saying that I believe something is very
different than anchoring my soul through worship something, They
like Patricia. She is scribed word to the Lord,
even though she's been through a crazy storm in life.
God, I still will worship you because you hold me Steady
through all this. I trust that not only do you
hold me Steady in life. You will hold me steady all the
way through, even in death, even when my life is gone, there's
something that can hold me Steady and it's Jesus.
So my hope is a pastor is to give us a soul check.
As we walked through these next few weeks.
Going God is Jesus, really the anchor.
God are you the anchor of my soul?
So as we dive in today, we're going to look at just a couple
of pieces of this book or a couple of chapters of this book.
And before we read some of this, I want to give you the gist,
Hebrews chapters 1 and 2. It makes a shift here, we're
talking about the anchor in Hebrews 6 were backing up a
chapter one. Do you know what the gist of it
is Jesus is greater than the angels.
If you study the Bible at all, you may realize that a lot of
people kind of go to Hebrews to talk about angels, because
there's, maybe more in the New Testament specifically on what
Angels functions are. Then then you can find all the
way until you get to Revelation. You see more in the Book of
Revelation. The Hebrews is it tells us a lot
about that. But here's here's the reason
that the author addresses angels and wanting to make sure people
know Jesus is greater than Angels.
He's not saying angels are not powerful.
He's not saying angel. Not real in any way.
Actually the very opposite of that.
But what he's saying is Jesus, Not Angels should be the anchor
for your soul to Greater anchor is Christ.
So he wants to prove his or her Point here in the opening
paragraph. Look what he says long ago.
God spoke many times. And in many ways to our
ancestors through the prophets, this is the first part of your
Bible. If you go back to the Old
Testament or old Covenant section of your Bible, what
you'll find is a lot of it was God speaking to us, His people,
the Jews through mouthpieces, prophets in scripture, you
actually have many of your books in the Bible in the Old
Testament named. After those profits, it was what
God said to them and then they spoken to people.
He said that used to be how God speaks.
He says, and now in these final days, now I always find this
interesting in scripture, we've been waiting for about 2,000
years for the return of Christ. Almost, you know, we're going on
it and our lifetimes will see two thousand years of waiting
before Jesus comes back. But even here, there was an
urgency in his heart or her heart, who wrote this to say, in
the final days Jesus is coming. Again, that's really in these
final days. How has God spoken?
He says he has spoken to us through his son, God promised
everything to the Sun, as it inheritance.
And that's Jesus, God, the son and through the son, he created
the universe, the sun, radiates God's glory, and expresses, the
character of God and he sustains everything by the mighty power
of His Commander by his word. Word, he sustains everything and
look at this. When it cleansed us from our
sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of
the Majestic, God of heaven, and we just looked at this in the
Jesus series. When Jesus ascended, he sat at
the right hand of God, the Father to wait until the day,
whenever it would be time to set all things, new and motioned for
him to come again. But it says this shows the Sun
is far greater than the angel. So all is first three verses
from this writer's perspective. Was I want to make sure that you
don't just trust in Spiritual Beings are higher power.
Course you should trust in Jesus, do you know today there's
a lot of people that believe in a higher power.
Really, there's a God somewhere or they believe in Spiritual
Beings. The spiritual section is full in
the bookstores, but here's the thing, Jesus made it very narrow
in John 14, when he said, I am the way, the truth and the life,
no one can come to the father but by me, so, no matter what we
know about other Spiritual Beings are what we believe, what
comes down to Christianity. What comes down to the basis of
Christianity. In our Salvation is, what do you
believe about Jesus Christ? Who Who is he to you?
Here's what he's saying, Riders. Say and he or she is saying
this, just as the name of God did Jesus.
The Sun is far greater than the Angels.
Just as the name, God gave him is greater than their names.
And so he's building this massive case about who Jesus is
and why he's better than the angels.
And so I want to walk back through this with you, for just
a moment and talk about it in this way.
Jesus, that anchor for our souls.
And here's the first thing, he is the final word, final word.
It Is it? God spoke to us in these final
days in this way? But you could really translate
that God has finally spoken through Christ.
In other words, there's not another piece of Revelation that
we are waiting on, in order to know how to be born again, in
order to know how to be a follower of God to be restored
to him. There's not anything else we're
waiting on there are things. We don't know.
They're sure they're Revelations that we don't understand, but
there's nothing else that we need to know from God in order
to to be his child. He's given us everything.
That's what it means. Jesus is the final word.
He is the final word. There's nothing coming after
him. If you turn to the Book of
Revelation when John got that, Jesus, one of the last things,
Jesus told him is don't let anyone add anything to this word
or take anything away because this is it, this is all you need
to be a follower of mine to be my child but also not only is
Jesus the final word. It says that he is the owner of
everything, the father gave him everything as an It's so why is
Jesus the worthy anchor for our souls will?
He owns everything you think about versus like Matthew
chapter 6 33. It says seek first, the kingdom
of heaven and everything else. You need will be given to you.
That's one of those promises where you're going.
God, I'm going to go out on a limb through faith and say, it
doesn't make sense to seek somebody.
I can't see when I, when what I really need is food, but I can't
figure it out. What I really need is money,
what I really need is for my kid to get well and I'm doing going
to the We're doing what we can but believe in the promise comes
back to this and going. But God there's an element that
I can't do. Here are anchor myself to you.
I believe your promise, I hold on to that.
Hope I do everything I can in my life at a hold on.
Why? Because he's creator of
everything. Also are also, he is creator of
everything. It says that the father gave
Jesus everything that he simply created to begin with.
And then I love this one. It says that he expresses the
glory and character of God, did you know that God was invisible
up until Jesus wrapped himself in flesh, you know, one for
thousands of years before it had been able to look on.
God, the scripture even teaches that if they had been able to
look on him they would die. They would die.
So here's the way that I put this.
Jesus Is God visible. We can go back to this story and
you can, I would encourage you to dive into and check the
authenticity of the New Testament gospels to look into
it. Dive as deep as you can to
learn. As much as you can about those
original Ray language in the question, is this, did this guy
really live? Did he really do what he said he
was going to do? That's the main question.
I'm concerned with in scripture, but he is God, visible house.
He visible to us today, but we have the story. let me tell you
if the enemy could have squash scripture by now, he would have
Do you know the greatest thing the enemy could have done over
two thousand years? Do you know how many books have
been lost in time forever and we never know about them.
There's only a handful of things from the first century that we
even have copies of. But with scripture there's over
25,000 pieces of manuscripts that allowed and then you
remember some of you guys remember if you study before you
heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls, when they were found, they align
completely and perfectly and gave us some older things to
align scripture to validate the authenticity.
But God is he is, Jesus, Is God visible.
We can look at his life in Matthew Mark, Luke and John and
see him. But also it says that he
sustains. Everything not only did he
create everything, not only the own, everything he is sustainer
of everything, he sustains our heartbeat.
How does he do that? Well, yes, through science.
Yes. Through biology God designed us.
But you could actually say if you really believe God created
heavens and earth that our hearts can't even beat without
him. Why is he a worthy anchor for
our soul? Because he's in control.
Also, it says that he cleansed us from our sin.
Now later, we'll see that this refers to the guilt and shame
that Sim brought on us. And that separation from God,
that it costs. But Jesus restored, our soul.
That's why I put it. He is restorer of our souls.
Why should we anchor ourselves to him?
Well, he's the only one that promises you that there is a way
not by your works, but simply by Faith by faith, that aligns your
life around something that belief that changes the way you
live. That kind Of Faith, even
sometimes if it's small, he says, that's all you have to
have to step into restoration of your soul.
You don't have to write all your wrongs.
You don't have to get everything right in your life, you do have
to surrender yourself to him and then the last one, maybe the
most important it says that right now, he's Seated on the
throne in heaven. Right now, he's Seated on the
throne in heaven. So in the first three verses of
this chapter, we're getting understanding of why.
Jesus, Not Angels, not Spiritual Beings is the only one Worthy?
To Anchor, our souls, to put our hope both now in this life and
then into eternity in. Because right now, he sits on
the right side of the Father in heaven.
Now, you notice this verse. It said that he, it led this
hope leads us through the curtain.
So right now there's a curtain, it's a veil.
We cannot see in the physical heaven right now, we can't see
into spiritual heaven. We have scripture that tells us
about it when we experience the move of the spirit of God,
there's just something that resonates in US.
There's an affirmation in us, but we can't see it.
But here's the cool thing about this, hope right now.
Jesus is not here on this Earth, but when we anchor ourselves to
him, we've actually anchored ourselves into eternity.
He sits right now at the right hand of the father, do you know
what he does? The bible teaches this, he
advocates for you. He says, hey, I know that was
not perfect. But remember what I did.
Father, remember what I did for him for her.
That's my son, that's my daughter.
And so the cases built Jesus is the only worthy anchor for your
soul. Now obviously, the Hebrew
Believers had become followers of Jesus, so he's not trying to
convince them to believe in Jesus, they already done that,
but they were wrestling with believing other things
somewhere. Along the way, agnosticism had
crept in and so, it's as old as history.
The word Chip of Angels, the worship of spirituality and
Spiritual Beings, it's as old as time.
But the writer here spends, a lot of time using the Old
Testament in this next section. So first, he lays out, Jesus,
who Jesus was now, the writer is going to go to the Old
Testament, which these Jewish people would have known, they
would have known it by heart. And he says, now I want to use
the scripture that you already know to prove that Jesus is the
worthy anchor. Look, what he says God, never
said to any Angel, what he said to Jesus.
Jesus. You are my son today.
I have become your father so he said not one time.
Did God ever say that the angel was his son and he was the
father and that's a quote from Psalm 27, written by David and
he said this, I will be his father and he will be my son,
second, Samuel 7:14. So he's using scripture when he
brought his Supreme son into the world.
God said this, let all of God's angels worship him regarding the
Angels. He says, he sends his angels
like the Ensign servants like flames of fire.
Now, here's a little bit of a hint and who angels are?
He says that God sends them and so they obey his commands, he
sends them like the winds They think about the wind, you don't
see the wind, but what do you see the impact of the wind?
A lot of times, spiritual things are alluded to as the winner,
ER, in our minds. It's brought to life as the wind
is the wind blows. And so it says his angels, he
sends them like wins his servants, like, flames of fire.
So they are his servants and they're like, flames of fire.
Why are they like flames of fire?
Well, if you read the book of Revelation, where you get a
picture of the Heavenly, Jesus, anything coming from his
presence is on fire. In the best of ways on fire,
with Holiness, on fire, with compassion, on fire, with
righteousness. And so, they are like, flames of
fire sent to do battle for us. We'll see that in a moment, but
he says to the son, he said to the angels, your my servants.
But to the sun, he says this verse 8, your throne o God, now
check this. This is God speaking to Jesus,
and so he's calling him. God, he says, Jesus your throne,
o God endures forever, you rule with a scepter of Justice, your
loving, you love, Justice, and hate evil.
For oh God, your God has anointed you pouring out the oil
of Joy on you more than anyone else.
He also says to the son in the beginning.
Lord, you laid, the foundation of the earth.
You made the heavens with your hands.
They will perish but you remain forever.
They will wear out like old clothing.
You will fold them up like a cloak and discard them.
Why is Jesus so worthy? Because one day and I don't
think you have a hard time believing this anymore.
One day, this Earth will be no more.
We look around our world right now.
Can't you just see the destruction and the pain and the
things going on? I mean, listen, we are called To
Build a Better Community, we are called to be Salt and Light.
We are called to say you matter were called to lead people to
Jesus but it's a limited time no matter what we do.
Right now, our job is to make Heaven as big as we can by
loving as many people to Jesus, as we can, that's our job right
now. But ultimately one day this week
in here that we feel the Rumblings of this Earth fading
away, don't People are divided for no reason.
People hate each other for no reason people.
Well a reason but not a good reason.
And here's the thing, we can see the Rumblings of discontent.
We hear all this stuff about the possibility of nuclear war.
Now here's the thing. God is in control, Jesus,
sustainer of everything, we're anchored to that fact, we here's
the thing. One day, it says he's going to
fold this place up and discard it like old clothing.
That's how big he is. It says you are always the same,
you will live forever, why should we anchor our soul to
Jesus? Well because I think we
understand that our bodies are not going to live forever, but
it says he lives forever. God never said to any of the
Angels, sit in the place of honor at my right hand, until I
humble your enemies. Now, this is making them a
footstool on her feet. This is an interesting verse
Because whenever Jesus came we celebrate the fact that on the
cross he defeated sin and death right, but we haven't yet.
Seen everything put under his authority.
Have we? You ever wonder God, why do you
still allow? If you've already defeated sin
and death, why do you allow so much pain?
Why do you allow death? Why do you allow loss?
Why do you love so much hurt in this world?
Why do my kids get sick? Why is there Cancer all?
Fair questions but here's one of the answers right now.
We're in this waiting period were even though Jesus has one
we were waiting for all enemies to be humbled underneath his
feet. So this last one right here
says, therefore, Angels, who are they only servants Spirit sent
to care for people who will inherit salvation.
So, even though this book is Not About Angels, it's about the
supremacy of Jesus and about the fact that he is the only
trustworthy anchor for our soul, the one we can put our hope in.
It does tell us a little bit about angels here.
So, who are angels their servants?
What's their job? They are spirits sent to care
for people who Inherit salvation.
So you know, that old idea of like Guardian Angel, some of
y'all work your guardian angels to death, by the way.
But actually biblically, you could say, God sends these
individual invisible, Spiritual Beings to fight on our behalf.
I don't want to get all squirrelly again.
It's Not About Angels it's about Jesus but it's okay to
acknowledge that. Sometimes you may have an
experience in your life, where you go.
I know God just intervened. Most of us.
Look back on our teenage years and Go the whole time.
Like, I had to have multiple Angels, or I wouldn't be here
today. That's my story.
Anyway, I was in a crazy car wreck when I was in third grade,
that should have taken my life as his big old scar on my head,
it should have taken my life. I really believe that God With
us that day and saved my life. I couldn't be here today if he
didn't. I really believe you probably
have those stories and listen Angels, never meant to get to
worship though. Do you know who they worship?
You know, the scripture said they worship Jesus.
So when you get to heaven, the Angels who have helped you
behind the scenes and it will have have served you and God
said, hey, my son needs needs you right now.
So go and they go because they obey his command my daughter
down there. She needs you right now and so
they go. See, we can't get so spiritual
that we forget, we about angels and other things we get our eyes
off Jesus, but you better believe that you have Advocates
fighting for you, led by the Lord, Jesus Christ himself,
scripture teaches that he says that they are his servants.
And they are spirits sent to care for people who will inherit
salvation, that just simply means for those who call on the
name of Jesus. You have helpers you have people
around you. So as we wrap this up, this And
I want to move on to chapter 2 and read you one verse here.
Because the rider was so hurt inside.
I think he saw people that used to be on fire for the Lord and
now they had kind of started to drift and worship other things.
And here's what he says, look at this.
We must listen very carefully to the truth.
We have heard what's the truth? Jesus Christ is the way the
truth and the life. There's no way to get to heaven
or to the father except through. Jesus Christ is the only
trustworthy anchor for your soul.
He's the only thing you can put your hope in that Will Never Let
You Down. Anything he is promise will
never fail you. He's the only one.
And said he got to listen to that truth.
Why? Because if you don't, you may
drift, we're at the beach. A couple of weeks ago.
I decided I wanted a paddleboard couple of years, we've rented
them and I said, you know what, I want to get me a paddleboard.
We're going to take it to the beach and so we get one of those
that you have to like inflate with a little pump.
And by the way it takes a long time it is a crazy workout to
inflate that thing. We got it all inflated though
get it out to the beach and Couple of calm days.
You know, standing up out there in the boys were having fun on
it. And so one day I went out to I
think it was just Courtney was out there on the beach with me
and I went out to where I could see.
The water was clear a little bit out and you can see way down in
there but really it wasn't that deep was maybe six or seven
feet. Deep 8 feet deep and so I got
out there and I thought man there's nobody here.
I'm just going to lay down on this paddle board just rest for
a minute. And so what I did is I took the
paddle and I extended it and I stuck it in the sand and kind of
wiggled it. Down.
And then it's laid down on my stomach on this paddle board.
Well, I kind of dozed off, I didn't mean to, and I dozed off.
And I said, you know, even if I doze off, it'll be fine because
the water was pretty smooth. And I had this paddle dug in,
but all of a sudden I start here at guy, strange guy talking,
like, right beside my head like, hey bud.
And I open my eyes, the find that I'm in the middle of a
family about 50 yards down the beach.
And I was like, I'm so sorry like this guy was like you're
really weird so I'm floating right up in his face, you know.
It's like I'm so sorry. So I almost fall off the paddle
board and I get up on my knees and I'm like getting away from
him. But here's the thing I thought
that I was anchored really good. I thought that I was like,
there's no way I'm gonna drift the, the waters calm, but but
what happened battles? Just slide along the bottom.
I didn't realize it's like 50 yards up the beach and the Lord
just kind of spoke to me as I was thinking about that story.
Do, you know the danger of having no anchor or not having
the right anchor? Either one, it's this drift.
The danger of not having an acre, it's drift.
So many people, I know, even Believers in life.
Listen it's not that you haven't heard about Christ.
It's just at some point in time maybe you Beat up or maybe that
addiction came back for that sin of the night or maybe you just
got so hurt by all the bad things.
You just said Jesus, I do believe and I hope that turns
out true. But we begin to Anchor ourselves
to other things again and then I'll watch as people like me on
the paddleboard drift away, the community that they need to be
in which is the church, the community of people who are all
wrestling and struggling and broken but need each other, they
drift away from it. Get hurt by small things, don't
agree with little small. Things.
We focus on Jesus but so many things, pull us away and we
begin to drift in one day. You wake up.
And you know what I've learned, people feel all alone once
you've drifted away. Or maybe you've been hurt before
and you said, you know what, God, I've not only church hurt,
but Lord life for you didn't let things turn out the way that I
thought they should. And you may even have a right?
You may even go got it. Yeah, you could have done, you
could have done it so much better from our perspective.
So do you know what they call is?
Today? Jesus Christ is the greatest
thing. You can ever anchor your life to
your money, can't save you, your friends can't save you.
Now friends, a great influence is not that they're not
important. Need to put good people around
you. But here's the thing, if you've
only just believed in, you've never truly anchored your soul
and started saying God, I'm going to put my faith in your
word and I'm gonna hold on to it.
Lord, when everybody starts trying to push me this way and
now Lord I'm I'm holding on and sometimes you may feel like
you're far from God to guess what, The Anchor Holds.
There's an old song we used to sing when I was little comes to
mind The Anchor Holds this, the guy that used to sing about
every other week at I can't help them mind.
Go back to my childhood thinking About it man.
The Anchor Holds because you know what?
As I've gone through stuff in my life in the seasons where I've
said, God I'm gonna believe your promises my Lord has never let
me down. Sometimes I've had to have
people remind me of this because I'll be struggling and I'll be
walking up going. You know what, you know what
God, I'll be real with you. There's been some Monday
mornings with the devil of get on me.
So bad. I'll go.
I'll have my hand on the hook. Maybe Courtney, I'll send me an
encouraging text or somebody will go.
Hey, I'm praying for you or the Lord will just show up in a
special way and I'm going. What am I doing, man?
Jesus is the anchor for my soul. We struggle with this, but can I
look at you as a Believer? If you're a believer in Jesus
Christ and just say today, have you truly anchored, every single
person gets to decide what the anchor to, that's the freedom of
this world. You get to decide.
That's the freedom of love, you. Get to the side.
Have I really believe the promises of God that he is who
he says he is. Is that it will do what he said.
He will do something is firm. It's a firm foundation that
won't shake away like everything else does in this Earth.
So maybe today is for The Drifter that you mean I feel I
can kind of preaching to the choir cause you came to church
today, but sometimes you can sit in a seat but inside, you can
go. Yeah, man, that's me, I keep
drifting this way and that way, and this way, do you know how
you come back and make sure your anchor is firm?
You just reaffirm your commitment to the Lord and go
back to his word and say, God, I want to put it to practice in my
life. So, maybe God brought you here
this morning and you weren't expecting this, but right now
he's kind of nailing. Your heart said, you know what,
big boy you don't even have an anchor for your soul, you're not
anchored to anything. You're flying around and your
pride is keeping you from just going Jesus.
I see you clear enough, I don't understand everything and I
don't know all about your but I see clear enough that you're the
only anchor for my soul. You're the only God the stepped
out of heaven for me. Lord, I want to come.
Do you know how you do this? You simply coming.
Faith and say Jesus, I Surrender my life.
I'm ready for you to be my Lord and then as you walk out of here
you go with a chain that will never break.
That will never fade away. Something is firm.
It's a foundation. You can lean on.
Will you bow with me all over the house today?
Listen, if that's you Let me ask you a question.
Is anybody here you'd be willing to admit because I want to pray
for you say, Joe. I struggle.
I'm not sure my Acres always in Jesus, just raise your hand
right? Where y'all going to pray for
you. Thank you.
Keep it up. Keep it up right now only if you
got your hand up. Look at me, there's several you
all over this room. Look at me.
You can put your hands down. I want you to look at me.
Listen, I want to pray for you right now.
Just that fact, it that you're willing to raise your hand.
And look at me, it means that I'm ready to put my anchor.
Jesus release, I'm wrestling with it.
So, here's what I want, you Do all over the room.
I want you to pray with me, I'm gonna pray for you guys.
Lord, there are so many today that said I struggle with drift
struggle and other things. Be the anchor for my soul.
So God, I just want to speak your truth Overlord.
You're working all things together.
You brought them to your house. Today, to do a work or let your
word be the center of their lives.
Again, I pray the Holy Spirit, would remind them that we have
an anchor goddess. It is about truth, but it's also
about experience because we have your spirit to help us
experience your truth and to experience you.
And so God, I pray that even now Lord there would be decisions
made in the hearts. That would be solid Lord to say,
I'm ready? To be yours.
I'm ready to Anchor myself to you for every person.
God, let him come back to you today, completely fully and
surrender. Listen, if you've never
surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, whether you watching
online, whether you sitting in this room today, listen, you can
do that. You can anchor yourself to him,
but spy offering a prayer from your heart to the heart of got a
prayer of honesty to same Jesus. I need an anchor.
I'm ready to surrender my life to you today.
I'm asking you to forgive me and to be the Lord of my life.
Will you save me? Lord, here I am.
Listen in that moment. He becomes your anchor if that's
you today. So Lord, we celebrate, what
you're doing in hearts and lives.
God, I don't want to push or press or force people, but Lord,
I'm asking you to help us be free in this moment.
So here's what I want to challenge you with today, if
you're online watching, let us know that you just made a
decision to put your faith in Jesus.
We're going to open the altar up this morning, just this front
and listen, when we get up, don't let the enemy steal that
if, you know, I need to go and pray today to just nail it down
to say, Jesus. Thank you for being my anchor.
Me and a couple of our pastors are going to be down here too.
If you want to come and pray today, will you stand with us as
we worship? Thank you for listening to the
Riverbend Church podcast. Learn more about who we are as a
church and how to connect you can head over to our website
Reverb in church, that lie.