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 are in week 3 of our series,
anchor, for my soul, this journeying through the book of
Hebrews with us in the Bible. Hebrews is a relatively short
letter in the Bible about Thirteen chapters that has been
broken down into a down into for us, but we already touched
briefly on the text. We're going to look at today in
week one and what I mean, is, I read it.
We didn't talk a lot about it, but today we're actually going
to unpack kind of what I consider the center point of the
book. But also this been the Centre
point of the of the big idea. As we walk through this, that
Jesus is an anchor for our soul, but here's what today is about
more than maybe any other week so far.
Practically. What is it look like to Anchor?
Your soul. How can you wake up in the
morning and say today, I, this is what I'm going to do to
Anchor, my soul in Christ. What does that look like
practically? So it's not hypothetical or
doctrinal just high and lofty. It's practical because it
actually is. And so I want to give you the
big idea of this message today, the Practical outworking of
anchoring, your soul to Jesus. So if you're taking notes,
there's notes right there in your.
In your note, guys. Why but here's the Practical out
working God's promises lead you through when the hill blocks
your view, God's promises lead you through when the hill blocks
your view, have you ever been in a situation where you had to
believe? Someone else has promised that
that you were going to be, okay? Even if you couldn't see it at
the point in time, that things were going down in your life.
The hill was kind of blocking your view, if you're scared of
storms, when you were a kid or maybe as Don't and you need
somebody to comfort you because your anxiety rose up, but
especially me think back as a kid.
You would go maybe to Mom or Dad and they scoop you up and say,
hey, it's gonna be okay. And something about their words
comforted you you couldn't see that you were going to be okay
through the storm. But Mom or Dad's words or
whoever it was in your life, they comfort you.
Or maybe if you've ever had a surgery in here, maybe one of
the biggest illustrations would be you trust that
anesthesiologist? That's about to run drugs into
your veins and render you. Conscious and then they're going
to take a knife and cut on you. Come on, man.
We put our hope in people. A lot of times in it.
I mean, you have to pick the right doctors and try to be wise
but you can't see the hill that blocks your view is the fact
that you're going to be asleep. I don't know if I'm gonna be
okay or not. But we trust the doctors word
and we trust the fact that he wants good for us and he or she
is going to do everything. They can to bring healing to her
body this past week. I had to go to to the dentist
and I thought about it when I when I Down willingly and open
my mouth and let somebody come at me with a 3 foot long needle.
That's how long it feels. Okay, they come at you, this
bigot, it takes a lot of. I can't see that.
I'm going to be okay. I know I'd licks and I turn into
the biggest wimp when they bring all these drills and tools out.
I'm like, man, just hit me in the face.
I'd rather. That than, instead of you
putting all these shots in my gum, literally this process.
I went through last week, it was three hours long.
It's supposed to be a 45 minutes.
He had to numb me three times and he drilled into my gum for
in listen, I was about ready to fight somebody up in the lose my
- in the dentist office, this week, by the way, and it wasn't
doctors fault. I mean, they just kept finding
that I hadn't taken care of my teeth, as well as should have
said, he's drilling. He's like, man, I'm so sorry.
I know. I'm like, sorry, man.
You're killing me here, but I trusted him.
I kept laying on the table and trusting him and his big plastic
thing over my face. One of the, the lady who cleans
my teeth she walks by and says, well, looking good today, pastor
and I was like, thanks has big plastic Shield draped.
All over my face. And so I thought though you know
when I got done I put my hope in him.
I trusted him as far as getting the dental work done and I came
out fine on the other side. So often we believe and put our
Faith and Hope in the promises of people.
And that's not always bad. You need to be careful who you
believe, but I mean, not our Eternal Soul hope.
But I mean, the the hope, for whatever the situation is, we
put our faith in them. But often God, who created
everything who gave everything for you, we don't anchor our
soul to him by believing his Thomas's, that's what the writer
of Hebrews is really getting at. You go, through heels, you climb
Hills, you go through. Valleys you go through storms,
and many times that he'll blocks your view and people give up on
God, how do you get back there? How do you make sure if you're
in a good place with the Lord? How do you make sure that you
stay Anchored In God? Well, that's what the writer of
Hebrews actually gets that in the center of this book.
Hebrews chapter 6, if you have your Bible, and so here's what
he says, I'm going to back up and read the last verse.
Verse that we read last week. Follow the example of those who
are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith
and endurance. So he gives us this example,
there are people who have believed in Jesus so much, they
put their faith in him and even though they have died and they
have passed on their faith and endurance right now, they are
realizing the promises of God. And so what he gets that
throughout this book, some of the promises God come to pass
while we are still breathing on Earth, every single promise of
God comes to pass after we leave this earth.
And go to be in love with him in heaven, but here's what he says,
it was their faith and endurance, faith and endurance.
In other words, faith, that didn't give up the kind of
faith. That said, I'm not turning back.
I'm going to keep on leaning into Jesus.
And so, it says, for example, now he goes Old Testament,
remember, he's talking to the Hebrew people, which had would
have understood. The first part of the Bible very
well, they would have known it since they were kids.
They would have most of it memorized and so he uses to the
Hebrew Believers. He's trying to use Old Testament
scripture to bring. Them to Christ to bring them
back to their foundation in Jesus.
So he says, let me talk about Abraham.
Now, there was God's promise to Abraham since there was no one
greater to swear by God took an oath in his own name.
And so here's God going, I swear to me, you know, how people say,
you know, like, sometimes it's even slang and could be even
used wrong. Like, I swear to God and
sometimes it's just, it's a really heartfelt promise.
Like, I'm just telling you the truth here.
I swear. We'll God actually takes us
where in his name. He says, I swear to me, he An
oath in his own name. And here's what he said to
Abraham many, many years ago before Jesus walked the earth, I
will certainly bless you Abraham.
I will multiply your descendants be on number and then Abraham
waited patiently and he received what God had promised.
And so I'll talk a little bit about Abraham because a lot of
this understanding, you have to know a little bit about who
Abraham to understand this text. You have to understand, Abraham
God promises this guy Abraham. He said I'm going to give you so
many decisions. Pendants.
Which was a big deal in that day that your bloodline would be
carried on. I'm Gonna Give You So Many.
Descendants are going to be like the sand on the seashore.
No one would even be able to trace your family tree.
They'll be so many people that's going to descend from you.
But you know what? The hill that blocked his view
was he was 80 years old and he had no kids.
And so his wife wasn't much younger and it says his wife,
Sarah laughed, when the angel came and said, hey Abraham,
you're going to have a baby instead his wife laughs now I
know sometimes we read right over that but 80 year old in the
room today and if Angel showed up and said you, you're about to
have a baby laugh cry. I don't know what you do, but
you go not me. Lord remove me from the world
right now. Here I come.
Jesus not me. There's 50 year-old to say, Not
Me. Jesus even 40 year, olds say,
Not Me, Lord, Aion no more kids for me and here, they are 70 and
80 years old. In the angel says you're going
to have a baby and you're going to have and in fact you're going
to have so many descendants from your kids that you won't even be
able. Able to count them, they'll be
countless. And so, here was another hard
thing and Abraham's Ivan said he waited patiently, why does it
say that? Well, Abraham received this
promise somewhere around 80 years old?
Do you know when he actually had Isaac?
His first son, 100 years old, 20 22, 23 years later.
He finally has his first son that God's promise was Abraham.
You're going to have so many descendants but right now at 80
you have none at 100 you had one.
Do you know that? In his lifetime, he only got to
see, Isaac, born, and a couple of grand kids.
That's it. That's all he got to see in his
life but it says that he was, he was faithful and he was patient
and he waited. Now, when we read this where God
said, I'm going to give you the sentence, it's actually the
reaffirming of a promise because if you back up a little bit, God
first said this before Abraham had kids, if you read it now,
where we read it in Genesis 22 is where this is.
It's God reaffirming the promise after his On Isaac is born.
But God wanted to test Abraham's Faith.
So he came down, he told him, he said, I want you to take that
only son that you have, and I want you to take him up on a
hill and build an altar, like you were going to sacrifice a
lamb to me, but I want you to sacrifice your son to me.
You can imagine how difficult that is.
First of all, he wants him to kill his son.
That doesn't make any sense. Second of all God said, I'm
going to give you descendants and this is the only kid he has.
God was assessing his faith to you really believe that my
promise will hold true to you. So what does he do?
He loads up Isaac as a maid. 10 11 year-old boy, he loads him
with the wood and they walk to the top of the hill, build, an
altar? And he puts Isaac on that altar,
he raises a knife. And at that moment, an angel of
the Lord shows up stops. His hand shows them as a ram
caught in the thicket, they sacrifice him.
And God says, really. Here's what in essence, what the
Lord said I would, never ask you to actually sacrifice your son.
I wanted to test your heart to see if you really, really
believe me. God didn't want a human
sacrifice. He was wanting to see.
Well, you hope in the promise even when it seems hopeless.
And so here God, Eames the promise to him where he says,
I'm going to give you descendants if you go back and
read the rest of the promise, it was that not only will I give
you many descendants in quantity.
I'm going to give you a descendant that by the whole the
whole world will be blessed by well follow Abraham's bloodline.
This one child. He had Isaac, you follow it all
the way down. You come to the bloodline of
King. David King, David was from
Abraham. You follow a King, David all the
way down. Guess who else came from that
bloodline Jesus Christ. And so you can trace it All the
way down. And so God's promise came true
to bless all people of the world through the descendants of
Abraham. And we're told that Abraham
waited patiently for all this to happen for those 20 years.
I actually find hoping that because that's a gracious
statement because if I read it I would go.
Wait God Abraham didn't really wait patiently.
Let me give you three things that I think we wait for the
promises sometimes in our lives just like Abraham.
Here's the first one, pretty obvious.
We wait with some Faith Abraham here.
It says he waited for the promises of God and we wait to
with some Faith you ever get frustrated with yourself because
you don't feel like you have enough faith.
I wish I had more faith or I will.
I wish I was like, so and so you know, I wish I had that kind of
Faith to just step and walk on the water like Peter.
I wish I had that kind of Faith but sometimes, let's just be
honest, our faith is not huge and great is just enough.
It's just enough and, you know, I think God welcomes any amount
of Faith. He doesn't say how much Faith.
He said, you have to have faith in me.
Faith in me. Enough to put your Just
Surrender Your Life over to me. So, Abraham waited for Faith,
even though some faith is stronger.
Some Faith seems to be weaker anyone who has placed their
faith in Jesus is going to receive the promise.
But you know what? Abraham also did he waited with
some failure he waited with some failure in his life and so this
is not letting you off the hook for unholiness.
It's not I'm not looking You said no matter how you live
live, how you want know the Bible is very clear.
We should work towards Holiness in our life, anchoring to Jesus
leads us towards a holy Life Style, but Abraham is said he
waited patiently but actually, if you go back to after
receiving that promise, he got frustrated because there was no
baby coming and so his wife, Sarah said, why don't you sleep
with my young servant Hagar and he did?
And then had a baby and then as you can, imagine things turned
sour in the family. The end up running Ishmael was
the child that was born, then they end up running them out of
town and God still takes care of Hagar and Ishmael and Ishmael
was blessed as well. Except for the fact that that
cause pain and division, if you can't race today, the division
and wars in the Middle East, all the way back to these two kids.
Isaac, who would be the child of promise, and Ishmael was the one
that Abraham took it into his own hands.
Sharon said, you know what, God's really not gonna give us a
kid. We're going to go ahead and
choose to have a kid through one of our servants and so you find
that Abraham waited with some failure that wasn't the only
failure. But yet God says, through the
writer Hebrews that he waited patiently.
You know what? That get tells me that sometimes
when I really blow it because God saying, wait on me, wait on
me, but then I don't God still loves me and I might have some
consequences there was consequences but God's promise
is still helped even when I blew it.
The enemy will come along behind you and tell you.
You that once you've blown it, they God's promises.
Don't ring true for you anymore. There may be consequences from
your sin but God's promises will never return void in the New
Testament, his new testament promise.
And so there's Grace for us, even in Failure.
But also here's the last that way, that Abraham waited, he
waited with some fulfillment He didn't see millions of
descendants, but he did see Isaac.
And he did see a couple of grandkids.
And so, here's a little bit of Hope for you.
If a hill is blocking your view in life, maybe you want to get
married, maybe you want to have kids, maybe you have a career in
mind. Maybe you want to get out of
debt, maybe you? You just want to be more like
Jesus, whatever it is. You got that goal and you got
that calling in your heart but the hill blocking your view
seems impossible. Sometimes God will give you just
enough fulfillment that you can handle right now as he works on
the greater fulfillment in your life.
But now, the writer talks about this power and validity of God's
promise. Look at verse 16, he says, when
people take an oath they call on someone greater than themselves
to hold them to it. Without any question, this oath
is binding, so he goes to people's, oh, these connected.
When you go to the bank, when you purchase a home, you don't
just go to the bank and sit down with the loan officer and say,
hey man, just trust me, I'm gonna pay you back.
I'm just coming here today to tell you going to give me the
house and just For me I'm gonna pay you back.
Know what happens there's all kinds of legal documents and you
have to sign away, sign all kind of thing.
Why do you do that? Well, that oath is bonding.
It's not just based on your word.
It's actually member. God said that he took an oath in
his own name, something a higher than us the same way, it gives a
higher authority, a power to hold us accountable, when you
buy a car and you take out a loan to buy a house and you take
out a loan and so people take a note, they call on someone
greater, there's a higher accountability and without any
question that. Oh, Earth is bonding.
And so, here's what it says about God.
God bound himself with an oath in his own name and in his own
character. So that those who received his
promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his
mind. Now, why would he have to point
out that God would never change his mind?
It backs up again, to that Old Testament.
Covenant, whenever the law was given, you may know as the Ten
Commandments which The Ten Commandments are really just the
table of contents for the law of God was much more detailed than
that. But God gave this law.
In The Book of Leviticus, you can read all of it.
And he says, if you'll live in this way, then, I will bless
you. Your relationship is, it is by
faith. You have to believe me, but it
seemed way more, it seemed to me more conditional.
You, you follow me. I will bless you.
You obey me? I will bless you.
And so, what happened a day or two into getting the log odds?
People begin to disobey? And so at that point, they
violated their into the Covenant.
And so God wasn't obligated to hold up his end because he said,
I will bless you if you will obey me.
Now sometimes we still feel like we live underneath that law
today. That the only way to go to
heaven is to live, right? And actually living, right?
Is the fruit of what takes us to Heaven, which is full surrender
to Jesus Christ, as Lord. But it says there that God would
never change his mind. What does he mean?
Well, under these, this New Testament law that we live under
or new testament Grace. Where Jesus said, if you will
put your faith in me, I will never leave you or forsake.
You You'll believe in me if you will surrender yourself to me
then I will make sure that I'm with you for the rest of your
life. I will never let you go and
you'll go to heaven forever and it says that he will never
change his mind about that one. Do you know why this covenants
not based on what you can do, it's based on what his son Jesus
has already done. That's why the Covenant.
That's why it says God will never change his mind.
Jesus lived a sinless, perfect life.
He allowed them to nail him to a cross where he bore the wrath of
God for all The sin of the world, he was put into a grave
and he raised by the power of the spirit from the dead again.
Now he sits at the right hand of God, the Father in heaven and so
This Promise is based on the fact that the sun is sitting
beside him. When we blow it, he looks over
at Jesus and Jesus says, that's mine, that's the blood that I
paid for, that doesn't seem fair.
Does it the truth is? It's not fair.
It's Grace. The rider says, the New Covenant
Grace is based on not what you can do, but what Jesus has done,
therefore God is never going to change his mind to look at this.
So God has given us both a promise and a note, these two
things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie.
So a promising, I was based on the character of God.
If you look at historically, if you look biblically God did what
he said he was going to do. His character says that he is
Flawless and he never told a lie, he never let down his head
and so His character is the highest character that there
ever has been or will be. And so, what is the promise that
God gave us? I would challenge you to look up
Promises of God in scripture and I would, especially if you want
a place to start would be the life of Jesus.
What did Jesus promised us? As his followers?
Look, specifically what Jesus Promised want to take you to
what I think is the foundational promise that every that's almost
true. Trump's every other promise that
Jesus made to us and this is really famous verse.
Is this one says, this is how God loved the world.
He gave his one and only son, and here's the promise.
So that everyone who believes, and we've talked about this
before, it's not just the nodding of the Hat.
It's the kind of belief where you say I'm willing to re around
range, my life around him as my Lord.
I'm not just going to tip my hat and say, yeah, I'm a Christian
or yeah, I want to go to heaven when my life if you look at my
life, my life alive. Live Like Jesus lived.
I love like Jesus, loved him. When I don't I get back up and
do it again. I keep striving to live like
him. That's the kind of belief that
he's hot when you believe and you submit to him.
It says you will not perish but have eternal life now Parish.
Does it mean that your physical body won't die?
That's not the promise. The promise is that you'll have
life, like you've never had before on this Earth with the
Spirit dwelling in you. But also death will be the
doorway to the best thing that's ever happened to you.
The best thing, eternal. Life forever.
So you won't perish another thing to think about with parish
as everyone who doesn't call on the name of Jesus Christ will
spend eternity apart from God. So the as best The Good As It
Gets in that person's life is on this Earth.
And then when they go into eternity, they go to a devil's,
hell prepared for Satan himself, that is perish forever.
They won't perish though. If you believe but have eternal
life with the greatest Promises of Jesus Christ is a look at us
and say if you will truly believe and align your life.
I'm the submit your soul to me as Lord.
I'll give you this promise, you will not perish, but you will
have eternal life. And so God gave us a promise and
an oath. And this is really the
foundation in the New Testament of what Jesus said.
And so is Faith Blind Faith. When we're trying to hold on to
the Anchor or we really blind. Can we can we see anything in
our world? Or is it just Jesus?
This, this through the clouds and he's sitting at the right
hand of the father We're just having a book.
Did he give us anything tangible?
Yes, he did. Just like a promise and an oath.
There are tangible, promise and oath for us today.
And I want to talk to you about what they are.
Here's the promise, the promise is the holy spirit.
So, just like, when you, when you go to the bank, to buy a
house, or by car whatever you're doing, usually have to take it
down payment with you. And that is your promissory and
you sign your name and you give some money and then you begin to
make payments. Well, here's what Jesus did.
He didn't just ask us to have blonde for you just believe in
me. I'm not gonna give you any
substance. I'm not going to give you
anything tangible. No, he gave us some promise in
an oath that extends today. He said that, I'll send you to
his disciples. I'm gonna go away and I'll send
you what the promised Holy Spirit.
He'll be your advocate, he will be your helper, he'll be your
comforter, he's going to give you God living inside of you.
Jesus. And you so the promise that we
have today, the guarantor of the fact that if we believe in Jesus
will go, is the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Spirit. Now I don't want to get too
weird in this because it's not always about a feeling of God.
Sometimes you come to church and you feel God, sometimes you come
to church and you felt like you know I just learned something
about God today. Sometimes you come to church and
you go you know, I'm just glad I came today but the truth is
there is a possibility. Actually, the Bible says, you
can't experience the presence of God and your soul.
You could actually experience affirmation of your salvation,
Paul talks about that that the spirit will cry.
In your spirit in resonate with Heaven, that I belong to Jesus.
And so there is no such thing as an experience of God, when you
feel the presence, when you come into the house of God, when you
gather with God's people to worship and whatever you feel,
sometimes in your heart, you go, man, I just feel something
almost tangible around me today. It is possible to feel God.
And so the promised Holy Spirit, The Promise he gives us in the
tangible. Evidences, there is a feeling
there's a spirit of God, but then there's another hand.
Held one because that one's internal, here's the oath.
Do you know what the oath of God is it is the written word that
you have in your hands, maybe on your phone.
It may be in your scripture, but God gave us a promise in an oath
just like he did the Abraham. Today we have the written word,
he preserved, the written word of God, throughout thousands of
years. He preserved the story of Jesus
through over, you know, about 2,000 years now for us and not
only, it wasn't just one copy, there's thousands upon thousands
of Piece of manuscripts of different bits and pieces where
they've been able to align scripture.
And so the Bible the Bible, the reason that we treasure it so
much is because it is actually God's o to us.
You want to know what God says to you today, look how Jesus
lived. Look at the letters of Paul and
Peter look at the the letter that John wrote called
Revelation you can learn so much and if you study the history and
often intensity of this Bible, what you'll find out there is no
other book like it. God has given it a promise that
you can hold in your hand right there.
And so the word and the spirit promise are promised an oath to
us that what we hope for will actually come to pass.
That's how we know the promises of God.
So let me Define hope for you because we have before but I
want to go back. What is Hope?
What is holding two? Hopewell hope is confidence that
the good thing God has promised will actually come to pass.
So Christiane hopes a little bit different than just kind of
hoping in the world, we say a lot of things.
Like I hope I don't get it. Being ticket when you're driving
really fast dum dum you know I hope you know and like me if you
like ice cream I hope when I eat ice cream.
I don't gain weight. You know like yep too bad.
I'm going to I love it cake man, bring me bring on the birthday
cake, but hope in Christianity, hoping Christ has confidence
that what God has promised you will come to pass.
So, how do you know what God has promised you?
Well, back to the spirit and the word when you turn to God's word
and I would again, I would especially encourage you to open
to the the life of Jesus and see what Jesus Promised, You look at
the early early church, and look at the promises that Paul talked
about the church, like, Romans 8:28 that God is working all
things together for your good. Even the painful things, even
the things you don't understand that God somehow is working them
together. And so it's confidence in that
the fact that even though I can't see it because I've never
died before I have enough. Evidence through the spirit and
the word that right now. I know if God takes me out of
this world, I'm going to be with him forever and Eternity.
There's a confidence in that there is a power in a person's
life that begins to live with confidence in the scripture
confidence in the promises of God. now, here's the center
point that we anchored this entire series on This is
therefore, we who have fled to him for Refuge.
How do you flee to God for Refuge will?
Again, it's a simple turning from your ways and turning to
him, I run to you. God, you are my Lord.
We can have great confidence as we hold to the hope.
And so, so far, I've never really told you what the chain
is in the story, right? We talked about Jesus, we've
talked about us and this is the anchor, this is what anchors are
sold to him. It says, as we hold to the hope,
Let me give you something really clearly.
I'm not saying you have to hold onto your salvation.
Jesus saves you, and he doesn't let you go.
But we all know people who you can see the promises of God
active in a person's life. You can see faith in their life
and then there's others who claim it, but you never see it.
They even show up at church and maybe give a little money, maybe
serve some. But when you look at their life
you don't really see. Power of God, you don't see
faith in their life. But it says here that we are to
hold on to the hope that lies before us.
We can have confidence as we hold to the hope.
We can't see all of it. Fulfilled white there's a hill
blocking the view but it says this hope is a strong and
trustworthy anchor for our souls.
It leads us through the curtain. Into God's inner Sanctuary right
now. God is through a curtain that we
can't see. Jesus is sitting at the right
hand of the father. So what is the chain now?
It says, Jesus already gone in there for us, he's become our
Eternal priest in the order of Melchizedek.
And so what is this immovable? Steadfast anchor will.
It's Jesus Christ. But how We anchor ourselves to
him, we choose to connect by faith.
But you know what the chain is, this is the promises of God in
your life. There are some people who claim
it and there's some people who are holding onto it.
The chain is this, the promises of God in your life.
When the writer says hold to the hope we don't hold the
Salvation. We continue to walk out and live
in Salvation but we do hold to the hope the promises often
those that turn Turn away from God, for whatever reason.
When you're in pain, I'm not judging you.
I've been there. But those that turn away and we
just go, you know, I still know God's, my anchor, he's out there
somewhere. But we if you look at my life,
I'm not really holding onto hope.
I'm just living my life. I know God's with me.
Hope I'm gonna go to heaven when I die because I did put my faith
in him, but I'm just kind of walking through this life right
now. Often those that turn away or
just simply ones. Who let go, they let go God,
didn't let go of you, but you stopped living in faith.
It's why people get out of church.
It's why people disconnect from Community.
It's why old sins that you had beaten for so long.
They come back in your life. Again, this is because we let go
of Hope. Do you know why we let go of
hope it's because life is hard and the hill blocks, your view,
Storms, Come relationships, get ugly, people get sick.
We lose people, we love, and it's not fair.
It's not fair. What sin and death due to this
world? This is not, here's the thing.
God is working. He's not silent or absent.
Me, take you back to where we started the day.
God's promises leads you through when the hill blocks your view.
If you're watching online today, only take just a moment and
talk. Just to you this week.
I was in my neighborhood gone for a jog and going up and over
a hill that I'd been over many times, and I go really slow
over. Over that Hill, not fast at all
subs. Going over going down.
And on the way back, assign caught my attention that I
hadn't really noticed before. I know that I'd seen it many
times maybe a hundred times, but it never really caught my
attention. But I, as I look at the sign,
the Lord began to speak to my heart.
Here's the sign right here. Look at this, it says, he'll
blocks view. Now I know that this doesn't
look like much of a heel in the picture but it is.
It's a big hill. It's a lot bigger than it looks.
I kind of embarrassed when I looked at how flat it looks but
it's a big hill. In the thing is, you can't see
when you go over the sill, it's really steep down and you can't
see the driveways across. And so the sign is warning that
that the heel is blocking the view.
And did you know that there's so many times in our life that the
hill blocks our view, and what I mean by that we're trying to
hold on to the promises of God. I mean God I believe that you're
going to work in my marriage and I'm praying.
Lord, you say you're working things together for good.
God. You say you hear my prayers?
You say that if I keep on asking and seeking and Knocking the
that you're going to come through and so you're trying to
hold on. But the problem is you can't see
over the hill that God can see over.
He knows what he wants to do. He knows what he's already done
in your life. What?
He's already begin to answer, but so many times we let go
because the heel is blocking our view.
We pray for our adult kids and when we're trying to hold on,
you know, you go, man. I don't know where I went wrong.
Many parents have felt that way. I pray for my kids and now
they've gone down a different path than we're trying to hold
on and believe but the hill is blocking our view.
Can't see what God is doing. Sometimes it's about sickness.
I pray God, that you would heal me.
And right now, all you can see, you have a sign, right for the
hill, is blocking your view, because your body is sick, or
because some may be someone that you love or maybe the finances.
Maybe you've been trying to do better with budgeting and you're
trying to be more generous person in the hill.
That's blocking your view. As you found yourself in debt,
or maybe medical bills have mounted up in your life, or
maybe it's anxiety. You're praying about maybe your
guilt or shame, or regret. It can be Many things about the
hill that blocks your view. So many times is the reason we
bail on God, we bail on God. Sometimes I believe sometimes.
Just before we get over the hill, we've been holding on and
holding on. We're going, Jesus, you're my
anchor. And we're trying to stay in the
word, it would trying to believe him for for his for the good
things, you know, Romans 8:28 that he is working.
All things together for our good and we try to hold on to that,
but we get so tired. And so, if you're tired, Tired
of holding on today or maybe you've let go of God's promises.
You got out of church, you got out of your calling in life, you
just walked away and you said you know what, the the hill that
was blocking your view just got too hard to see passing.
You just gave up. Only give you a verse that's a
little bit later in Hebrews. And here it is.
Hebrews 12:12. I love this.
I've come to love this verse. Here's what the writer says, you
know what, you got to hold on to hope and sometimes when your
hands get tired or sometimes, when you let go, here's what he
says, take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your
weak knees. Mark out a straight path for
your feet, so that those who are weak in Lane will not fall, but
become strong. And so I got fixated on this
first part. Take a new grip with your tired
hands. Maybe you've never grabbed onto
the hope of Jesus by faith. Maybe you let go, you know, God
is with you, but you let go of believing him and you stop
seeing the presence of God manifested in your life, he got
out of the body of Believers that God had called you too and
you stepped out of your calling. And so maybe all you need today
is a friend to come alongside you and say hey man ma'am, it's
time for you to grab. Hold take it.
Take a nuke. Adjust your hand and grab onto
God's hope again. Start believing his promises
again. Ember, all the things where he's
already come through in your life, that one heel that
blocked, your view, start praying about it again, come
back to the Lord, maybe for the very first time to come and
believe that Jesus Christ is your savior to put your faith in
him. And say, you know what, I'm not
taking a new grip with my tired hands.
I'm taking a grip for the first time when my tired hands,
wherever you are in that Journey though, it really is that
simple. I'm not saying simple as easy,
but if you're tired and your hands are tired and your feet
are tired. And you feel like a man going
down the path. This is so difficult and you've
given up on Hope and if you giving up on faith, this is your
call back today. Will you come back to him?
How do you do that? How do you take a new grip?
Well, I think it starts with surrender.
You may want to get down wherever you are if you're
physically able or maybe just in your heart, just kneel down
somewhere. And just go, God, I'm ready to
come back to you. If you've never surrendered to
Jesus and you've been feeling a calling just cry out to him, say
Jesus, I Surrender my life to you today.
Here it is. God, you don't have to
understand everything, you don't have to have huge Faith.
All you have to do is add have enough Faith to get you to this
place. A God, I'm ready to follow you.
I'm ready to take a grip on on Hope and what happens is, then
you begin to take his word and you begin to look at the
promises, read the promises of Jesus, find the one that claimed
that that sticks for your life, the promise that he's working
things together for your good, the promise that he will never
leave you or forsake, you the promise that it, whenever you
become his child, you become a son and a daughter of a king and
intercessor. That's in heaven interceding for
you. But listen.
All I I can do is tell you about the hope.
I can't make you. Grab hold of it but the
invitation today, grab hold of that.
Hope by faith get up from this time and start believing God at
his word again and see what the Lord wants to do in your life.
Listen, you are loved, you matter and if you're wrestling
their people right here at this church at Riverbend church, that
will pray with you and pray for you.
And we'll listen to you reach out, you reach out to send us a
message, email, shoot us. Message on Facebook drunk.
Drop a comment right now and just say hey I'd love to talk to
one of the pastors will follow up with you but you know that
you matter. I pray that you take a new grip
with your tired hands on the hope of Jesus today.
God bless. Thank you for listening to the
river. Bend Church podcast.
Learn more about who we are as a church and how to connect you
can head over to our website where ribbon Church dot life.