Thank you for listening to Riverbend Church's podcast.
To find out more about this message or Riverbend Church,
connect with us online at Riverbend Church dot live.
The Fleming so thankful that they were able to share their
story with us, Darcy and Tommy and of course heart and really,
if you got anything from their story, really the main character
of their story is God and and their reliance on him.
One of the things that that that we love to do is just be able
when people are telling their story, their God's story to
people is we love just to kind of promote that.
Darcy actually just came out with a book, Me But Mighty
starring God and heart with that.
Highly recommend that you pick that up.
Sweet, sweet book. You know, one of the things
that, that, that part of that interview is they did start
praying for not just heart's finger, but also Heart's heart.
And Heart had been asking a lot of questions about what it means
to follow Jesus. And, you know, walking through
those questions with a child, with a, with a kid can be really
tricky. And Julie does an incredible job
of, of, of basically giving tools to parents to help them
take the ball and move it forward and to help them have
conversations with their kids. And a couple months ago, if you
were here with us, you may remember that we got the honor
and privilege of being able to baptize Heart.
So love just being a part of their story.
We are, in case you didn't know, we are just on the very front
edge kicking off today, actually tonight at 6:00, our 21 days of
prayer and fasting. And if you've been with us for
for a few years and you've been a part of 21 days of prayer and
fasting here at Riverbend, you know what a powerful, powerful
time that is. And over the course of this
month, you're going to be seeing more stories like this play out
about how people just specifically prayed to God about
something and how God really just blew them away and answered
above and beyond what they could possibly ever imagine or hope
for. And one of the things that I
would tell you as, as, as your pastor is a lot of things that
we're able to do now that or the prayers that God answered during
these seasons four years ago. So 21 days of prayer and
fasting. We very much invite you into
into this time is kind of where we're going to be aiming our
message series throughout this month and then on into next
month. We also want to provide
resources for you that are going to help you to be able to just
spend some more time with God and to experience him like never
before. And maybe you've never been a
part of a fast and and that's OK.
And I would say that 2026 is a perfect time for you to begin.
Some of the resources that we make available to you is number
one. We want to invite you back here
tonight, 6 O clock. We're going to have just a night
of worship, a night of worship and a night of prayer from six
to seven just to kind of kick off the season.
And then on top of that, you may have noticed in the lobbies as
you came in, we developed devotional gods in house
devotional gods. So we developed one for adults,
Nathan developed one for students, and then Julie
developed one for kids and families.
And these are on the tables in the main lobbies, in the rear
lobby, in the main lobby up front for you to pick up and for
you to walk through and for you to journey through.
They, they go side by side with the same scripture references.
And we just think it's going to be a very, very powerful tool
for you and your family during this time and during this
season. So really excited about about
being able to kick this off. With that said, if you are new
to Riverbend, thank you so much for choosing to be with us.
I hope that your 2026 has started off well.
If we haven't had the chance to meet yet, my name is Ben get to
serve as the lead pastor here. We'd love to get to meet you.
We'd love to get to know you would actually love to to be
able to connect you with some people, maybe similar age stage.
That's what that connect card is for that you received on your
way in. That Connect card also allows
us, if you're new to Riverbend, it also allows us to know where
to ship a small thank you gift out into the mail to you.
So again, thank you so much for choosing to be with us.
But whether you're new to Riverbend or call Riverbend
home, like I said, I hope that your 2026 has already started
off well, regardless of who you are, regardless of your
background, regardless of all the different variables and the
factors out there. I know that if we were to
summarize kind of our goals, our collective goal for 2026, it
would be if we were to boil it down into a couple of words, it
would be to just simply live well.
We just want to live well. Here's the here's the issue with
wanting to live well. However, there's a discrepancy
between what you may think is living well and the person next
to you or the person in front of you or the person behind you may
think is living well. So for some, living well maybe
to to gain name recognition, to gain likes and followers and
notoriety online social media, maybe.
Maybe you're in a business that's dependent upon that.
While likes, followers, notoriety, name recognition.
For others that may be your worst nightmare.
For some, living well would involve maybe a promotion, maybe
maybe a raise at work. While for others they hear that
and they automatically start thinking about how those things
inevitably come with sacrificing more time away from home.
For some, living well may involve having a getting a new
car or truck or house or boat. While for others you may
automatically start thinking your your brain may
automatically start thinking to increased insurance cost and gas
cost and upkeep cost. You see our definitions of
living well. They they all vary.
The issue is not the goal for us to or the collective goal for us
to want to live well. The issue is having the right
definition of what it means to live well.
I don't know your church background.
You may be very new to church. You, you may you may have
started 2026 off thinking, you know what, I'm going to give God
a shot. I've I've tried doing it my own
way for so long. I'm going to give God a shot.
And if that's you and welcome, we just so happen to believe
that God himself has a definition of what it means for
us to live well. And that definition is also
serving as the main truth or the big idea throughout this series.
So if you, if you're taking notes with us, it's on the back
of the bulletin. If you're taking notes with us,
I want to get you to jot this down.
To live well is to live God's way, firm in faith, steady in
trials, anchored in hope. To live well is to live God's
way, firm in faith, steady in trials, anchored in hope.
And what we're going to do throughout this series is we're
going to allow God's word and specifically a small book
towards the end of your Bible called First Peter to guide us
in what it means to live God's way and how we are to be firm in
faith and steady in trials and and anchored in hope.
So if you have a Bible with you, I invite you to find the book of
first Peter, like I said, is towards the very end of the
Bible. Just kind of give you a quick
pastor tip. If you find the book of second
Peter, you've gone too far. Flip back a couple pages.
You'll find first Peter as typically how I find first
Peter, give you some context on what we need to know about first
Peter before diving in. If you were with us last week,
Pastor Todd did an awesome job of being able to introduce to us
and to remind us who this guy Peter was.
And if you weren't able to be with us last week, I would
highly encourage you spend some time in this week to come kind
of go back through, walk back through, listen back through
that message. But in a nutshell, Peter was one
of Jesus's chosen 12 apostles. And of those chosen 12 he had an
inner circle of three and Peter was one of those 3, meaning
Peter was one of Jesus closest friends.
So Peter knew Jesus like like no other.
He was one of Jesus chosen 12 apostles, or after Jesus died
and resurrected from the dead and ascended back to heaven,
Peter finds himself in the position of pretty much
anchoring the church, this new thing called the church, in the
city of Jerusalem. Well, if you know anything about
history, you know that the Roman Empire came down on the
Christians in Jerusalem like a sledgehammer and then the
Christians had to disperse all over that region of the world.
It's called the Diaspora. And from that point in time when
the Christians scattered from Jerusalem, guess what they took
with them? They took the gospel of Jesus
with them. Well, the Roman Empire in that
time and, and stage in history was very, very vast, very, very
powerful, very, very evil. So they started persecuting
Christians wherever they found Christians.
So the book of first Peter, if you want some historical
context, Peter wrote the book of first Peter to persecuted
Christians. He wrote it to them and it was
circulated by persecuted Christians in modern day Asia
Minor around 60 to 62 AD. That gives us a little bit of
historical context because if you think that the Bible is all
about like, you know, golden brick roads and like flowers
and, and, and, and everything is going great all the time, then
you're going to find a lot of affinity towards what Peter's
actually going to write here. Because I happen to believe even
though we may not be facing the level of persecution that the
Christians were in 60 to 62 AD, we still grapple with what it
means for us actually to live by faith and for us to be faith
focused. And if we're not faith focused,
then it's very difficult, I would even say really impossible
for us to actually live in hope. So in order for us to become
faith focused, I want to, I want to invite you to read with me.
We're going to read just for a little bit first, Peter chapter
1, verses 3 through 9 this morning.
This where Peter starts off. He says blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his great mercy.
He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance
that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for
you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for
a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Verse 6. In this you rejoice, though now
for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved
by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your
faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is
tested by fire, may, may be found to result in praise and
glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Verse 8, though you have not seen him, you love him.
Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice
with him, that is with joy that is inexpressible and filled with
glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of
your souls. Now here's what I want to do in
our time together this morning is I want to unpack that for us.
And I want to 1st talk about how we can be faith focused, what it
means for us to be faith focused and, and, and, and what is
required of us to be faith focused in order that we may
live in hope that, that the, that the trials and the issues
and all the stuff that's going on in our lives right now.
Don't rob us of our faith or don't rob us of our hope.
If you're taking notes with us, looking first of all at what it
means for us to be faith focused, we have to remember
this, that whatever captures my attention eventually guides my
steps. Whatever captures my attention
eventually guides my steps. Whatever captures my attention
eventually guides my steps. Tell a quick story.
We, we lived in Jacksonville. We had a, we had a boxer, a dog,
not a man that fought. We had a, we had a boxer named
Cooper. Cooper got a picture of Cooper.
Cooper was man, he was, he's awesome, sweet, lovable, but
dumb, Really, really dumb. So anyway, I called up a dog
trainer, a very highly recommended dog trainer to come
over to our house to do an in house session of obedience
training with with Cooper. Like I said, this guy, highly,
highly recommended, comes over to our house and man, he is
pulling out all the stops. He's giving Cooper commands and
Cooper's not listening. This guy's expertise was no
match for Cooper's dumbness. All right, so as a, as a last
resort, as a last resort, the guy looks at us and he goes,
hey, I want to try one last thing before I leave.
And he sees that we have an Ottoman, you know, up against a
chair. He, we, we have an Ottoman in
our living room. He, he, he gets Cooper to go up
on the Ottoman. And then while got a picture of
Cooper up on the Ottoman. You see, he's really happy about
it. But from there, he was able to
give Cooper a command. And to all of our surprise,
Cooper followed the command. And we're like, what in the
world? We have a magic Ottoman.
So I asked, I asked the guy like when he was when he was about to
leave, I was like, hey, man, like what is it about this
Ottoman that, that, that like triggered obedience in, in, in
our dumb dog. And he goes, listen, I'm going
to tell you something. He said it's not really about
the Ottoman at all. He said it's really about
getting Cooper off of his feet, off of his normal grounding so
that then I can give him command so that he can, I can command
his attention. He said, if you can get, if you
can get a dog's attention, then they're prompt to take commands.
And then from there he taught us how to, how to use, how to use
an E collar on Cooper. And some of y'all are like, I
don't know what that is. And some of y'all are gasping
going, oh, that is so medieval. We didn't shock him or
electrocute him. An E collar, if used properly,
what it does is it sends a slight vibration to to the dog
and it's almost like a tap to get their attention.
And once you have the dog's attention, then you can train
the dog. You can give the dog commands.
Now, not to sound demeaning to any of us.
Here's what I want to remind us of right here.
Very front edge 2026, the statement that we're about to go
back and review again and read again.
I think that this is a Holy Spirit E collar.
I think there's a Holy Spirit tap for us to say, hey, don't
miss this. Don't miss this because it's so
easy for us to gloss over. Go back to where Peter first
started. Blessed be the God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's it.
Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Do not miss that. That is huge because here's what
I know. Everything that was behind you,
everything that is ahead of you, everything that you're in the
midst of right now, it is all about God.
And it is all about you and I acknowledging God for who He
really is. We cannot start 2026 with any
measure of success without this small little tidbit of a worship
service that Paul's or that Peter starts with here.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's where it's got to start, because we've got to remind
ourselves that whatever captures my attention will eventually
guide my steps. So if a guy or a girl is the
object of your attention, don't be surprised when that guy or
girl eventually guides your steps.
If a title or a promotion or raise is the object of your
attention, don't be surprised when it's that company that
guides your steps. And if you and I are truly
serious about God transforming us from the inside out and
directing our steps into a new direction that honors His Word,
His will, His ways, then God has got to be the central focus
point of our attention, our affection, and our devotion.
Whatever God's our steps, or whatever captures our heart,
captures our attention, will eventually guide our steps.
I love how Peter starts this off with a seemingly small little
worship service, but that's not where he ends.
Check this out back half of verse 3.
According to his great mercy, he's caused us to be born again
to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. If you and I are to live faith
focused, we have to remember that it all comes down to the
second point. Here we go is I am not who I
used to be because there's a new king over my life.
Notice it doesn't say I'm not who I used to be because I made
a good resolution. I'm not who I used to be because
I learned from my mistakes. I'm not who I used to be because
I have good intentions. No, no, I'm not who I used to be
because there's a new king over my life.
Let me get you to think in these terms.
Every single person with us in the room and online, every
single life has one throne, has room for one throne in that
life, in and over that life. And what that means is when push
comes to shove, there's one voice of authority that dictates
the decisions and the choices that we make.
Whoever sits on that one throne in our life, whoever has that
singular voice of authority dictates the decisions and the
choices that we make. Here's something else.
You and I, every single one of us in the room online, we
actually have been given the choice, the ability to choose
who sits on that throne. For some of us, it may be your
spouse, For some of you, it may be your family, maybe your kids.
For some of you, it may be your sense of financial security.
It may be a boss, it may be a supervisor.
It may be it may be a best friend.
For some of us, I think that this is probably the most likely
scenario. It's ourselves, it's what we
think, it's our preferences. It's our experiences.
We put ourselves on that throne, or we can choose to put Jesus.
On that throne you may say, OK Ben, first of all, that sounds
really churchy. Second of all, why in the world
would I do that? Why would I put Jesus on that
throne instead of myself? Well, two reasons.
Number one is because you and I, we need to understand and we
need to remember that there is a God that created us and loved us
so much that he sent Jesus, his only son, into this world to
down a cross so that we can be forgiven of our sins.
And this Jesus came into the world and he lived a perfect
life and, and, and he healed and, and he performed miracles
and he pointed people to a relationship with God and how
they can have a relationship with God.
And, and in the midst of his teachings, he even predicted his
own execution and resurrection from the dead.
And sure enough, he was executed.
He was murdered on a cross. But three days later, after he
was dead, three days later, he rose again from the dead.
And that grave is still empty. As a matter of fact, you and I,
we can go to Israel right now. And there are various spots to
where people think that the empty grave is.
They're not even sure which grave it is.
There's various empty holes in the ground.
Do you know why they didn't memorialize the empty tomb?
Because there was nobody in it to memorialize.
He's not there. And if Jesus rose from the dead,
then anything is possible. And he did rise from the dead.
And I just so happen to think that it's a really good idea to
go with the one that called his own shot and that he was going
to be murdered and resurrected himself from the dead.
I just think that's a really good idea #2 how's your way been
working for you? How's my way been working for
me? It hasn't.
So we settle for lesser things like New Year's resolution, New
Year, New me, when we really just find out that just because
a calendar flips over doesn't mean that we leave our past in
the in a previous year. We need a savior.
And you, you may say, well, Ben, why in the world would God do
that for me? Ben, if you knew me, I wouldn't
do that for me. Why would he do that for me?
Because He loves you and because He's merciful and He's gracious
and He's kind. And catch this, He's not
finished with you. You are not too far gone.
If you were here with us this morning or with us online, it
doesn't matter what's in your past, what you've done, what
you've been about, how much you know, how little you know.
God is not finished with you yet, and the only way for us to
live a full own true transformational life is to be
born again, to lay down, to surrender our lives to Jesus and
go Jesus, I can't do it. You take my brokenness and give
me your healing. You take my sin and you give me
your holiness and your righteousness.
And the Bible teaches us that we'll be born again.
And that is the only way that we have hope for living a
transformed life. I'm different now not because I
have gained education, because I've read a lot, because I have
good intentions, because I have good ideas, but because there's
a new king over my life. But the third element for us
that we have to understand in order to live faith focused is
to go back to what Peter said in first Peter, starting in verse
four, he talks about an inheritance that is
imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for
you, who by God's power being guarded through faith for a
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
This is what we're reminded of. Third and final point of this
section of our notes is what lies ahead of me is far greater
than what lies behind me. What lies ahead of me is far
greater than what lies behind me.
When Peter talks about inheritance here, he's using,
he's kind of tapping into an Old Testament language or Old
Testament concept of inheritance and basically that verbiage and
that concept was simply this. All that the father has, the
descendants would be given. It is same thing for you.
All that the father has, the descendants, the children would
be given. Here's the keyword and what I
just said. Given, not earned.
It's given. Given not based off of anything
that you've done or anything that you've accomplished or even
your own potential, but given because you were a son or
daughter of the Most High God. Isn't it interesting how much
time we spend like worrying and stressing out over things that
will eventually dull and fade and and wear out?
Listen, I'm not at all saying that the things that that are in
your life, the issues and the trials and the storms and the
concerns in your life, I'm not saying they're meaningless.
I'm not even, I'm not saying that they're worthless and I'm
certainly not even saying that they're not worthy of giving
over to God in prayer. As a matter of fact, if it's a
big enough for you, if it's a big enough deal for us to worry
about, it's a big enough deal for us to give over to God in
prayer. What I am saying is a lot of
times we lose sight of the things that we cannot lose
because we're worried about not gaining the things that will
eventually wear out. And here's what I would
encourage you with is there's absolutely nothing.
Come what may, there's absolutely nothing.
If you've surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, there's nothing
that can ever change the fact that you are a son or daughter
of God Almighty. The fact that that that you are,
that your, that your sins have been forgiven and that you will
spend eternity with him face to face, your eternity is secured.
Nothing will ever change that. So we can say from a very real
and a very authentic and a very, very genuine point of view, what
lies ahead of me is far greater than anything that lies behind
me. That helps me.
Those three reminders help me to be faith focused.
We need those reminders in order to understand what it means to
live and to walk by faith. Here's why that's so important.
Here's why that's so important is if you and I, if we are going
to live in hope and if hope is always future tense and it is
and we have things that are going on in our lives, storms or
trials or issues or complications or whatever we may
call them that they will never, none of those things will ever
last forever and they won't. Then what do we need to know
about hope or what do we need to know about our current
situations that do not rob us of our future hope?
You follow me. What do we need to know about
our current situations, whatever that situation or circumstance
may be? What do we need to know about
those situations that they will not rob us that knowing these
three essential truths will keep us from being robbed of our
future hope? Well, let's turn back to Peter
first. Peter chapter 1 read with me
starting in verse 6. In this you rejoice, though now
for a little while if necessary, you've been grieved by various
trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more
precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by
fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at
the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him,
you love Him. Though you do not now see Him,
you believe in Him and rejoice with joy.
That is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the
outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
So what are three reminders that you and I here, January 11th,
2025, need to hold on to about what we are currently going
through so that what we're currently going through does not
rob us of our future hope as we kind of turn towards the final
lap of our time together this morning.
If you're taking notes with us, here's the first thing.
This isn't earth shattering. And as a matter of fact, I'm
sure that I'm just reminding you of something that you already
know. Here it is.
God's never surprised by our trials.
Again, my guess is this morning, you probably are already
familiar with that truth that God that what surprises me
doesn't surprise God, that wasn't that that what surprises
me doesn't surprise God. Let let's kind of put some feet
on that to to take it more into the into the personal that that
boatload of questions that was just recently dumped on you and
your spouse. God wasn't surprised by that.
The downturn in business that has now led to a lot of doubts
about future plans. God wasn't surprised by that.
The change of a relationship status.
God wasn't surprised by that. You may go well, Ben, OK, I get
it. God's not surprised by what
surprises me. What's the big deal?
It's a huge deal. You see, God's not surprised by
what? By what surprises you.
Neither is God surprised by where that leads you.
You see, your story is not unraveling.
Your story is still being written.
And the author of your story is still God.
He is loving, He is merciful, He is good, He is kind.
Again, your story is not unraveling.
Your story is being written. Let me kind of go a layer deeper
on that thought. Number 2, Not only is God not
surprised by our trials, God never wastes our trials.
God never wastes our trials. There is nothing that you and I
will ever go through simply because God's bored or simply
because we just chalk it up to, well, that's life.
There's no such thing in the Kingdom of God.
There's no such thing as gratuitous suffering or
suffering without a point. God uses all things, all things
for our good and for His glory. Let me get you to look at the
top of your note sheet, at the passage at the top.
And if you have a Bible with you have, if you have a Bible, you
can circle what I'm about to ask you to circle on your note
sheet. You can circle it in your Bible.
It's 2 words that change everything in this text.
It's the words if necessary, if necessary.
In this you rejoice. Now, though now for a little
while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials.
Let me tell you what if necessary means.
If necessary means that God, in his infinite wisdom and His
goodness, He knows not only how we need to grow in our
relationship with Him, but the ways in which we will grow in
our relationship with Him. If necessary, If necessary means
that God allows certain things to grow us, to come into our
lives, to grow us closer to Him and nothing more.
You see, I think that there's a lot of us that we get in the
midst of a trial or a storm or, or something in life and we sit
there and go, God, can you just ease off?
Why do you got to keep pouring it all?
Listen that God knows what it will take to grow you closer to
Him and the ways that you can only grow close to Him.
But He also knows because He is a good and loving Father, He
will allow certain things and not an inch more if necessary.
Means that even though I may not understand the methods, I trust
the heart of God to do what seems like it hurts.
But I trust knowing that God is actually using what hurts to
bring about my ultimate healing. Let me get you to think of some
storms and trials in your life. Maybe there's something going on
in your life even now. Let me get you to to to reframe
what's going on in your life right now.
Think of God as that world class master surgeon and in a in, in
any, any surgery, a surgeon is going to make strategic cuts and
incisions not to inflict pain, but to bring about healing.
Maybe what God is allowing us to go through now, maybe what God's
allowing you or your family to walk through right now.
You feel the pain of the cut and the incision, but think of it
this way, the cuts and the incisions are necessary on you,
are necessary to remove the harmful and the deadly cancer
from within you. You see, God is not allowing
these storms and trials to afflict you in a way of
punishment, but in a way of bringing you back to Him.
He never wastes anything in our lives.
Third thing that we need to keep in mind about what we're
currently going through is God has saved us and is saving us.
Let me kind of quickly kind of walk through this.
If there's been a time and moment in your life to where you
ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins based off of what He did
for you on the cross, that you asked Him to take control of
your life and you committed to following Him for the rest of
your life, you were at that very moment you were saved.
In other words, if 15 seconds after that moment of surrender
you had died, you would have opened your eyes and seen Jesus
face to face in heaven for all of eternity.
That is secured. That is you, God having saved
you. If you want the big theological
word, for whatever reason, it's the word justification that if
you've surrendered your life to Jesus, we have been justified
before God. But not only have we been
justified, and not only has God saved us, but God is saving us.
You see, every single day that we walk with God, we spend time
with God in prayer and in his word, and every single day that
we walk with Jesus is another day that we're becoming more and
more like Jesus. And becoming more and more like
Jesus means that it's a new day for Jesus to kind of chip away
and knock off the core of our main issue.
Do you know what the core of our main issue is?
It's us. So every day that I walk with
Jesus is a new day that I'm becoming more like Jesus.
And in that way, he is saving us.
There's an old adage out there that says, listen, if you think
I'm a jerk now, you should have met me five years ago.
The big theological word there is sanctification.
We are being sanctified and all of us need to continue being
sanctified. You see, we have been saved and
we are being saved. So never allow what's going on
in your life right now to rob you of that future hope.
What is that future hope is simply this.
Go back to first Peter 17 to result in praise and glory and
honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Right now, every single one of us, we worship Jesus.
We love Jesus by faith, not by sight.
There's not a single one of us that have seen Jesus face to
face this past week. I was, I was sick, I was in bed
for four days and after cough medicine and Nyquil, I think I
may have seen something. It wasn't Jesus, it wasn't
Jesus. None of us have seen Jesus with
our own eyes. But one day we will.
One day we will all see Jesus with our own eyes, face to face.
And here is what I want so badly to be able to do.
I want so badly to be able to when I see Jesus face to face,
if I'm able to get any words out at all.
Which is highly doubtful. I want to see Jesus face to face
and to fall down at his feet and to say thank you, thank you,
thank you. This is what you gave your life
for. And anything good that ever came
out of my life is all a result of you.
It's never me, it's all you. All glory and honor and praise
all go to you Jesus. And living with that end in mind
helps me navigate whatever I may be going through today.
So here's what I want to do as we close out.
I want to turn it to the Super personal and I want to walk us
through four key questions very, very quickly this morning.
Here's the first one. I want you to wrestle with these
this morning. I want you to continue wrestling
with them this week. What or who has captured my
attention? What is the object of your
desire? What or who has captured your
attention? It could be a future version of
you. It could be a a relationship.
It could be a a promotion or a title.
It could be you in a different setting.
Remember, what captures my attention eventually guides my
steps. I can think of no better way to
start off 2026 then asking Jesus.
Jesus, would you recapture my attention?
Would you put Holy Spirit blinders on me to where when I
look straight ahead, I just see you.
When I look to my left, to my right, I just see you.
Because Jesus above everything else, I want you to guide my
steps. Nobody else.
Not myself, not a company, not a group of friends.
I want you, Jesus, to guide my steps.
But in order for that to happen, Jesus has to become the object
of our attention, our affection, and our devotion.
Second question, what or who is king over my life?
What or who is king over my life?
Here on a Sunday morning at church, it's easy to go, whoa,
Jesus, I'm going to ask that we kind of look really, really deep
within us. Be really, really honest with
ourselves about ourselves. Who is ultimately, when push
comes to shove, who's ultimately making the call in our life?
Who has ultimate authority in our life when we want to go a
certain way, when we want to make a certain decision or a
choice, yet the Bible says something else.
Do we allow the Bible to to win when we have somebody else in
our life that that is pressuring us to go a certain way and to
make a certain call? Yet that's different from what
the Bible tells me. Do I allow the Bible to win?
Who is sitting on the throne of my life?
Who is the king of my life #3 in what ways have I allowed my
trials to define me rather than refine me?
That's a big one. In what ways have I allowed my
trials, the things that I'm going through, the things that I
have gone through to define me rather than refine me.
There's a lot of times that I'm convinced and it's so easy for
us to do. We get stuck in the trial, we
get stuck in that trial and we allow that trial to define us.
This is what's been taken away from me.
This is what wasn't granted to me.
This is the road that I've walked.
This is the journey that I've gone down that that's that's a
trial that has defined me. A trial that refunds me is God
led me through that season and out of that season.
I would never want to walk that road again.
But out of that season I am so grateful because this is who He
now has caused me to become. You see, the difference between
define and refine is the difference between victim and
victor. What trials have I allowed to
define me rather than refine me and then last question for us
this morning. What would it look like for me
to let go and lean fully into the hope of Jesus.
I am so 100% convinced that there are men, there are women,
there are kids, there are students with us this morning in
the room online called Riverbend home may be new to Riverbend
that God has a calling on your life that that these 21 days are
not about asking God, God, what do you want me to do?
He's already made that clear. You know what God wants you to
do. You're just scared and hesitant
to do it. My hope and my prayer is though
over these next 21 days, it would be OK God, I'm going to
let go of my fear and my hesitation and I'm going to lean
fully back into your hope through obedience.
I'm going to follow you no matter what.
What would it look like if you were to let go and to lean fully
back into the hope of Jesus this morning?
Here's what we're about to do. I'm going to pray over us.
And this prayer after, after we pray, we're going to open up the
front just for a time for us to come down and be able to pray
together. Maybe you want to come down and
pray on your own. Maybe you want to bring somebody
with you, or maybe you want to pray with a pastor.
Anything and everything will be an option for you, but we want
to give you the opportunity to start 2026 in a mode of here I
am God, do whatever you want to in my life.
God, I love you and I trust you. What areas do you need to trust
him in this morning? Let's pray.
God, we thank you for your word. God, we thank you for your
presence with us. God, we thank you that you call
us to live by faith and and everything that that means.
God how it reframes what we may be currently going through.
God, I pray that you would remind us that the only way for
real and true and lasting and genuine and authentic
transformation to take place is by making you king of our life.
God, if that's the step that we need to take this morning, God,
I pray that we would come down and God that we would ask you to
take your rightful position on the throne of our lives this
morning. God, maybe this morning we need
to be reminded that what lies ahead of us is much greater than
what lies behind us. God, if there's an area of our
life that you still need to save us from, that you're still, that
you're still working on, God, we want to give those areas over to
you and we want to give you full permission to go into the deep
places of our souls and to do the deep work of your spirit.
God, whatever you're calling us to God, I pray that we'll be
faithful and obedient to respond to you, to surrender to you, and
to trust you. And it's in Jesus name that we
pray. Amen.
Thank you for listening to Riverbend Church's podcast.
To find out more about this message or Riverbend Church,
connect with us online at Riverbend Church dot live.