Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM - Hebrews 6:9-20 - Be Mature pt 3 - The Anchor of the Soul - Pastor R

Good morning, church family, and happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. I just want to invite you to stand with us. We'll pray and we'll get started.

Lord, we come before you this morning. We thank you for allowing us to be here, to be in your house this morning, Lord, and I just ask that you would bless this time, Lord, and help us to lavish praise upon you, Lord. Bless this time. May you be glorified in Jesus' name. Amen.

Make straight a highway, a path for the Lord. Jesus is coming soon. Go back to sin, wake up the saints. Let every nation shout of your fame. Go ahead and have a seat if you'd like.

To bless and those dreams of abundance flow. Blessed be your blessed earth place. Go on, blessed be your name offering. We bless your name, Lord. God, when we're on the mountaintop, Lord, or even when David was running from Saul and in a deep, dark cave, Lord, he was still confident in you, Lord, and he still praised you, Lord. No matter where we're at, may we bless your name. Amen.

Break the chasm that lay between us.

Desperation, I turn to heaven and spoke your name. We praise you for how great you are, for how good you are, gracious and merciful.

Thank you for the ways that you've worked in our lives, Lord. Thank you for the ways that you are working. Thank you for the ways that you're molding us into your image. I thank you for the ways that you're going to work. Lord, God, we give you praise and we give you thanks for the finished work this morning. As Pastor Ryan comes, Lord, I just pray that, as always,

you would speak mightily through him and give us an ear to hear and a heart to receive it, Lord. Bring us into maturity. Bring us into a closer relationship with you this morning. Amen. Let's have some fellowship.

Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seats. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you've joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of. On the left-hand side are the things that go on throughout the week. So find yourself a spot to get plugged into. In the middle section, a handful of things.

A reminder that for another week or so, you can sign up to be a part of the t-shirt fundraiser. Some pretty cool shirts that they've designed out there. So that table's out there in the lobby. And then, where's my, are you making, just me? Sure. Okay. We don't talk to each other before the service. I don't know if you realize that or not, but I just, it's just the way it is.

Vacation Bible School is coming up. So, the QR code is here. Registration is open now. So you can scan that QR code. You can get your tiny person registered. If you have any questions about that, you can see my lovely wife. And then also, are there still spots available for people to serve? If you would like to help with Vacation Bible School, you can also see my lovely wife right after the service.

And so, so that is available. So those are the things that are going on there. Fellows, we have a men's breakfast next Saturday at 8 a.m. down at the other end of the hallway. And then last, but certainly not least, it's Mother's, oh wait, that's not true. I have one more. I forgot this for a service. So you have to forgive me on that. Krista, would you like to come up and share with us?

Good morning. My name is Krista Wood. I'm the director at Family Life Services here in Arc City. For those of you not familiar with us, we are a pregnancy resource center. That means that we offer, we also provide education and ongoing support for pregnant moms and dads. So we also just started a brand new fatherhood program specifically directed to fathers.

And in the past two years, we have tripled the number of clients that we've seen. So with all of that comes a need, and it's financial, obviously, but also just prayer and support. But every Mother's Day we do, we have a little baby bottle, coin drive. And in the lobby, we have a whole bunch of these bottles that you can take home and fill up and bring back, and the goal is just to bring them back between now and Father's Day.

And the idea is that a little bit of change can make a lot of difference. So, and I'll be out in the lobby if anybody has any questions or anything like that, too. Thank you so much. As has often been said, and I think it's important to point out, we're not just pro-birth, we're pro-life. And so we want to be able to support moms in any way that we possibly can.

Thank you. That being said, last but certainly not least, it is Mother's Day today. So for all of you moms, yes, please bring it up.

For all of you mothers that are out there, we appreciate you so much. And so we've got a little something for you after the service. So go see the ushers. They've got a little gift for you from Calvary Chapel. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 70.

Looking at the New American Standard. You need a copy. There should be one in a row around you. As you're turning to Psalm 70, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word.

I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Jared and the even verses. Psalm 70 for the choir director. A Psalm of David for a memorial. Oh God, hasten to deliver me. Oh Lord, hasten to my help. Let those be ashamed and humiliated who seek my life. Let those be turned back. And dishonored who delight in my hurt. Let those be turned back because of their shame who say, aha, aha.

Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. And let those who love you salvation say continuously, let God be magnified. And read verse five with me. But I am afflicted and needy. Hasten to me, oh God. You are my help and my deliverer. Oh Lord, do not delay. And so Father, we do pray that you would be the one who, who delivers us. And we trust that you will be the one who delivers us

because you are a God who keeps his promises. And so Lord, as we spend time in your word this morning, I ask that you would move through our hearts and spirits by the power of your Holy Spirit. Lord, bring encouragement, bring conviction, bring comfort, and bring instruction. Be with us as we spend time in your word now. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.

If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter six.

Hebrews chapter six. Today we come to part three in the very end of our series on this warning that he gives us called be mature. And as we, at the end of chapter five and throughout chapter six have been looking at, that's really ultimately what he warns us about. He gives a couple of warnings. And really today, a little bit of an exhortation. He kind of brings some comfort to us today.

The first warning we said is that he warned us about spiritual immaturity. So beware of spiritual immaturity. Last week he warned us about the danger, the danger of falling away. We called it beware of falling away. And we looked at that. Those were both very stern, very sharp warnings that he gave to these Jewish believers and that we also looked at in our own lives.

And today we pick up the pace and it gets a little bit more comforting as we look at the anchor of the soul, which is hope. So we pick up in chapter six. We'll start in verse nine. And this is what it says. But beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you. Things that are coming to you. That company salvation, though we are speaking in this way.

For God is not unjust to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name and having ministered and then still ministering to the saints. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promise. For when God made the promise, he swore to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you. And so having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.

For men swear by one greater than themselves and with them an oath given as confirmation in the end of every dispute. The same way, God, desiring more to show the errors of the promise, the unchangeableness of his purpose, interposed with an oath. So that by two, two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope that is set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast, one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

And so as we look at this last half of chapter four, as we look at this anchor of the soul, there's four words that I think are important for us to pay attention to that we'll discuss this morning. I'll give these four to you and then we'll work through them one by one. We're going to look at confidence. We're going to look at diligence. We're going to look at promise.

And then we're going to look at hope. Let's start with confidence. Again, looking at verse nine, which we added on to last week so that we weren't too sad when we left after that warning. It says this, but beloved, we are convinced of better things, concerning you. Some of your translations say, but brethren, we are confident of better things concerning you.

Remember, he had just given a very sharp warning. He had warned them that if you fall away, if you have fallen away, that there's no hope of returning. And so he gave a very stern warning and we said, we're not totally sure if he's talking to those that are saved or those that are unsaved, whatever it is, it's a sharp warning that he gives and we have to pay very close attention to it. He says, but, but we have, we have a great deal of confidence in you.

We have, we have confidence of better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation. Things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking to you in this way. He says, even though I'm giving you this sharp of a warning, even though I've been this harsh with you, it's for a purpose and I'm confident that you will take the warning and allow it to do what is necessary in your heart and in your soul. Because that's what we're to do with the warnings of scripture.

It's to create a purity on the inside of us so that God can do the work that's necessary to do the work that's necessary to do the work that's necessary to do the work that's necessary to do the work. It's necessary in our hearts in the moment. He says, so I'm confident of better things for you, even though I'm speaking harshly, things that accompany salvation. But I want you to notice where his confidence ultimately comes from.

His confidence ultimately for them comes from the fact that, verse 10, for God is not unjust. Now I think this is important for us to pay attention to because our confidence has to be firmly rooted in the faithfulness of God. Because if our confidence is firmly rooted in our own faithfulness, that's a poor place that's a poor spot to place my confidence. Because I will never find confidence if I put it in myself.

Because I know that in me, that's in my flesh, dwells no good thing. And there's no confidence that I can have in my flesh. Therefore all of my confidence is found in a faithful God who has proven himself to be faithful over and over and over again. He says, my confidence for you comes from the faithful God that you serve. And brothers and sisters, as you sit here this morning

I want to remind you that the confidence that you have in life comes about not because of how good you are because I have news for you, you're not. Your confidence comes from a God who has never once failed to keep his promise. And that is a sure anchor for the soul. Getting ahead of myself, but it's a sure anchor for the soul. He said, but we are confident in God

for God is not unjust. What's he not unjust to do? To forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name. And having ministry, and still ministering to the saints. Ultimately our confidence is God and the confidence that we have is that God does not forget our labor of love. God sees and takes note of our labor of love. Both our love for him

and our love that we have shown to the saints. It's interesting because sometimes our confidence can be shaken because we know that other people don't take note of the things that we do. Have you ever been in that place in your life? Moms? Talking about, right? Like you show up every single day. You make sure all the lunches are ready. You do all the work. You do all the cleaning.

And then you come home and after working a long day, you come home and you make dinner. And what do your kids say to you? That's not what I want to eat for dinner tonight. And you're like, does no one see what I do? Right? And we do that in our lives sometimes. And we go, no one takes notice. No one sees the things that I do. And so sometimes we think God forgets too.

That God has not taken note of, of the things that we have done. And so we are tempted to think that God forgets when we know that others, or at least we think that others, don't notice. But we're also tempted to think that God has forgotten when we make our lives all about attention and applause. When we make our lives all about ourselves. And we forget that God still sees

even though we don't hear all of the praise of the people like we would want. But they need to remind us. They need to remind us all of this that God sees, God hears, and God knows. God does not forget. I'm reminded of some instances in Scripture where this has shown itself true. I'm reminded of the story of Joseph. Remember Joseph in the book of Genesis finds himself first of all

sold into slavery by his brothers. And then after being sold into slavery, he finds himself falsely accused by his master and lands himself in jail. And then when he finally thinks he's found something great because in all of those places God was still with him, two members of the royal staff were put in prison with him and he interpreted their dreams for them. And the one that returned to his job on the royal staff asked one thing.

He said, can you just remember me? Can you remember me to Pharaoh because I've been falsely accused? Could you just plead my case when you get back because of the kindness that I've shown to you? And the guy says, absolutely. And in the very next chapter, the very next verse, in the very next chapter says, but he forgot. For two full years. But God didn't and God remembered.

I'm reminded of the story of Noah. Remember the story of Noah? Noah is on the ark with an incredible number of animals. Now we usually think that Noah is on the ark for 40 days and 40 nights, right? Because that's how long it rained, 40 days and 40 nights. Only the thing is, that's just how long it rained. He was actually on the boat for well over a year. I want you to think about that for just one quick minute.

Can you imagine? Imagine being on a boat with all of the animals in the world, not two by two, remember, of the clean animals, there were seven of them. That is a whole bunch of animals, right? You know what animals do? Animals stink. I have two dogs. You know what they do? They stink. I can't imagine like 11 billion of them filling up an entire boat that I'm stuck on for over a year.

That would start to stink and it's nasty. And I bet in the, you know, about 11 months in Noah's going, I don't think God remembers I'm here. There is still water everywhere. I can't go anywhere. I'm on this stupid boat. I wish we had Noah's log, right? Noah's log, day 397. Still on the boat, still more water. I hate animals, right? I don't know what it sounded like.

I really want steak. And so bear in mind, after Noah got off the boat, that's when we were allowed to eat animals. I'm not saying there's a correlation there. I'm not saying there's not, right? So that's when steak became a thing. Noah was like, thank you, Jesus. And yet at the very end of the time, you know what? A little commentary we're given in the book of Genesis,

but God remembered Noah. Isn't that great? God does not forget us. And we can have confidence in a faithful God who does not forget, but he sees and he hears and he knows. Well, he goes on in the midst of this talk of confidence. He says, forgive me. Now that he's talked to us about confidence, he goes on to talk to us about diligence. Notice what he says in verse 11.

He says, and we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the end so that you will not be sluggish, but will be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promise. That you would show the same diligence that you always have shown. God hasn't forgotten what you've done. So keep showing the same diligence in your faith that you have always shown.

Well, what's the diligence that they've always shown? Well, the diligence that they've shown is their great love for God and their great love for people. They showed their love for God through their devotion. They showed their love to people through service. He says, continue on in your diligence. Continue to be diligent in your walk with the Lord. Again, I will tell you, this is what's lacking

in much of the faith in the Western culture today. We love to make the post about the great revival. We love to make the post about the baptism on social media. But listen, the moment of baptism, the moment of revival is only as good as the diligence that it produces. Because now that diligence is played out in an everyday walk. Faith is not a moment of a proclamation.

Faith is a life of diligence. A life of diligence of fleeing sin and pursuing God. And that's what he tells us to do here. He says, listen, you've made the proclamation of faith. You've shown your faithfulness in the way that you've lived. Continue on with that same diligence. And brothers and sisters, can I exhort us to do the same thing? Continue on with the same diligence.

Diligently continue to pursue the knowledge of God, which will leave sin in the dust and holiness in front. That's what it's always gonna do. Holiness is what you're pursuing because God is what you're pursuing. And the only way you can pursue holiness is to leave sin in the rear view mirror. And so we diligently continue to seek a relationship with God. But not only that,

we diligently continue to serve one another. Uh-oh, that doesn't sound fun, does it? See, that's where we start to run into some problems. Diligently serve one another. I thought I was just supposed to love God. Yes, but how do you show that you love God? By loving your brother. You know how we know that? Because in the book of James, it says, you can't say that you love a God that you can't see.

If you don't love your brother, who you can see. That's ridiculous. And so we show our great love for God. We show our diligence towards God by the love that we live out towards each other, by the love that we live out in our lives towards each other. And so he says, brothers, I want you to, I desire that each one of you show the same diligence. And why do we do this?

So as to realize the full assurance, So as to realize the full assurance, of hope to the end. Diligence produces hope in the life of the believer. Diligence produces hope in the life of the believer. And then he gives a little bit of an exhortation here. He says, verse 12, so that you will not be sluggish, but be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promise.

That you won't be sluggish. The word sluggish there is dull or spiritually indifferent. Dull or spiritually indifferent. Interestingly enough, it's the exact same Greek word that was used over in chapter five, verse 11, when he said, you have become dull of hearing. In other words, you have become indifferent to the things that you hear, but he says, but don't allow your heart to become dull.

Don't allow it to become spiritually indifferent. Don't allow it to become sluggish. David Guzik in his commentary said this, don't let discouragement make you sluggish. First, we lose the desire to press on, and then we lose the desire to go on. First, we lose the desire to press on, and then we lose the desire to go on. Have you ever reached a place in your life

and in your walk with Jesus, Honesty 101 between you and Jesus right now, have you ever, or are you at a place in your life where you feel like you've lost your fight? Where you don't feel like fighting against sin anymore? You don't feel like fighting the daily battles anymore? You just sometimes, quite frankly, it'd be a lot easier just to sit down and coast, right?

I just don't want to fight anymore. I don't want to have a battle anymore. Listen, one of the things that I've learned in ministry is that when you're in ministry, every day is a battle, right? Sometimes your battles are with people. Sometimes your battles are with plumbing. Sometimes your battles are with people. Sometimes your battles are with the copy machine.

And your battle is always with technology, right? Like for some reason, pastors and technology, we don't get along very well. Me and microphones, we don't get along. Every time I speak, there's a battle with a microphone. And I'd like to say that I'm making this up and using hyperbole in this moment, but I'm not. Because I show up to a conference to speak, and I shared this with our sound guys when I got back.

I show up to a conference in Salina to speak at this FCA conference. Everybody else in the entire conference uses the exact same microphone, right? Guess what? It worked for all of them. I get up and I put the microphone on, just like I do, put it in my back pocket so everything stays where it's supposed to, and I run the thing around, I do the deal, and I turn it on, and all of a sudden,

it starts making the most god-awful noise possible. And I'm like, what is that? Is this me? And I'm looking at the sound guy, I'm like, is this a me thing? He's like, is it the microphone? And he goes, I said, do I just need to switch to a handheld mic? And he goes, when a sound guy says that, it means it's you and it's the microphone, right? It's your fault, you're the one causing this.

And I go, even the microphone is a battle. And sometimes in the midst of all of those battles, you go, I don't want to fight it anymore. I don't want to keep battling this anymore. I don't want to keep battling this anymore. I don't want to keep battling this anymore. Why? Because discouragement causes you to get sluggish, which makes you lose your fight. So what do you do when you become discouraged?

What do you do when that begins to hit you? Listen, this is Honesty 101 from the Rydog here. So a few weeks ago, it's been a real challenging start to the year, and it's May, so I feel like I should be past the start of the year, but I'm not. It was a real challenging start to the year, not the least of which was physical injury that I went through, and I'm a person who prides myself, maybe prides the exact problem there, but I pride myself on the fact that when I go out and run, I don't stop.

I keep plugging through. It may be slow, right? Small children are passing me on tricycles, but that's not the point. I am running, and I'm not stopping. But ever since I've come back from this injury, I stop all the time. And as I'm stopping, and I'm walking, and I'm doing one of these things, I'm like, genuinely looking at the inside, I'm like, what's wrong with me?

I don't do this. I always fight through this. And in that moment, I had to get really honest between me and God, because that's what my runs are anyway. I got really honest between me and God, and I felt like God said, you've lost your fight. You've lost a little bit of your fight right now, Ryan. And I was like, oh, crap, he's right. I'm not allowed to say that from the stage.

I've already been told that once. Oh, gosh, he's right. Someone will get mad at me later. It's OK. It's just another battle, and I'm ready to fight it. And I had to say, Lord. I've allowed discouragement to cause me to lose the fight. What I had to do in that moment was I had to confess that I was allowing discouragement to ruin my life, that I was allowing discouragement to come in

and take the place of God's promise in my life. And I had to confess that to the Lord, and I had to pray, Lord, you've got to give me the fight back. Lord, you've got to give me back the fire in my bones again, because I don't want to be like this. And since then, God's been giving me the fire back. He's been giving me the fight back in my bones. But I had to come to a point where I was like, oh, God, I've lost my fight.

I had to come to a place where I realized that discouragement was causing sluggishness in my life. I was losing the desire to press on. I hadn't lost the desire to go on, but I was losing the desire to press on. And I had to deal with it. And if that's you this morning, if you know what I'm talking about when I say this, you need to realize discouragement is running your life right now.

And you need to confess to God that you're starting to believe the lies of the enemy more than you're believing the promises of God, and you're ready to press on again. You're ready for God to restore the fire in your bones again, because that's the only way you move past it. He says, don't be sluggish. Instead, what you need to do is you need to imitate those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promise.

Why are we given all of these stories in the Old Testament about these saints who endured great hardship that he'll go into even more detail about in Hebrews chapter 11? Why are we given all of these stories? So that we can have someone to imitate. So that we can have someone to look at and go, they went through it too. They know what it's like. You know who else lost this fight one time?

Elijah. Right? Greatest prophet that ever lived. I think one of the two witnesses that's going to return was taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire. And yet, in the middle of some of the greatest work that he was doing, he said, I give up. Take me home. I'm now, I don't want to be here anymore. I have lost the fight. And God said, what you need is you need it now.

What you need is you need a nap. What you need is you need a snack. Let's roll. And then he gave him a word from God and he moved on. Why is that story included in there? So that we can look at that story and go, he knew what we went through. He understood. God gave him his fight back and he kept going. He said, so instead what you need to do is you need to imitate those who through faith,

that's believing the promise of God. Patience, that's enduring the hardships of this earth, inherited the promise. Listen, you need to understand something. The two things that will run parallel throughout your entire life are faith and patience. You will have to have both to continue to endure. You will have to have both if you don't want to fall away, if you don't want to remain

spiritually immature. You need faith to believe that God says what he's going to do and you need the patience to endure the hardship of life. Those two things are necessary in the life of every believer. And they have been necessary in the life of every believer from the word go. They have been necessary in the life of every great man and woman that God has used in powerful

ways throughout scripture. And we must be imitators of those things through diligence. And so he says, brothers and sisters, have great confidence in a God who has not forgotten you. Have great diligence to continue on in your faith and imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promise. And here is where he talks about the promise. Verse 13, for when God made the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater,

he swore by himself saying, surely, or I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you. And so having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. I don't want to take for granted that maybe somebody in here doesn't know who Abraham is. So bear with me as I spend just a moment giving a little backdrop here. Abraham, of course, is one of the first great men.

One of the first great men that God called to faith. God found Abraham living in a pagan land and he said, I want you to pack up the family and I want you to move to a land that I'm going to show you. It's a promised land. And when you get there, I am going to make a great family out of you. I'm going to give you a son and a great nation is going to come forth from you.

And God made this promise to Abraham. Now there were two issues that Abraham had to face that caused a great deal of faith. Number one, he did not know where he was going. Number two, he and his wife were barren. It's hard to find a promised land that you don't know where it is and it's hard to start a nation without a son. And yet he believed God and God accounted it for righteousness.

And God swore a promise. Because God can swear by no one greater, He made a covenant with Abraham. And since Abraham, the only part of the covenant that he had was to believe God, God made a covenant with himself and said, I promise, I'm going to take an oath that I will give you a son. And then we're given this little commentary. That Abraham, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.

And if you don't know the whole story of Abraham, you go, I don't know if I could ever have that kind of faith. I don't know if I could ever have strong enough faith like Abraham. Well, let me remind you about how not strong Abraham's faith was at times, okay? So first of all, Abraham arrives in the promised land. The first thing he did is he did not obey God completely.

He was supposed to leave his entire family behind and he did not. He brought his dad and his nephew with him. Finally, he separates himself from his family. And when he separates himself from his family, he brings his father and his nephew with him. And when he separates himself from the family that God told him to separate himself from, there's a famine in the land, the promised land.

Something got hard. And so what did Abraham do? The same thing every red-blooded male does. When things get hard, he ran, right? And so, so Abraham runs down to Egypt, which God never told him to do. Abraham runs down to Egypt. Only on his way to Egypt, he's scared that someone's going to look at his wife who, by the way, had to have been the hottest woman in the world, right?

Scared about what's going to happen to his wife and says, listen, do me a solid lie. Tell people you're my sister because I know when Pharaoh sees you, he's going to be like, dang girl. And he's going to take you for his wife. And he's going to kill me. And Sarah goes along with it. Ladies, you all do. I mean, God bless you, right? You put up with us moron men all the time.

And so, and so, that was maybe a little too excited about that, but it is what it is. I brought it on myself. So Abraham gets found out that he's lying about his wife. And he gets scolded by someone of the world. And he's like, what? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What?

What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? It's... This is like two things going down which one touches from God and does not image a beautiful self. All of that? And finally, finally, Abraham gets to the place where he truly believes God. And he has a son. And his son becomes the one through whom the rest of the nation of Israel will come about.

Brothers and sisters, you don't need perfect faith. You just need faith. Because God does not remember your failures. God remembers your faith. Do you realize that I think there's maybe only one place, and I don't even know if Stephen, I should go back and read it. I don't even know if Stephen actually names all the failures of Abraham in Acts chapter seven.

But do you realize we don't read about the failures of Abraham in the New Testament? You know why? Because God does not remember our failures. God remembers our faith. Which is why in this moment, he says, and so having patiently waited, which is not how I would define Abraham, right? Having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. God had made him a promise.

Abraham, in a weak way, believed the promise. And Abraham was not only counted righteous, but the entire nation of Israel came about because of it. He goes on to say this, verse 16. For men, speaking of promises, for men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In other words, if we're looking at the world,

a promise coupled with an oath in the time when he was living was the end of every dispute. Nope, it is what it is. He made the promise. He swore by someone greater than himself and took an oath. He's gonna do it. It's the end of the dispute. And so if that's true with men, notice what it says. In the same way, verse 17, God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise,

the unchangeableness of his purpose, interposed with an oath. Even so, God, so that he could make sure that we all knew that his promise is unchangeable, also took an oath. And so it says this, so that by, verse 18, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. He says, when God makes a promise, he did it with these two unchangeable things, not only his promise, but also his oath.

And since God could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself. When men take a promise, what do they say? I swear to, I swear to God, right? When God takes a promise, he swears by himself because he knows his name is on the line and God cannot lie. So the question is this, what's the promise? What promise did he make to us? Well, he made to us the promise of eternal life.

Well, we have to realize something about eternal life. Eternal life does not begin the day that you take your last breath on this side of eternity. Eternal life began the day that you put your faith in Jesus. That's when eternal life began. Death is a change of location, but your eternal life began the day that you were saved. And so you have this eternal life coursing through your body

and you can't just say, well, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. You can rest in the fact that you have this eternal life because God made a promise and God always keeps his promises. And we can rest in this promise of eternal life in every aspect of our lives because eternal life is not just hoping that I live forever one day. Eternal life is a quality of life that I have in Christ.

A brand new resurrection life that I have in Christ. And so he says this. He says, So that by two unchangeable things in which it's impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope that is set before us. That phrase strong encouragement is incredibly powerful in the Greek language here. The word encouragement is the Greek word paraklesis,

which means to call to one side. It's often used for the word exhortation or helper throughout Scripture. And the idea is to call to one side. I want you to think about this. God's promise gives encouragement. God's promise. God's promise calls us to his side and says, I will always be there with you. Have you ever thought about the promises of God like that?

If you haven't, it's time to start looking at them like that. It's time to start taking the promises of this word and not just making them words on a page or decorations in your home, but the very life by which you live. Because the promises of God do exactly that. They put their arm around you in the hardest of times and they say, it's going to be okay because God always keeps his promises.

And that's why you need to find out and find promises in his word that you hold on to with every fiber of your being because I can tell you from experience the promises of God are the only thing that get you through this life. The promises of God are the only thing that call you to his side in the hardest times of life. There's a fantastic little tiny book by a guy named Don McClure. I have an extra copy in my office if anyone wants to borrow it.

It's called None of These Things Move Me. It's a fantastic story about his life and the things that he'd been through in his life. And it's really interesting because he said, I came to a point in my life when I realized I needed to start memorizing as much scripture as I possibly could because I felt like God told me I was going to need it. I was going to need to have a bank of promises to hold on to when life got hard.

And he was 100% right because when you read that book and you see the things that he went through, the church that wanted to fire him, the church that was in great financial straits when he showed up and people kept leaving until the church was down to almost no one and now it's built up into this place called Calvary Chapel San Jose which is one of the largest churches in California. And in that moment, he had to just hold on to the promises that God gave him. He had a stroke and almost died and had to hold on to the promises. He recounts when he was in the hospital after that stroke and he said, he just had to keep reminding himself of the promises of God to get him through.

Do you realize he's lost most of his vision? And he knew that he needed to memorize God's word because he was going to need it someday and now that he can't see the word as well, he has so much of it stored in his mind. Why? Because the promises of God call you to his side and they give you the encouragement that you need. But there's another word that's given there,

a defining word, a descriptive word for encouragement. You notice what it says. It says, strong encouragement. Some of your translations may say strong consolation. Same words. Strong encouragement. And the idea behind strong is that which surrounds. And so the idea behind this word is this. Behind strong encouragement is this. It is encouragement that like an army

surrounds us to protect us from doubt. It is encouragement that like an army surrounds us to protect us from doubt. You need to know something. Doubt's the most normal thing that we all go through. Some people feel really condemned when they start to have doubt. Oh man, I've got doubts right now. And maybe that means I'm not really safe. No, that means that you're a human

and you have questions. And life is hard. But now's when you need those promises of God to surround you, to protect you from the doubt. To be like an army around you, protecting you from all of the things that come along. Which is why you need them so much in your life. He says, we have strong encouragement. And what does that strong encouragement do? That strong encouragement leads us to hope.

That strong encouragement leads us to hope. It helps us to take hold of the hope that is set before us. But you may have noticed, and maybe you didn't, because maybe you're not paying attention, but I'm just pointing it out now. You may have noticed I missed a phrase in there that I think is a really important phrase. One of my favorite phrases in this entire verse.

We who have taken refuge. We who have taken refuge. We who have taken refuge. I just, I love that imagery that's created there of that idea. Because that's the way I view what I did the day that I came to Jesus. Is I ran to Him for refuge. Because I was aware of the fact that I had offended God. I was aware of the fact that the only thing that was waiting for me was judgment.

The only thing that was waiting for me was danger if I did not find some refuge in the only place that I could. I'm reminded of storm season in Kansas, right? Like once the real Kansans have gone out to look at the storm and gone, whew, yep, we actually probably ought to be nervous about that one. Where do we go? We go to the basement. Why? To seek refuge from the coming storm.

That's what we've done with Jesus. We have gone to seek refuge from the coming, the coming storm is the judgment that God pours out on sin and Jesus is the refuge from that judgment. But you know, for the Jewish mindset, for the Hebrew mindset, which is who He was writing to, this would bring to mind something that's really cool in the Old Testament. If you were to go back into the law, particularly in the book of Leviticus, you would find that there were several cities that were to be set out throughout the land called cities of refuge.

It says when you come into the land, you need to establish these things called cities of refuge. And if someone were to commit manslaughter, in other words, a death were to happen accidentally and you got blamed for it, what you would do is you would run to the city of refuge. And then the avenger of blamelessness, in other words, the family member that would want to now kill you because of what happened, they could not reach you in the city of refuge because they would provide protection for you in that moment. And you would remain in that city of refuge until first of all, there was a trial to determine your innocence.

If you were found guilty, you were handed over to the avenger of blood. But you would remain in that city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Now here's the thing. The cities of refuge were only for the innocent. Not for the guilty. And that's why Jesus is our greater city of refuge. Because for Jesus, the only way that we can find refuge in him is if we declare we are guilty.

And when we declare we are guilty, we run to the city of refuge. And we find that safety in what? The death of the high priest, which is Jesus. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty.

We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are guilty. refuge or you will run to alcohol or you will run to pouring yourself into your job or you will run to hopefully all the finances in the world or you will run

into the arms of another man or another woman or or pornography or whatever it is we'll run somewhere for refuge but only one gives life and that's Jesus all the rest of them will just numb the feelings for a few minutes and then they're worse you got to run to Jesus for refuge and those of us that have run to Jesus for refuge have found strong consolation and encouragement in him that have led us to hope and that brings us to the last word we've looked at confidence we've looked at diligence we've looked at the promise now let's look at hope he says in verse 19 this hope we have as an anchor of the soul a hope both sure and steadfast one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us had he become a high priest forever

according to the order of Melchizedek he said this hope that we have of Jesus of eternal life of hope in him this hope that we have is an anchor for the soul in other words it it holds us steady no matter how shifting the world is around us that's what this hope is hope is a confident expectation that's what the word means is a confident expectation it's not all one day I hope I get to do this if this is what's going to happen because I'm confident in it but this hope is an anchor for the soul because this hope holds us tight when everything around us is trying to toss us to and fro trying to toss us all over the place I shared this story a few months ago and I'm going to share it again because it's the best story that I've got about anchors you

So sorry for the guilty parties that were involved in this story. Anchors are really good, and they will always do their job. Do you know that? An anchor will always do its job. The question is, what's it tethered to? So my buddies and I, we have this little fishing boat. It's not a big fishing boat. It's very small. Three of us fit in it just fine. Turns out a fourth one doesn't fit very well.

We've tried it before. Four guys with fishing poles inside that boat. It's a bad idea. I won't tell you why. We just know what it is. So three guys, three guys in this boat, right? And so we take it to ponds and sometimes to streams and things like that because it's a flat-bottomed boat, and we go to this pond just outside of Winfields. Oh, beautiful pond. And here's what you do when you're fishing in a boat like that.

As you find where the fish are biting, you throw the anchor down so that you can stay in that same area because the fish are biting there, right? And so that's what we did. Huh, here looks like a pretty good spot. Let's throw in the anchor.

Here's the most important thing about anchors. They should be tied to your boat. Otherwise, that anchor does you no good. And we all thought, somebody tied the anchor to the boat, and it turned out nobody tied the anchor to the boat. So currently, that anchor is 100% doing its job. It is holding tight at the bottom of a pond just outside of Winfield, Kansas.

It is not, however, holding our boat because the anchor was not tethered to the boat. You need an anchor, but that anchor better be tethered to your boat. In other words, it can't be somebody else's faith. It's got to be your faith. It can't be somebody else's hope. It's got to be your hope. But that hope that we have is an anchor that holds us steady no matter which way the wind blows,

no matter which direction the current is flowing, that anchor holds you steady. And all of the things of this life that will want to push you away, all of the things of this life that will make you want to fall away or drift away can be solved if you will anchor yourself with hope. Again, I tell you this, not as somebody who read the right definitions in a book. Again, I tell you this, as somebody who has lived it, that if you don't have hope as your anchor, you will become hopeless.

And that's a tragic place to be. But this hope we have is an anchor for the soul. He tells us two descriptive words about this hope. He says, number one, that it's sure. Number two, that it is steadfast. Let me tell you what those two words mean. That word sure means something that will not totter even when put to the test. Something that will not totter even when put to the test.

In other words, it's going to stand up, no matter what's going on. I always remember growing up when we'd drive places and you'd see those hedgerows. And my mom said, I always love trees with character. I said, what do you mean by that? She goes, I love a tree that I can tell has stood up to the test of time. It's endured all of the wind. It's endured all of the storms.

And it may not be the prettiest tree on the block, but I know it stood the test of time. And that has always stuck with me because I just love that statement, trees with character. You see, that's hope. Hope gives us character because hope helps us stay in the test of time. Hope helps us withstand in all of the storms. Hope is what allows us to keep standing

no matter how strong the wind blows, no matter how many tornadoes come through, no matter how many things beat against the house. The hope anchors us to the ground and helps us to stand because our hope in Jesus is sure. But the second thing it tells us about hope is that hope is steadfast. In other words, steadfast hope means it does not break. Break down under the weight.

It does not break down under the weight. And can we just all be honest about the world that we live in right now, that it's weighty? That no matter what generation you live in, no matter what culture you live in, the things of life are weighty. The things of life are heavy. We have this prayer request email here and many of you signed up for it. If not, you go to flocknote.com backslash CCAC

and you get the prayer request to come through. And you find that what people, what people have going on in their lives is weighty. And it's kind of heavy sometimes. Some of them are cancer diagnosis. Some of them are financial in nature. Some of them are loss of loved ones. Whatever they are, they're very heavy things. And the only way that you can withstand

the weight of this world is if you have a steadfast hope that keeps you standing no matter how heavy the things of this world get. He says we have this hope as an anchor for the soul because it is sure it will stand the test of time and it is steadfast. It will hold up under the weight. He said it is a hope that has entered within the veil. Now remember the way that the temple was set up.

You had the outer court where anyone could go. You had the next court where only Jewish men could go. And then you had the holy place where only the priests could go. And then separating the holy place from the most holy place was a veil. And the only one that could go into the most holy place where the Ark of the Covenant was was the high priest and that was only once a year.

That was the shadow of the substance of Jesus Christ. The hope that we have enters into the veil to take us past the shadow of an earthly reality into the substance of a heavenly reality. That's what that hope does for us. It reminds us that Jesus is not just some off in the distance thing but that Jesus is the reality, the substance, of what we live with in our lives.

Because that hope has gone beyond the veil. And then he tells us about Jesus. He says, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us. In other words, Jesus has gone before us. That word forerunner is a spy that has gone before to scope out the land. That's what a forerunner is. That's what Jesus is for us. He's the one that's gone before. Where has he gone before?

He's gone into eternal life, right? If you want to know what eternal life looks like, if you want to know what your eternal body looks like, if you want to know what eternal life looks like, look at the risen body of Jesus Christ. He is our forerunner that has gone before us into the reality. And he is a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Brothers and sisters, we have this hope as an anchor for the soul. So here's my question for you one more time. What are you anchored in right now? As a believer in Jesus Christ, I'll talk to you all first. Where is your anchor set? Where is your anchor set right now? Is your anchor set in the fact that you're a pretty good person? Is your anchor set in the fact

that you attend church every Sunday and you do lots of good things for people? Or is your anchor firmly set in the fact that Jesus is the one hope that you have? Because just because we're believers in Jesus Christ doesn't mean that we can't slip back into a system of works. That was the entire warning of last week. Is your hope firmly secure in the person of Jesus Christ?

And is your confidence in him? Or is your confidence in you being a pretty good person? I'm here to tell you right now, if your confidence is you being a pretty good person, that's pretty poor confidence. But if your confidence is in the person of Jesus Christ, that's the confidence that doesn't fail. But now I'm going to talk to you that maybe you don't really know

where you're at in your faith right now. Maybe you don't really know if you've ever truly put your faith in Jesus. What's your anchor in? What's holding you down? What's keeping you solid in this world? I bet you're going to answer nothing. You're swimming from one thing. To the next. You're floating all over the place. And quite frankly, you're tired of it.

You're exhausted from the battle. You're exhausted from the fight. And you just need something real in your life. I'm here to tell you right now, the only thing that's real, the only thing that will never let you down, the only thing that will never fail you, is Jesus. I listened to a young man give his testimony one time. His name is Jake. Many of you probably know him.

And he used to live here, former wrestler here in Arc City. And I remember I had him come back and share his testimony. And he said, he started telling all of the things that he thought he could put his hope in besides Jesus. And he said, I first of all thought it was my family and that failed. And then I thought it was wrestling and that failed. And then I thought it was this

and then that failed. He said, I had to realize that the only one that was never going to let me down is Jesus. He's the only one that's never failed me. He said, and that's the testimony that I have today. He has never failed me. So if you're here this morning and you've never put your faith in Jesus, I want you to know, he'll never fail you. And today's the day.

Today's the day to get yourself right with Jesus. So I'm going to invite Jared and the worship team to come on up. And if we could just all stand.

I'm going to do something just a little bit different today. I hadn't planned on doing this, but I think I'm going to. I'm just going to be over here to this side. If anybody needs to pray about things, maybe the weight of the battle has been heavy and you just need somebody to pray for you. Maybe, maybe you have found that you're resting in the wrong thing

and not Jesus and you just need to confess that and you need to pray with someone. I'll be over there. If you need to come to faith in Jesus for the very first time, I'll be over there and I'll pray with you and I'll walk you through what that looks like. But I'm going to close this out in prayer right now. They're going to sing this last song and I'm going to be over here

at any time during that last song or afterwards, you can just come over and I'll pray with you. Father, we come before you and Lord, I thank you for the time that we've had in your word this morning. And God, I just ask that that you would move through this place as you see fit. Move in the hearts of people as you see fit. And Lord, I just ask that that your Holy Spirit would be at work.

Lord, bring freedom to hearts that need freedom. Bring security and confidence to the hearts that need that as well. So Father, move, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. Peace like a river As I worship your majesty I worship your hope Covered in Come now You've done it Lord God, we just come before you this morning. We thank you for your word. Lord God, may we

may we put our hope in nothing less.

Lord, I just thank you. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for how much you love us, Lord. And as we leave here today, let's pray that you bless each and every one of us and bless the moms out there today, Lord. Help them to have a great day and we love you and we praise you. Let's have a wonderful week and happy Mother's Day.