Sunday Morning Service 8:30AM - Hebrews 6:9-20 - Be Mature pt 3 - The Anchor of the Soul - Pastor Ry

Well, good morning, church family, and happy Mother's Day. It's really good to see everybody. I'm really glad you're here. Glad you could make it out this morning. If you guys want to stand with us, we'll pray and we'll get started. And Father, we come before you this morning. We thank you for allowing us to be here, Lord. Thank you for allowing us to be in your house this morning.

And I just ask your blessing upon this time. Lord, may we glorify you. Lord, may we lift praise to you because you're worthy of all of our praise. You're worthy of all honor and you're worthy of all glory. We love you, Lord. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Out of your fame, Jesus is all will be new. Jesus is your dwell. Oh, better is one elsewhere. Blessing that is plentiful, where your streams of abundance flow. Blessing be your blessing when I'm found. Desert place, though I walk. Blessing be your name. This closes day when the sun shines. Be your name. Every blessed turn offering. Though there's pain in the offering.

Blessing be your name. Every scale. Lord God, we just want to bless your name, Lord, no matter where we're at. Even if we're like David in a cave or at our lowest point in life, Lord, we just want to take a moment, Lord, and praise you and bless your name this morning because you are worthy. How great the chasm that lay between. In desperation, I turn to heaven.

Your name into the dark. The shadows of the work is finished.

Jesus Christ, mercy, such boundless grace. The cross has poured aside. The grave has opened.

Came the morn. Declare the grave has no claim. You give life. You are love. You bring light to this darkness. You give hope to restore. Every heart is broken. Thank you for getting us up this morning, Lord, and filling our life. We just want you to return praise to you, to give you all because you are worthy of it all. Lord, we just thank you for how great you are.

Lord, we thank you for who you are. We thank you that you, the God of all the universe, the creator of all, what do you even think about us? You are amazing, you are kind, you are good, you are gracious, you are merciful. We thank you and we praise you this morning for how great you are. Lord, this morning as Pastor Ryan comes, Lord, I pray that you would speak mightily through him.

Give us a soft and receptive heart this morning, Lord, and grow. And grow us and mature us in you, Lord God. We love you, Lord God, and we praise you, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's have some fellowship. Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seats. Grab your bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning.

A handful of things to take note of in your bulletins. Over on the left-hand side, as always, are the things that you need to know about us. Over on the left-hand side, as always, are the things that you need to know about us. Over on the right-hand side, as always, are the things that you need to know about us. The things that go on throughout the week. Find yourself a spot to get plugged into.

Over in the middle section, a few reminders. First of all, another week or so for the t-shirt fundraiser that's out there. So if you are interested in that, that table is out in the lobby. Also, a reminder about Vacation Bible School coming up. Registration is now open. There's a QR code there in your bulletin. If you're interested in getting some kids registered for that.

that. Also, if you're interested in helping with that, my wife will be here before her second service to get people signed up for that. Fellows, we have a men's breakfast coming up this Saturday at 8 a.m. in the Agape Room, so come join us for that. And last, but certainly not least, Happy Mother's Day. To all of you moms that are here, thank you so much for what you have done

for us over the years. And as our way of showing a little appreciation, go stop by the ushers on the way out. They've got a little something for you from us. So, Happy Mother's Day. And if you're not a mother here this morning, make sure that you treat your mom really good today. 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 in Psalm 70. Psalm 70. Looking at the New American Standards. So that hopefully we all sound the same. As you are turning to Psalm 70, if you would please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word, if you are able. I know the screen says 78. That's because I write like a five-year-old. And so, when I turn things into them, they do the best they can with

what I, what they have. So, 70 is actually the number there, that zero that actually looked like it. There it is. See, those people treat me good, even though I don't treat them good. I will read the odd verses, if you will follow along with Pastor Jared in the even verses. Psalm 70, for the choir director. A Psalm of David. O God, hasten to deliver me. O Lord, hasten to help me.

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 your salvation say continually, let God be magnified. And read verse five with me. but I am afflicted and needy.

Hasten to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer. O Lord, do not delay. And so, Father, we do thank you that you are the one who delivers us. You are our hope. And so, Father, I pray that as we spend time looking at the anchor of hope that we have in you this morning, that you would move as you see fit by the power of your Holy Spirit, not only through the words that I speak,

but especially through your words that are written on these pages, Lord. Just move by the power of your Holy Spirit. Bring in conviction, bring in comfort, and bring in instruction. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter six.

Hebrews, chapter six. We come now to the last in our series of Be Mature. And today's gonna be a little more hopeful than it's been the last two weeks, okay? So I'm gonna bring a little bit of joy to us. We've had two very stern warnings from the writer to the Hebrews. The first of those warnings was a warning of spiritual immaturity, that we as believers in Jesus Christ

should not allow immaturity to be what dominates our lives, to not be dull of hearing, to not still be milk drinkers when we should be solid food eaters. And so he warned us about that, that danger of immaturity in the life of a believer. And then last week, he warned us about falling away. And we said it was a very stern warning that was given to us, to not leave behind the reality of Christ, for the shadow of the law, to not leave behind the substance of Jesus for the shadow of lesser things.

And so we brought that warning about, but today we have a word of hope. I've actually labeled this or titled this the anchor of the soul. And so picking up once again in verse nine, it says this, but beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. For God is not unjust as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name and having ministered and is 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 will be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promise. For when God made the promise 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 is an end of every dispute.

In the same way, God desiring even more to show the heirs 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 and 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 in this section, there's four words that I want to point out to you.

And I'm going to briefly give you these words and then we'll go back and talk about all of them. I want to talk about confidence. I want to talk about diligence. I want to talk about promise. And I want to talk about hope. Because that's what he brings up here to us, these four words. The first of those words, again, is confidence. And so looking in verse nine, it says this,

but we, beloved, are convinced, or some of your translations may say confident, of better things concerning you, things that accomplish, company, salvation, though we are speaking in this way. The writer to the Hebrews says, we've been speaking in this way, in other words, in this way of warning, a very stern warning, a very harsh warning. He said, we've been speaking this way to you and I realize that what I've said has perhaps been troubling to your soul and sobering to your mind, but that's exactly what we intended. But I want you to know that we have a great deal of confidence and our confidence is in better things for you.

In other words, he says, I am confident that the warning that I give will do exactly what it was intended to do, and that is to bring about things that accompany salvation. That this warning, I am convinced, is going to bring about in you the sobriety of soul necessary to keep you focused on the reality to where you will not return to the substance. And so we are convinced, we are confident in better things concerning you. But I want you to notice the next thing he says in verse 10, for God is not unjust.

And before we get into everything else he says in that verse, I want to remind us of where our confidence actually comes from. Because the writer to the Hebrews says, I'm confident of greater things concerning you, things that accompany salvation, even though I spoke to you, even though I wrote to you in this way, because God is not unjust. Our confidence is in the faithfulness of God, not in the faithfulness of man. And I think that that's really important for us to remember because whatever confidence, that we have always has to come back to the one source of confidence that we can have.

And that is in Jesus Christ. That is in the person and the nature of Jesus, who is the second person of the triune Godhead. Our confidence is in him. And if you have confidence in yourself to never fall away, if you have confidence in yourself to never fall into immaturity, then your confidence is in a poor solution. Because what you will find is if your confidence is in yourself,

you will always lack confidence. And this, I think, is what goes on in the church today. I think that there is so much self-help in the church today. There is so much self-confidence in the church today. There is so much self-esteem in the church today that we have forgotten who our confidence is truly supposed to be in. And that is in none other than God himself,

who is not only the giver of the promise, but the keeper of the promise, which is where he's going to get to eventually when he talks about the promise. He says, but God is not unjust. I'll remind you that these are Hebrew words. These are the Hebrew believers that he's writing to. And these Hebrew believers have been through an incredible amount in their lives up to this point in time.

The persecution that they're facing is great. Their labor has been strong, and yet they're finding themselves being torn away from their confidence in Christ. And so he says, we are confident of better things concerning you, but our confidence is in God. Because I want you to notice what he says. For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown

towards his name. And having ministered and still ministering to the saints. He says, God has not forgotten you. God has not forgotten you, and God has not forgotten what you have done. God has not forgotten the faithfulness that you've shown in the past, and we are confident in God that he will continue to produce that same faithfulness in the future. But I think it's important for us

to pay attention to the fact that God has not forgotten you. I think one of the sources of faith is the lack of confidence that we have is that we think that God's forgotten. Perhaps in the middle of our circumstances, we think, well, God forgot that I was here. In the middle of our circumstances, we think, well, God forgot what I've done for him in the past.

In the middle of our circumstances, we think everyone has forgotten. One of the temptations that we have is that we think that God forgets us when others don't notice us. You ever been in that situation? Moms, you ever been in that situation where you're putting in the work, you're doing the thing, and nobody notices, right? Nobody notices the time that you put in.

Nobody notices the, the effort that you put in. Nobody notices the care or concern that you put in. And you just sometimes don't feel very noticed in life. And when that starts to happen, you think, I bet God has forgotten me too. I'm reminded of the story of Joseph in this. Remember, Joseph had found himself in a really terrible position in his life. He had, first of all,

been sold into slavery by his brothers. And then he had been falsely accused by his boss. And he found himself landed in prison. And while he was there in prison, God continued. He continued to be with him. It says that God was with him. And he sent two individuals to him. They were a part of the royal household. And he interpreted their dreams. And one of them was set free from the prison.

And the thing that Joseph asked when the guy was set free from prison is he says, listen, don't forget me. Could you please let Pharaoh know that I have been falsely accused and falsely imprisoned? And do you know what it says in the very next chapter? That's the end of what? One chapter in the beginning of the very next chapter. Do you know what it says? For two full years,

he did not remember him. And in that moment, you think Joseph probably thought he forgot. Maybe God forgot. But God did not forget because God remembered that he was there. I'm reminded of the story of Noah while he was on the ark, right? Like sometimes we think about Noah on the ark and we think 40 days, 40 nights, right? That's what it says. That's how long the rain came.

But listen, that's just how long the rain came down. Noah was on the boat over a year. I just want you to think about that for one quick moment. Over a year on a boat full of animals. I mean, every two by two, actually there was way more than two of every kind of animal. There was at least seven each of all of the clean animals, two by two of all of the unclean animals.

That is an incredible number of animals on a boat. You know what animals do? They stink. They stink bad. Can you imagine how stir crazy Noah got, right? Like that dude had to have been like, what the heck? When is God going to remember? And you know what we're told at the end of the amount of time that Noah spent on the boat? It said, but God remembered Noah.

God is not unjust to forget because God notices. And sometimes our faith can wane when we are tempted to think that God has forgotten us because no one else notices. Right? But the other reason why sometimes our faith can wane is our faith can wane that God remembers us when we make our lives all about attention and applause. Sometimes we make our service for the Lord

about the attention and the applause that we get from it. And when we make it all about the attention and the applause, we tend to think that God has forgotten when we're not getting enough of the attention and the applause. But I'll remind you of three things. God sees. God hears. And God knows. There's nothing hidden from His eyes. And He is watching as you faithfully serve.

And He is listening as you faithfully pray. And He knows that you are faithfully following. We are convinced of better things for you, brothers and sisters, because God is not unjust. Our confidence is in Him. And that brings us to the second word. Not only do we have confidence in God, but there's an exhortation to diligence. Notice what it says in verse 11.

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 imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promise. He says, And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence. The same diligence. God's desire for us to be faithful. God's desire for us to be faithful.

God's desire for us to be faithful. God's desire for us to be faithful. God's desire for us is that faithful diligence to do what He has called for us to do. He said, Knowing that God is not unjust, knowing that our confidence is in Him, we ask you to continue to be diligent in the same things that you have been doing. What are the things that they have been doing?

Well, they've been showing love for God by continuing to follow God. And they've been showing love for others by continuing to serve others. In other words, show the same kind of diligence. Diligently continue to love God with all of your heart. And diligently continue to love others the way that you would want them to love you. The way that God has called you to love them.

Show that same kind of diligence. And can I say that, again, this is something I think that's necessary in the 21st century Western culture church where diligence is not something that's often applauded. Emotion is what's applauded. What's applauded is the moment. We love the moment that we can post on social media. I love it too. I'm not... I'm not downplaying that.

It's fun to be able to do that. But that moment is just that. It's a moment. And that moment is only as good as the diligence that follows it. As the commitment that follows it. Because the moment when you have the emotional feeling is to be followed with the diligence of daily walking. And that's what's lacking right now I feel like in so much of the revival

that we see taking place. Don't get me wrong. I'm excited about it. But there's a diligence that seems to be lacking. Because the same people that are posting videos of baptisms are then also posting videos of themselves at parties. And you kind of go, wait a second, these two can't go together. Because there should be a diligence that goes along with our lives

in Jesus Christ. Just like there is a diligence in every other part of your life. If you want to be good at your job, you have to be diligent at your job. If you want to be good at your craft, you have to be diligent at your craft. If you want to have a strong relationship with your spouse, you need a diligence. Diligence in your relationship with your spouse.

And the same is true in our walk with Jesus Christ. There is a diligence to continue to do the same thing. Why? Because diligence produces hope. Notice what it says. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end. See, the more diligent that you are in your walk with Jesus Christ to love others and to love God,

you find that that produces a great deal of hope. You find that that produces a great deal of hope. How does that produce hope? Well, because as you are sowing seeds of righteousness in your life, they're producing oaks of righteousness in your life. That's what happens. You see, the Bible tells us, God will not be mocked. Whatever a man sows, that will he reap.

Whoever sows to unrighteousness will of unrighteousness reap death and destruction. But whoever sows to righteousness will reap peace and life. And joy. What are you investing in in your life? What are you diligent in in your life? That's what fruit will be produced in your life. And as you sow to diligence, as you diligently spend time with your Savior, as you diligently serve Him,

and as you diligently serve others, you will find that He begins to produce that fruit of hope in your life. And you will find that full assurance of hope until the end. That's why some of the most hopeful people that you know, some of the most joyful people that you know are the most giving people that you know. They are the most serving people that you know.

Because there is a certain joy, peace, and hope that comes when you are loving the people that are around you. Because God is now pouring love into you. He says, therefore, remain diligent. We desire that each and every one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the end. Why? Verse 12. So that you will not be sluggish.

Why? Verse 12. So that you will not be sluggish. But be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promise. Don't be sluggish. That word sluggish is kind of an interesting word. It means to be dull and spiritually indifferent. It's interesting because it's the exact same word. The only other place it's used in Scripture is the previous chapter in verse 11

when He says you have become dull or sluggish of hearing. That's the idea of the word there. The idea is that you're now dull spiritually speaking and you're indifferent spiritually speaking. So He first of all warned about the dullness of our hearing and now He says we don't want you to become sluggish. We don't want you to become dull in your life. We don't want your spiritual life

to be sluggish. I wrote down a quote from David Guzik on this that I thought was really good. It says, don't let discouragement make you sluggish because first we lose the desire to press on and then we lose the desire to go on. Let me read that to you again. Don't let discouragement make you sluggish because first we lose the desire to press on and then we lose

the desire to go on. If you are finding in your life that discouragement is overtaking you, first of all know that that makes you a normal human being. What the enemy cannot do through any other means he will do through discouragement in your life. And when you begin to allow discouragement to overtake your life, you start to lose the fight. Not lose the fight meaning

you've lost the battle. Lose the fight meaning you don't have the same fight in you that you used to. I see this happen sometimes. I've seen this at times in my own life when discouragement begins to creep in you kind of just go, what's the point? This is just a hopeless inevitability. This is all that's ever going to be. And so you kind of get discouraged and you kind of get torn down.

You're like, what am I even doing here right now? And when you see that crop up in your life listen, the first thing that you need to do is confess it to the Lord. And you need to get really honest with God and you need to tell the Lord, I am so discouraged right now and I have lost my fight. I have lost the fire. Now Lord, I need you to restore the fight. Lord, I need you to restore the fire.

And usually what he'll have you do is first of all start hoping in his word second of all start serving other people. Because that will restore that fire. It will restore that hope. One of the things I've learned in ministry is that every day is a new battle. Every day is a new battle. And sometimes it's battles with people. Sometimes it's battles with plumbing.

Sometimes it's battles with people. Sometimes it's battles with the coffee machine. You name it, every day is a new battle. And I'm going to be really honest with you. There are some days where I wake up and I just go Lord, I don't know if I have an enemy for the battle today. Because discouragement starts to seek in. And in that moment I have to recognize that in my life.

I have to confess that in my life. And I have to remind myself that I'm called and that this is what God wants me to do. And if he has called me to it he will supply everything I need for it. And then you get up and you go on and you continue to press on in the power of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps that's you today. We're at the end of the school year. We're right in the middle of Maycember.

I don't know about you all but being the husband of a teacher and also being involved with school and having kids in school May is the stupidest month in the world. And I used to really like May. It's such a fun month usually. It's nice outside. May 1st is my anniversary. School is just about to get out. But there's about a two and a half week time frame. You're like, wow, I do not want to do this.

Because every night has something. Every day has something. Every weekend has something. And you get kind of discouraged in the moment. You think, what's the point? I'm just going to go from one thing to the next and I'm so tired. Is that you today? Do you sense what I'm getting at here? If that's you, I want you to hold on. I want you to tell the Lord about your discouragement.

I want you to tell Him how tired you are. And I want you to hope in the truth of God's Word that God will give you everything that you need to do all of the things that He calls you to do. He says, don't be sluggish. Instead, be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promise. You ever wonder why all of those stories are given to us in the Old Testament?

Because God tells all of those stories of fights, all of those stories of the great heroes of the faith that He'll go into even more depth in when we get to chapter 11. The reason why He tells us all of those stories is so that we can look back and see that they went through the same things we go through and yet God gave them everything that they need in order to persevere. That through faith and patience all of those people inherited the promise. That through faith and patience all of those people overcame the things that sat in front of them every single day.

Therefore, if they did that, it's time for you to be an imitator of that and to follow the same faith and same patience through which they inherited the promise. But I'll point out those two words to you. What did they do to inherit the promise? Well, it required faith and it required patience. Faith, of course, is believing what we know to be true of God. And He'll go into this more

when He talks about the promise in just a minute. I want you to be sharp on this because we need this encouragement in our lives. We need to be reminded of these things. The faith is to believe that all of the things that God has said are true. Your flesh will tell you it's true for everybody else but not for you. Your flesh will tell you God doesn't move like that anymore.

Your flesh will tell you no, no, no, that promise isn't really for you. And you have to tell yourself no in that moment and say no, this is what God says to be true. That is how through faith you inherit the promise. But the other part is really important too and that's through patience. Patient endurance. You see, this life is a lot of patient endurance. This life is

the continuation of the enduring of all of the difficulties. We're not going to escape them on this side of eternity. We're not going to reach a place on this side of eternity where everything is going to be perfect. The issue in the church today and the issue in the world today is everybody is looking for paradise on this side of eternity. We're looking for things to be perfect

on this side of eternity and they're never going to be. But we can still serve a perfect God on this side of eternity who can give us a perfect victory on this side of eternity through patient faith and endurance. And so he says through faith and patient endurance he tells us about diligence but number three he's going to tell us about the promise. Notice what he says.

For when God made the promise 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 inherited or he obtained the promise. He now uses the example of Abraham. Some of you are probably aware of who Abraham is but for those of you who aren't I'm going to give just a quick little background on exactly what he's talking about with Abraham.

Abraham was the first man that God really called by faith to do something. There was Noah but Abraham's the guy that had to make one of the biggest steps of faith. God called Abraham out of an idolatrous nation and said I want you to go to a land that I'm going to show you and when you get there I'm going to multiply you and I'm going to turn you into a great nation. There was only one problem with the promise that God made to Abraham.

Abraham and Sarah were unable to have kids. We are given the commentary in the book of Genesis that Sarah was barren, unable to have children. And yet Abraham believed God and he picked everything up he packed the BMW and he moved to the promised land. Abraham was a wealthy guy I know it was a BMW SUV that he had. Abraham packed everything up and he moved to the promised land.

And when he got there God said I'm going to give you a son in 25 years. 25 years later God kept the promise. Now when God made the promise he continued to add to the promise every single time until finally he even gave him a time frame and a name. But when God made the promise with Abraham God made a covenant with Abraham. Only the interesting thing was God required

nothing of Abraham except to believe and God swore by his own name that he would keep the promise because there was no one greater to swear by. He couldn't say I swear to I'm going to keep the promise. That's what he had to do essentially. So there was no other greater name for him to swear by so he swore by himself and then he kept the promise. And I love the commentary that we're given here

it says and so having patiently waited he obtained the promise. You go yeah but Abraham I mean that guy was the father of faith. Of course he patiently waited on God to keep the promise. Do you remember the story of Abraham? Abraham screwed up every time he turned around. Right? Abraham Abraham first of all lied about who his wife was. A famine came into the land

the land that God had told him to be. A famine is a time when there's nothing to eat. And so rather than stick around and believe that God was able to meet his needs Abraham took his wife down to Egypt. And when he got there he said listen everybody's going to want you tell everyone you're my sister. And she said done. And he got found out and he comes back to the land.

And then God makes the promise you're going to have a son. Only they can't believe it because it hasn't happened yet and it's been so long. And so Sarah says listen I think I need to help God keep the promise. And Abraham says that's a great idea. And so they take their hand made Hagar and she becomes a surrogate mother and produces Ishmael. And God says that was a bad idea.

And Abraham repents of it. And then Abraham lies about who his wife is again. Says she's my sister. And finally at the end of it all God gives Abraham a son. He faithfully endured to inherit the promise. But it wasn't perfect. Listen God is not looking for perfect faith He's just looking for faith. You're going to make mistakes sometimes. The best thing that you can do when you make mistakes

in your faith is repent of them and move on. Confess them and move on. And don't go back to that place again. Because God does not remember our failures God remembers our faith. We know that because of Hebrews chapter 11. You never read about any of Abraham's failures in the New Testament. Do you know that? At least not in the book of Hebrews. You might read about it in Acts chapter 7.

But other than that you really don't read about Abraham's failures in the New Testament. You only read about Abraham's faith. Why? Because God remembers our faith in our failures. And so he says Abraham patiently waited and he obtained the promise. And then he goes on to talk about promises just a little bit more. He said, 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 in society men when they make a promise they swear by someone greater than themselves and then they take an oath an oath usually that would indicate death if I don't keep this promise and that's an end of the dispute. I raise my hand, I swear it's true and then I take an oath to promise that it's true and then the dispute is over because of the oath that you've taken. In the days that the writer to the Hebrews is writing this we know that that was what was done.

He said, And so in the same way God desiring to show the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose interposed it with an oath so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie we who have taken refuge have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope that is set before us. He says when God made a promise he made a promise according to himself and he made an oath that by two unchangeable things his promise and an oath he might show us the unchangeableness of the promise that he has made to us. What promise did God make to us? The promise that God made to us is eternal life.

Eternal life that began the day that you got saved that carries into eternity when you leave this earth. That's the promise that God made to us. And God keeps his promises. Why is this so important for them to know? Why do they need to know this in this moment? Because everything around them said just leave God behind and come back to us and everything will be good for you

in the light of eternity. You won't face problems anymore you won't face struggles anymore you won't face persecution anymore as long as you just leave all this Jesus stuff behind and come to us. And the writer to the Hebrews says God keeps his promises. And I love the way that he describes this here. Moving on in the verse it says that by two unchangeable things

in which it is impossible for God to lie to those who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope that is set before us. That word strong encouragement is kind of interesting. Some of your translations may say strong consolation and the idea of consolation or encouragement is kind of an interesting word it's the word paraklesis. It's the same word for exhortation literally what it means is to call to one side.

To call to one side. And I love this because he says God's promises are being called to his side. Being called to his side so that he can show you that his promises are true. Have you ever thought about God's promises being like that in your life? That God's promises are like him putting his arm around you and saying let's keep going because I've got you. Let's keep going because I'm still here with you.

Because that's what a promise is. A promise says no matter what I'm not leaving you. A promise says no matter what I'm not going to let you down. I'm not leaving you because I am with you until the end of the age. And let me put my arm around you and walk with you through this time. Because that's what he wants to do in the moment. That's the word encouragement

or consolation there. Only there's another word accompanied with it and that word is strong. That word strong carries with it the idea of being surrounded by an army. And so in other words this encouragement is like an army that surrounds us to protect us from doubt. You know what that means? Doubt's the most normal thing that we go through as human beings.

Because we have to be continually reminded to not doubt. And yet God's promises stand like an army around us to protect us from doubt. I've shared with you before that one of the biggest struggles that I went through in my walk with Jesus Christ is I wasn't sure if I was saved. I didn't know if I'd done it well enough. Have I done this enough? Have I said all the right prayers?

Have I done all the right things? And you know what I was constantly reminded of in that moment? It's not about how good I am at putting my faith in God. It's about how important His promises are. It's about how powerful His promises are. And so what I had to continually do over and over again is remind myself of the promises of God. And remind myself that God is right there with me

and that those promises don't change because God doesn't change. That those promises can't be broken because God can't lie. That those promises are what God has. And those promises became strong consolation for me. That's why I think one of the greatest things that you can do is to get into God's Word for yourself and identify the promises that He has for you.

Don't get me wrong, they're all for you. But you know what I mean. Some promises speak more clearly to your soul in the moment. And as those promises speak clearly to your soul in the moment, write them down somewhere so that you can remind yourself over and over and over again. This is what's true. I'm going to believe it. It's amazing how much hope it produces in your life.

It's amazing how much it changes your outlook. It changes your mindset. It changes the way that you think. For me, it was healing in my life from the neural pathways that had been created through depression. We don't have to live in that anxiety. We don't have to live in that fear. We don't have to live in that doubt. Is it natural to us as human beings? Yes.

Does God give us a way to overcome it? Absolutely. And it's through the promises of God that surround us. What do those promises of God do? Well, it says that they help us to take hold of the hope that is before us. They help us take hold of the hope that is before us. I love this because I want you to notice how it describes us in verse 18. Let me read it to you again.

So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to love, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope that is set before us. We who have taken refuge. Refuge from the coming storm. But I want to give you the imagery that the writer to the Hebrews would be using in this moment. If you were to go all the way back into

the law in the Old Testament, you would find that when they came into the land, they were supposed to set aside these things called cities of refuge. And these cities of refuge were for those who were guilty of manslaughter not murder. In other words, if something happened and there was an accident, a work accident, a farming accident or something like that, and you were guilty of manslaughter but it was accidental, you could flee to this city of refuge so that no one would take your life until you had stood trial and then once you had stood trial and shown that you were innocent, no one could ever hold that crime against you. So that no one was more than I don't remember the number of miles, no one was more than so many miles from a city of refuge.

That way, if something happened, you could always go to that city for refuge. The only problem with those cities is that they were only good for the innocent not the guilty. Because if you were guilty and you ran to a city of refuge, you were still subject to the law. And the law would still be carried out in your life. That's where Jesus is better than the law.

Because Jesus is our greater city of refuge. Because those of us who are guilty of sin, we ran to that city of refuge. Only we didn't run to that city of refuge to stand trial to show that we were innocent. We ran to that city of refuge to declare that we were guilty. And Jesus, our high priest, said, it's okay. We've taken their punishment already. You see, the thing was,

when you went to that city of refuge, even when you were found innocent, you had to stay there until the death of the high priest. And when the high priest that was serving at that time died, you could leave and you could go free and no one could ever come after you again. Kind of interesting, isn't it? We fled to the city of refuge and we found refuge through the death of our high priest, Jesus.

Perhaps you understand what I'm talking about. You're here because you ran to Jesus for refuge. Perhaps some of you that are here this morning need to run to Jesus for refuge. You find that you are guilty and the only thing that you can do at this point in time is to run to Jesus for refuge. Admit your guilt and accept the hope that he has for you. Well, he's told us about

the confidence that we have. He's told us about the diligence that we need. He's reminded us of the promise. And now, last of all, we come to the hope. 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. He says this hope we have is an anchor. It's an anchor for our soul. And it's a steadfast and a sure anchor. We'll talk about those words in just a minute. But let's for just a moment talk about an anchor. Now I shared this story a few weeks ago but I'm going to share it with you again because I think it most perfectly illustrates what's going on here.

And I don't think you memorized my messages. I don't even memorize them. So my friends and I have a little boat. It's the smallest boat you can ever imagine. A little bit bigger than a kayak. Not much. It's a little flat bottom boat. Three of us can fit in it. We put a fourth and went in there one time and there was not room for four grown men and fishing poles in that boat.

There's room for three. So the three of us got into that boat. We got out in the middle of a really big pond and we were all sure to make sure that we remembered the anchor. Because an anchor is really important. Because when you're out fishing and you find a spot where the fish are, you've got an anchor there so that you can keep hitting that hole. Like it's really important in that moment.

And so we find the spot. We throw in the anchor. Here's the thing about anchors. If anchors are not tied to boats they keep doing their job. An anchor is always going to do its job. An anchor is always going to hold. The question is will it hold your boat? The only way you can answer that question is to tie the anchor to the boat. We did not. One of us failed to tie the anchor to the boat

and that anchor is currently still doing its job at the bottom of a pond somewhere just outside of Winfield. That anchor is still there undoubtedly holding strong. He says this hope that we have is an anchor for the soul. That anchor is only good if it's tied to your soul. Hope is only good if it's hope that you have in Jesus. The hope that you have can't be for somebody else.

Well I have hope that God's going to take care of them. Well that's great. What about you? Is that hope an anchor for your soul? Because that's the only way it will do you any good is if that hope is tied firmly to your soul. But if it's tied firmly to your soul you will find that no matter how much the water wants to pull you away you will stand firm because hope

is holding you down. And that's what he says this hope is for us. This hope that comes from a sure promise. This hope that comes about through our diligence. This hope that comes from the confidence that we have in God. This hope is an anchor for the soul. And this hope does two things for us. It says that it is sure and that it is steadfast. That word sure in the Greek is very interesting.

Something that will not totter when put to the test. Something that will not totter when put to the test. In other words you can put this to the test and it will always hold up to the test. And can I tell you that ever since hope has been introduced into the world which has been since sin was introduced into the world this hope has always stood sure. This hope has always

stood the test and has not tottered. And you can find sure hope in Jesus Christ. It's defined as a second thing not only is it sure but it is steadfast. It is steadfast. That word steadfast means will not break down under the weight. It will not break down under the weight. Listen, the world is a weighty place right now. There are weighty things in the world

and it feels like it's going to break. It feels like sometimes that weight will break the hope. And yet God's hope continues to be steadfast no matter how heavy of a weight that we put on it. Because this hope that we have as an anchor for the soul is both sure and steadfast. Why? Because this hope is one that has entered within the veil. Remember again I'll

present to you the way that the temple was set up at that point in time. You had the outer court where anyone could go. You had the inner court where only Jewish men could go. You had the holy place where only the priests could go. The holy place from the most holy place where the ark of the covenant was was a thick veil and the only people that could go in there was the high priest and that

was only once a year. And yet this hope that we have has entered the veil. What does it mean by that? It means it has gone past the substance and into the heavenly reality. It has gone past the shadow I mean of the law. It has gone into the heavenly reality. And so we this hope that we have is not a shadow of what's to come. It's the reality of what already has been.

The reality of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. How do we know that? Because notice what it says next in verse 20. Where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us. Where Jesus has gone before us. How do we know that we have hope? Because Jesus has gone before us and showed us the way of hope. He showed us the way of hope in that he took our sin upon

himself on the cross and he showed us the way of hope when he was resurrected from the dead. And we are reminded our hope is in Jesus Christ because he has gone before us. So brothers and sisters we should pay attention to the warnings that are in front of us. We should pay attention to those warnings that we face but don't let those warnings rob you of your confidence.

Don't let those warnings rob you of your hope because at the end of the day our confidence is found in God and our hope is found in his promises. So continue to be diligent. But I have a question for you this morning. A question that I think we all have to continue to answer for ourselves. What's your anchor? What is it that you feel like is anchoring your soul? You see

even as believers sometimes we can begin to use the wrong anchor. As believers sometimes we can begin to find our anchor in the good works that we do. What makes you a good person? Well you know I read my Bible every day and I attend church every Sunday. That's great but that's not your hope. That's great but that won't save you. It won't even keep you saved.

What's your anchor? Well my anchor is in the fact that I have a really good family. That's great but that won't save you. And as believers in Jesus Christ we have to maintain that the hope is in the finished work of Jesus Christ, the substance not the shadow of the other things that we do. So if you're here this morning and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, what's your hope in?

Is your hope that you're going to hopefully be a good enough person? Is your hope that hopefully you're going to stand before God and he's going to be okay with you? Is your hope that maybe you'll never have to truly face the God because maybe you don't even really believe in God? What's your hope in this morning? Because if your hope is not in Jesus Christ, then can I

just be really bold and say that you are absolutely hopeless. And you have no anchor for your soul. Which is probably why you're tossed about by your feelings and your emotions all the time. Which is probably why you're tossed about by fear constantly. And you're constantly going I just don't know what I'm going to do with my life. I don't know what I would do if I was called home

today. Can I just tell you that today's the day to put your faith in Jesus. Today is the day to make sure that that hope is steady. And it's as simple as believing. It's as simple as crying out to Jesus and running to him for refuge and saying, Lord, I know that I'm a sinner. Lord, I need you to be my Savior. And in that moment that you run to him for refuge, he

becomes the place of hope and promise and security for you. Amen? Let's all stand. I want to encourage you. That as the worship team comes up to share this last song, that you allow the Holy Spirit to do the work that only the Holy Spirit can do in you as he continues to move through this place this morning. And I'll remind all of you moms, go see the ushers

afterwards. We've got a little love for you. And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come to you now. And Lord, I praise you for who you are. I praise you for being the God who loves us. I praise you for being the God who loves us. I praise you for being the God who is the anchor for our soul. And Lord, in a world that is constantly changing, in a world that is constantly tossed about,

you are steady. You are steadfast and you are sure. And so, Lord, may we find our hope in you today. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

God, we just thank you for another day. And thank you for your word this morning. Lord, it is sharp and powerful. And Lord God, may it bring us to maturity. Lord, may it bring us closer to you, Lord God. Our hope for our soul. We love you, Lord, and we praise you. In Jesus' name. Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. Happy Mother's Day.