Anchored

[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Message podcast of High Ridge Church, Longview, where our vision is to help you know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here, and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's word in practical ways. [00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's listen in. Good morning to all of our friends watching online. From Africa to Alabama to Abilene, there's a lot of places where they. How about Sabine? Welcome in from Sabine. All of you, come on High Rise Family. Give them a big, warm round of applause. Welcome to church. I'm glad that you can make it. For those of you that are sick, we're believing that, hey, today is a day of healing for you. We believe as God's word is spoken over your life, that God's power, God's healing is going to be yours as well. We thank you for tuning in. If you like what you're seeing, go ahead and hit that share button. It means a lot to us when you do that. Let us know where you're watching from. It's always good to connect. We've also spent a lot of time and some of your generosity has been going out to make your online experience better. So I wanted to say thank you for being a very, very generous church because there are a lot of people on the other end of that camera that may not have a church to go to, that may be in a place where they're. They're not able to physically get up and go to a church. And so we're able to bring a little bit of Jesus, a little bit of community right to where you are. So it's such a privilege, such a joy that you've tuned in today. Thank you so much for being a part of that. We want to welcome you in. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for watching us. Grab your Bibles, if you would. Hebrews chapter six is where we're going to spend the majority of our time today. Hebrews chapter six. I want to say congratulations to all of our Eagles fans. You got your world championship ring and we are going to pray for your salvation soon, soon and very soon. I want to say a very, very sorry to all of our Chiefs fans who had to suffer through that. Now you know what the Cowboys feel like. Welcome to disappointment. No, no, no, it's. I just watched it for the commercials. I was actually on a flight. We were flying into Florida, and the guy next to me was watching the super bowl on his iPad and I just looked over it once in a while. Like, no, I'm not. I can't do it. I can't do it. But I do have. I want to show you this. I do have two world championship rings that I want to show you today. Yes. How about that? Let you know your boy's a winner. So these are my world championship rings. Are they fantasy football championship rings? Yes, they are. Did I buy them on Amazon for $12 and present them to myself also? Yeah. But if my cowboys can't win, I'll just want you to know that I'm winning on their behalf. So I am one more and I will have a dynasty going. It's about to be the Ingram dynasty. This is our high rich pastors fantasy football league. And your boy reigns supreme once again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. I am considered the Jimmy Johnson of fantasy football. Timmy Johnson is my. No, I'm just kidding. And today's message is about pride. So we're gonna be. Has nothing to do with our message. I just want you to know that I. I'm a winner. Once again. No. Hebrews chapter six. Hebrews chapter six. We find the writer riding to a group of people that are scared, riding through some people that are walking through a difficult situation. And in this we find some great comfort that we can still use today as God speaks to his people that are walking through a difficult season. Here's what we know. Either you've just walked out of a difficult season, you in the middle of a difficult season, or you're about to walk into a difficult season. Either way, that is life. Life has ups and downs. And there are times in life where you need to understand, what do I hang onto when life gets crazy? You need to know that. I think if we were to go around the room and ask ourselves, to be honest today, what we really hang onto when life gets crazy? I think a lot of us would be very embarrassed and ashamed of ourselves because the things that we reach out for and hang onto when life gets crazy are generally not very healthy, tend to be very unbiblical, and tend to produce even worse things than what we're actually walking through. We find ourselves making bad decisions in unstable times. Come on, somebody. I know I'm preaching to more than just myself. But God's word in Hebrews chapter six tells us what to do. It gives us hope in the midst of unstable times. So let's pick this up. In verse 13, it says, When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by God, Swore by himself, by the way, for those of us that are raised in a house where you say, you teach your kids, you can't say swear to God. Remember that. I just want to say to my mother, who's watching right now, God himself swore by himself. So I need you to take back that spanking for saying that when I was 4, not that I have any unprocessed trauma, but God swore to God. It says this. God swore by himself, saying, I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. Now he's speaking to a man that was almost 100 years old. But God made him a promise even in his own. In his old age, I'm going to bless you. I'm going to give you descendants. And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. Our God still makes promises to his people today. And God's promises are still good. It goes on to explain it this way. People swear by someone greater than themselves. And the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Like when I swore, I made an oath like that should stop the argument. Like, I mean it. I'm serious. I swear. It says it puts an end to all argument. And because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God saying, I want to be very, very clear with you. One of the things that we say in our culture is that clarity is kindness. One of the kindest things you can do to people is be very clear. This is what I mean. This is what I'm seeing. Let me make sure that you understand me. And God says, I want to make sure that you understand me, that I'm very, very clear. I'm going to make you a promise. I'm going to confirm it with an oath. I'm going to swear by myself so that you'll know I'm being very clear with you. I am going to bless you. That's a good promise to receive from the Lord. Come on, somebody. God swears it by himself, confirms it with an oath. Now it tells us why God did this. So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, and we who have fled. I want you to pay attention to those four words, we who have fled. Notice the writer is not saying that it's you guys that ran away. Y'all are the ones being scared. No, it's us. We're on the run. We've been chased out of our homes. We've been persecuted for following after Christ. We're not in a good place right now. We're running scared. But it said, God made a promise to us. And if Abraham received the promise that God made, we're gonna receive the promises that God gave to us. Even if we've had to be on the run, even if we're afraid, even if these are unstable times. We who have fled. He says we take hold of the hope set before us so that we can be greatly encouraged in the midst of having to run, in the midst of being afraid, he said, we can find encouragement and the hope of what God said. And then it finishes off by saying it this way. We have this hope as an anchor for our soul, firm and secure. I want you to think about your soul for just a moment. We would describe that as your mind, your will and your emotions. How you think, how you feel, what you want, how you process. It says you need an anchor for that. Because when times get unstable, your soul, your mind, your will, your emotions get out of whack. And it says, we have an anchor for our souls. That children of the most high God ought to be able to walk through unstable times and find stability in the midst of the chaos. We got to operate differently than the rest of the world. We got to be able to hang on to some things in the midst of times where we're afraid. Now, I can't help but look at this scripture and think about a football coach that's speaking to a team that's afraid, that's been beaten up a little bit, saying, you know, they had us in the first half and they're probably going to get us in the second half, too. And I say that because I came from a high school football team that was God awful. I mean, bad. In the four years that I played high school football, I mean, we had blood, sweat, and tears. We tried. We just didn't have a lot of talent. And when every play has to be like trick plays, you know, you don't have a very good game plan. Like, we had bad coaches, bad players. We had good uniforms. We looked really good. I remember there was one game where we were so bad, we started fighting ourselves. Our team got in a fight versus each other. How does that even happen? There was another game. I remember we were getting blown out 60 to nothing at the half. I remember sitting in the locker room, like, we're just. We're tired and we're beat up, like, this is not good. And I remember our coach comes in. He comes storming into the room. And then I Could see the thought process of his mind. Like, what do I say? What do you say? Like, do you yell at them? Will that make it feel better? Do you. Do you praise them? Do you. Do you pray for them? What do we do? And he just stood there like this. He's looking at us. We're looking at him like, say something. He said, well, we look good. Our uniforms are amazing. We're all wearing the same color. We look good like this. What do you say to people that just get blown out? Like, what do you say? And the writer of Hebrews here is speaking to some people who are afraid, and he says, we have hope as an anchor for our soul. We have a promise from God. We have something that can bring stability in unstable times. Here's what we know about anchors there. Anchors are things that you can't see them, but you can feel them bringing stability. I can't see it, it's underneath the water, but I can feel it bringing stability. Let me ask you once again. What do you hang onto to bring you stability in unstable times? Is it a person? Is it your bank account? Is it your job? Like, what do you reach out for when things aren't working well? And how's it working for you? As the famous theologian Dr. Phil would say, how's that working for you? God's word gives us a different perspective. It says we have hope as an anchor in the fact that God makes promises and he confirmed it with an oath so that we who have fled can find great hope for our souls. It says it's an anchor for us. You know, anchors do several things. They keep us from losing progress in the midst of a storm, because if you don't have an anchor, you're just going to get blown to wherever the wind's blowing you. But anchors have a way of keeping us stable and helping us to avoid shipwreck. I found that lots of people don't mess up their lives when everything's going good. It's when pressure begins to mount up. When things start going wrong, we start making really stupid decisions. We find ourselves shipwrecked. We've lost progress. All the things that we worked for to try to build our life upon something stable, we watch it crumble because we don't know how to hang on to the promises of God. We don't know how to hang on to the word of God. Don't know how to hang on to the hope of God. I want to show you a little bit how to do that a little bit better today. According to what the writer is saying here in Hebrews, I want to give us three anchors for God's people, three anchors that sons and daughters should have. As we're walking through unstable times, things that can bring us hope. You may not be able to see it, but you can feel it bringing stability when you're walking through some stuff. Is that. Okay, everybody, here's the first of three things I want to share with you. Number one, here's what we know, that we're anchored in the purposes of God. We're anchored in the purposes of God. It says this, that God wanted to make his purpose very clear. And I believe that God has done that. I believe that when you walk out into nature, you're going to see something very, very clear. And here's what comes to me in my mind. This is not an accident. This didn't just happen. But it's very clear that there is a designer. It's very clear that as I look on creation, that that means there's a creator, that this whole thing is not some accident, but God designed this on purpose, for a purpose. And I understand his nature as a designer, as a creator. He makes it very clear that everything that I see is not an accident. Please hear me, including myself. He says, God wanted to make the unchanging nature. God wanted to make his nature very clear to us. So he confirms it. He shows us in a way that anybody can understand. It screams, there's a designer. There's. There's a. There's a Creator. There is a God. And if there is a God that made all this, guess what? He made me. And I can anchor myself in the fact that there is a God and there is purpose for my. I want you to see something that I think is really important for us to understand because there's some bad theology around our purpose as sons and daughters of God. I want you to see this, and I'll just put it on the screen, that God's purpose for my life, please hear me, is progress, not perfection. Because what happens when unstable times tend to happen? We'll look at our lives like, man, I'm messed up because my life is messed up. But if the goal is not perfection, but the goal is progress, then that changes everything. It relieves a lot of pressure on me. The goal is not to be perfect. The goal. The goal is to learn, to be teachable. What am I learning through this? God himself begins to show how we can learn through anything that life throws at us. We can grow in our relationship with him and our trust for him. The goal is progress, not perfection. We find that in the verse. In verse one of this chapter, it says, therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to somebody say the next word, maturity. Now, no one in the. In the history of ever has ever used the word maturity to describe me. I am not. I'm not that person. But what I can do is look back at my life and say, I'm not the same as I was. I have learned, I have grown. The Lord has taught me some things. Who I used to be is not who I am. I'm learning, I'm growing. I can see God's purposes in my life to mature me. And some of us would say falsely, I think that, well, because I'm older, I'm more mature than you. That's not true. As a matter of fact, let me say it this way. Age happens automatically. Maturity doesn't. I've known some people that are old and crusty, not mature. Just because you're old does not make you mature. The question is, no matter how old you are, no matter how much life that you've seen, have you learned? Has God been able to show you some things? Have you been able to step into those things? Say, lord, teach me. In the midst of my pain, in the midst of what's happening in my life, am I learning something? Am I growing in it? Lord, what are you saying? And if we can press into what God is saying, in the midst of our circumstances, we can find maturity. We can start to learn, we can start to grow. And by the way, that brings me a lot of stability. That brings me an anchor for my soul that I'm learning through this. It's not for nothing it takes pressure off my life. As I look around my family, if we might be walking through something and say, man, my family's messed up. We don't have it all worked out because it's easy for us to walk into a church on Sunday morning and say, I'm surrounded by a bunch of perfect people. You guys got it all worked out. And I'm the only one to hear this messed up. Not true, not true. There's no such thing as a perfect family. And by the way, there was only one perfect person that ever walked this planet. And he did it so well, we named all of it, all of Christianity, after him. The good news is that Christ was perfect enough for me. That takes a lot of pressure off of me in the midst of unstable times, is I don't have to be perfect. And I can look at my family and simply say this. We don't have to pretend to have it all together. Please hear me. I don't gotta pretend. This church is the one place where it's okay to not be okay. It's not a good situation, but I recognize that the Lord is good, that there's purpose in my pain. We can anchor ourselves in the purposes of God. So the question isn't really, am I perfect? Are we perfect? The question is, am I learning? Am I growing? And that's where real stability comes from. If I can let the Lord teach me in the midst of my situation, is that, okay, everybody, here's the second thing that we see that can bring us hope and stability in unstable times, that we can anchor ourselves in the promises of God. There is purpose in the midst of it. There's also promises that God makes his people that can bring us stability in unstable times. It says God confirmed it with an oath and it's impossible for God to lie. And it says, when God says this, it should put an end to all argument. Now, in unstable times, I found that generally I've got a lot of arguments going on. Now, in my maturity, those arguments are never with other people. My arguments are wrapping up right here. It's right here. When life is a mess, when things aren't going like I want it to go. I'm just sitting here and just. And just gets worse and worse. I will find myself worried about things that could not even possibly happen. But in my mind, not only have they already happened, but they're worse than I ever imagined. And I'm dealing with the anxiety of things that never even happen and probably won't. Where my overthinkers at? Where are we at? We will find ourselves completely lost in our mind because. Because things aren't perfect. How do I fix it? Whose fault is it? Who can I blame? Who do I need to yell at? What do I need to fix? What can I buy? Who do I need to talk to? And all these different things start happening inside of my mind. And it says, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait. In the midst of unstable times, what do we go back to? God makes promises, and it should put an end to all that that's happening inside of your head. It should bring me hope, it should bring me stability. It should bring peace to my mind. So it's important that we recognize how God makes promises, not just to Abraham, and not just to the people that are walking out. Hebrews, chapter six. In the New Testament, God makes promises to us. He makes promises to his children. And there's some things that you need to know. God promises he's not going to leave you. That's kind of a big deal. God promises he will not forsake us. As a matter of fact, he says, though your father and your mother forsake you, I will not forsake you. Those that are. Those that are your parents, those that are supposed to take care of you for the rest of your life and those you're supposed to take care of. He says, even if those people that are closest to you should forsake you, God said, that ain't me. God promises also in multiple scriptures, that he would provide for you. That's kind of a big deal in some unstable times, that God, you're my provider. Now, let's be honest. Most of us want God to provide all that. We want that Santa Claus, something different. God says, I'm gonna provide what you. Come on, somebody, what you need. He is Jehovah Jireh. He named himself Jehovah Jireh, the God that sees and provides for his people. Your God is a good God. He's a good father, and he provides for his kids. God is not some deadbeat dad. He's a good father. And it says we can hang on to the promises that God will not leave me, will not forsake me, that he will always provide for me. Here's another one. God promises heaven. Here's the bad news. He doesn't promise heaven on earth. He promises that heaven is gonna happen when I get out of here. This is not heaven. There's gonna be down times. There's gonna be hard days. This is not heaven. But he does make me a promise that heaven's coming for those that have trusted Christ with their eternity. And I hang on to that promise that even though today might not look good, this isn't the end. His Word also promises me that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. His Word promises me that it might be here, but it also comes to pass. It won't last forever. There is hope for tomorrow. And it should bring a little bit of stability inside of my mind. It says God. God swore by himself, because there was nothing greater to swear by. God promised. He swore. He confirmed it with an oath. He said, I will surely bless you and let that bring stability. Let that bring you hope in the midst of unstable times. So God makes promises in his word backed up by his goodness. That's the guarantee, the fact that he's good. God makes promises backed up by His Goodness. And he's promising here people that were persecuted and scared, people that were on the run. If you were to make promises to people that were scared, that were depending on you, and you didn't come through on those promises, you'd be cruel. But that's not our God. He's speaking to some people that this is all they got. They needed real help. He's saying, I want you to trust my word. I will take care of you and let it put an end to all argument. Let it bring peace and stability to your situation. So there's something that's kind of crept into our theology and that simply says that Christians can't ever had a bad day. Christians can't ever walk through a bad situation. There's nothing bad because we have Christ in our heart. So everything is good. That's not true. Christians can't experience pain. What are you talking about? Like, no, no, no, no, no. Just understand, we're going to walk through a lot of stuff. That doesn't mean you're not saved, means you're living in a fallen world. We're going to have bad days, we're going to make mistakes, we're going to lose it. That doesn't mean that God's not still good. God makes promises backed up by his goodness so that we can say, look, my situation doesn't have to be good for me to know that God is still good and for me to know that in spite of what I'm walking through, God can still bring something good out of it. We know this by the way, from Romans, chapter 8. That tells us in all things, God works for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. That's an important scripture for you to know. If you've never heard that scripture, you might want to take a screenshot of that, because you're going to need it. Come on, somebody that's been walking with God for more than five minutes. No, this is an important scripture. This is one of the big ones. It says, we know this, we know this. This is something that we ought to know as believers. We ought to have it imprinted at the foundational level of our theology. I know this, that in all things, not just the good ones, but the bad ones too. What can God do? He can work this together for my good. My job is just to love him and to recognize that he is my provider. He's my strength. He's my source. He's the one taking care of this. He's going to work out something good from A bad situation. What does that tell me? Very quickly it tells me this, please hear me. God doesn't waste pain. Oh, that's good for somebody to know. He doesn't waste pain. It's not pointless. There's purpose in it. And God promises his people that I will take this pain and I will work something good out of it for you. It's productive. That's something good for us to know. Now, for those of you that know me, you know that there's something that I'm addicted to that I am not wanting. Deliverance at all. And that's coffee. Don't pray for me to be delivered. I don't want it. I love it. I think coffee is a beautiful part of life. I love it. I do. It is the Christian beer and I enjoy it. But you know, coffee has some. Coffee has some. Some processes it has to walk through before it's drinkable. And if you just walk over and grab a handful of coffee beans and throw. You throw them in your mouth, we're going to lock you up. Because that is not good. It's not good. If you're munching on a coffee filter for a snack like that. That's. That's not a thing. If you like to guzzle hot water, you will be in a hospital. Don't do that. But you take those three things and put them together, add a little bit of pressure, now you got something beautiful. So there are multiple things in my life that are not good. But God says, we know that in all these things, God works them together for my good. Is that okay, everybody? Can you receive that? The situation does not have to be good for God to use it for my good. It doesn't make me any less of a believer to say this is not good. That doesn't mean you don't have faith. The faith come is the faith comes in on the side where you say it's not good, but God is going to do something. And I can anchor myself in the simple fact that God promises me he's going to work this out for my good. That's a promise. And you can take it to the bank. The situation isn't good, but my God is. And he has good plans for me. He's going to redeem this because God doesn't waste pain. Here's the third and final thing I want to show you when it comes to anchors for our soul in unstable times. Number three. I can anchor myself in the praises of God. And this is where I think a lot of believers have forgotten the Power of your praise. Because we tend to praise God when things are good, or we tend to praise God in the company of other people because that's just what you do. And it tends to become like the 20 minutes or 30 minutes before somebody brings a message on Sunday morning. That's our time of praise. So I'm gonna do my thing because it's kind of like, check the box. This is what you do. That's not praise. That's a concert, that's a talent show. That might be a sing along, but that's not praise. We can anchor ourselves in the praises of God in unstable times. So the writer here in Hebrews 6 says, look, when God makes promises and when God shows you his purpose, when he makes that very clear to you, what are you supposed to be? He said, you're supposed to have hope and you're supposed to be greatly encouraged. Why? Because God guarantees it. So I don't know about you, but when I'm walking through something and God gives me a guarantee with an oath, with a promise, when he says, this is going to bring you a lot of hope and I have some hope starting to bring me stable, and he says, now you're going to be greatly encouraged, I find some encouragement. My next response ought to be to say, thank you. Thank you, Lord. Noticing he's speaking also to people who haven't seen the end of the promise yet. They've not received anything to praise God about. He's speaking to people that have fled. He's saying, be encouraged. You've got some hope. It's gonna be okay. God made himself a promise and he made you a promise. He confirmed it over and over and over again. To be very clear to you now, your response is to start praising him on the front end. That's some great news for us that are walking through some difficult times that I can start praising God even when the breakthrough hasn't come yet and find stability for my soul as I begin to praise God like it's already happened, because I know it will happen, I can praise God on the front end. We know this, that multiple people in scripture, Old Testament, New Testament, found themselves praising God in horrible times before the breakthrough even happened. They just started praising God. And it's something that we've forgotten about. King David himself being on the run, having to lose his family, finding himself in the midst of having to depend on the promise that he would be king. But it sure doesn't feel like it today on the backside of some mountain, on the run from my crazy boss as he's walking through multiple issues with his family and with his job, with his marriage, with his career, with his finances, we find him in Psalm 42 writing this. Why my soul are you so downcast? Why am I depressed? He said. Why is it so disturbed inside of me? My mind, my will and my emotions. I'm walking through depression. I'm walking through a time that's disturbing. Why is it like this? What am I going to do? He said, I'm going to put my hope in God. I'm going to start praising him. He's recognized that there is something important that happens inside of each of our souls, our mind, our will, our emotions. When we're walking through unstable times, if we can anchor ourselves to the fact that. I'm going to praise God in the midst of my pain, I'm going to praise God in the midst of my darkness. I'm going to praise him. When all I've got is a promise. I'm going to praise God like it's already been fulfilled, filled. There's something wonderful that happens. Paul and Silas sitting in the middle of a jail cell after being beaten within an inch of their life. What have you got to praise God about? You just got beat up and they're locked in prison, chained to one another, bleeding and bruised. And the scripture says in long about midnight, when everybody else should be asleep, like it's too painful to rest, it's too painful to sleep. I can't get comfortable. What are we going to do? Let's start praising God. And the simple fact that they began to praise God from the middle of a prison stirs the heart of God. Scripture records it that the walls began to shake, that chains begin to fall off when they began to praise. Let me just remind you of this very simple fact. When I start praising, burdens start lifting and I can anchor myself in the praises of God in the midst of unstable times. Can you. Can you imagine what. What your life might look like if your response to an unstable time was praise? That's not normal for me. It's probably not normal for a lot of us. But to praise God in expectation of what's about to happen. I think most of us have the prayer part worked down. We can talk to God, tell him what you need. That's a beautiful thing. But here's another key. Start praising him before he gives it. Start praising him before the wall starts shaking, before the chains start falling off, before the depression lifts, before anything changes. I'm going to praise God like the victory is already there. We find this in Isaiah chapter 42. I want you to see this. He says, this, Isaiah 54. It says, Sing, barren woman, you who have never born a child. How cruel is that to tell someone who's walking through that kind of pain? Start singing. Start singing. Ha ha ha ha. No, it's singing prophetically because God has made her a promise that he's going to give her descendants in the middle of her barrenness. That's something we need to take home and chew on that for a little bit today. That's a good word. Sing. Barren woman, you who have never bore a child, burst into song, shout for joy. I don't know about you, but in unstable times. I may be shouting, but it ain't for joy. No. He says, flip that. Start shouting for joy in the midst of your circumstances. Then it says this. I want you to enlarge the place of your tent. Stretch your tent, curtains wide. Don't hold back. He says, start building the baby's room because God's made a promise. Start adding on your house is too small. Well, how do I know this is going to happen? Because God made a promise and he confirmed it with his goodness. He made you an oath he swore by himself. There's nothing greater to swear by. Take him at his word. Begin to praise him on the front end because you realize God's word is good. And if God says it, he will accomplish it. He said, stretch out your tit. Don't hold back, for you will spread out. Your descendants will dispossess nations. He's singing to someone walking through some junk, and he's saying, start singing. Start praising. Start believing God. Start shouting for joy like it's already happened. He says, start prophesying to the sand. Start singing to the sand. There's not much here. It's barren. It looks bad. I may not even feel it. But in the midst of what I'm walking through, I'm going to start praising God like the breakthrough has already happened and my burdens start lifting. I find stability for my soul then it keeps me from getting shipwrecked and losing progress. It keeps me from getting thrown on the rocks. I can find stability in unstable times because there's an anchor for my soul. I can find it in the promises of God. I can find it in the purpose of God. And I can find it when I start praising my God. I found this to be true, that praising God on the front end shows God that. It shows him that I trust him with what he's about to do next. Come on somebody that's good news for us who believe. As we finish up today, I want to invite you to go ahead and bow your head and close your eyes. And for those of you watching online, if you feel like this is an encouraging message that you believe our world needs to hear, do us a huge favor, click the share button. It means a lot when you do that. And as we bow our head and close our eyes today, I want to just give you a chance to respond to what the Holy Spirit might be saying to you. We need some encouragement today. I believe there are a lot of people watching this today that just need a little bit of hope to hang on to. God's word brings hope. God's promise brings hope. There's purpose in the midst of your pain. You may be walking through a difficult situation right now, but God, he's working in the middle of it, if you'll let him. If you call yourself a son or a daughter of God, he's not left you. He's not forsaking you. He's not forgotten about you. Let's anchor ourselves in His Word. With heads bowed and eyes closed. I want to invite you to open up your hands before the Lord would just maybe place your hands on your knees right where you are as a sign of being open and submitted to the Lord. And I want you to pray a three word prayer that believers have been praying since like the 4th century. A timeless prayer, powerful prayer. And the prayer is this. Holy Spirit, come. Would you say that with me right where you are. Holy Spirit, come. We invite you, Holy Spirit, to come help us, strengthen us. Begin to move, Lord, have your way. Oh God, we trust you. We trust you. I want to invite you to just speak that over your circumstances right now. Speak that to your father. Lord, I trust you. I trust you. Come on, say it like you mean it today. I trust you, Lord. Say it like you believe it today. I trust you, Lord. Lord, I praise you in advance of the breakthrough that's gonna happen. I praise you on the front end, Lord. I have a preemptive praise. I'm gonna praise you right now even though it doesn't look great, even though I'm scared, even though I may be on the run, even though situations are not working out like I thought they would work out. Lord, I'm gonna start praising you in advance because you're good and your mercy endures forever. You've always taken care of me and I know that you always will. Will. I'm gonna praise you, God, even when I don't feel like it. I'm gonna praise you because you're worthy. Father, would you strengthen and encourage my friends today? Would you bless them? Would you minister to their needs? Would you help those that need help? Would you let them leave this place? Encouraged and strengthened in the faith in Jesus name and with every head bowed and every eye closed, maybe you're here today or watching online. You're saying, pastor, I need a relationship with Jesus. I need that. I need that anchor for my soul. I need that. Maybe, like me, you were even raised in church and you've gotten away from God. You're saying, pastor, I need to come home today. My friend, you are in the right place. God led you here for this moment. I believe if you could see it right now, God himself is reaching down his hand to you saying, come home. Come home to me. And if that's you with heads bowed and eyes closed, I want to lead you in a prayer so we can make that happen where you don't miss this moment. So with heads bowed and eyes closed, would you pray with me right where you are? Pray this, Say, Jesus, I believe you're the son of God. I believe that you came and died for me. I believe you rose from the grave for me so that I could have life and forgiveness for my sins. I've messed up. I need your forgiveness. Will you please forgive me now? Pray this, my friend, Say, jesus, I give my life to you. Right now. I'm all in. Use me for your glory in Jesus name with heads bowed and eyes closed. If that was you, just those of you who prayed that prayer, not ashamed or afraid to admit it, I'm not gonna embarrass you in any way. But if you pray that prayer, would you look up at me from wherever you are and slip up your hand, say, I did, Pastor, I prayed that prayer with you. That was me. Good. I see you. Good. Good. Several of you across this place, perhaps you're watching online. And that was you as well. I'll tell you what, if you prayed that prayer, there's a phone number appearing on the screen in front of you. There's a phone number appearing on the screen behind me. I want to invite you to text me if you pray that prayer. Text the words I prayed to that number on the screen. What I'm going to do is send you back the link to some things that I've prepared just for you. They'll help you to understand what just happened and will help you know what to do next. And I'm proud of you. Good for you. Text me if you would. That's a big deal. And high rise family. Go ahead and look up at me if you would. Then let's stand to our feet together. I'm going to invite our elders and their wives forward. As the church finishes up today, these guys are going to stay right here in front of this platform to be available to pray for you about anything that you might need prayer for. We would love to pray for you. Good for you, good for you. And then for everybody else, I'm going to bless you today and I'm just going to give you my best blessing and believe that God is going to absolutely change things for the better for you and for your family this week. Can you receive that everybody? Is that okay? Let me pray for you, Father. Would you bless my friends with an incredible week following after you hearing your voice being led by your spirit, would you change their finances, help their families? Lord, Would you remove distractions and help them to follow you in Jesus mighty name and all of us said together. Amen. God bless you as you go. I hope you have an awesome week. [00:38:15] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening in today. Our prayer is that you are encouraged and strengthened by the message. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review wherever you're listening. If you want to be a part of our online community, connect with us through Facebook or Instagram with the handle hyridgelv or you can check out our [email protected] lastly, if this ministry has impacted your life and you'd like to support its work, visit highridgelv.com give we appreciate your support and we're believing with you today for God's best in your life. Have an incredible week and we will see you next time.