Anchored to Hope | Joel Osteen

Well, God bless you. It's a joy to come into your homes, and if you're ever in our area, please stop by and be a part of one of our services. I promise you, we'll make you feel right at home. I'd like to start with something funny, and I heard about this new police recruit. He was taking his final exam, and he was in front of a large classroom. The sergeant asked him, what would you do if you had to arrest your own mother-in-law? Without missing a beat, he said, call for backup. Say it like you mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today, I will be taught the Word of God. I boldly confess my mind is alert. My heart is receptive. I will never be the same. In Jesus' name, God bless you. I want to talk to you today about anchored to hope. An anchor is something that holds a boat in place. Once the captain arrives at his destination, he puts the anchor down. That way, he won't drift and end up in places that he doesn't want to be. When the boat is anchored, it may move a little bit with the waves, the wind, but the captain is not worried. He can relax. He knows the anchor is down. The Scripture tells us hope is the anchor of our soul. What's going to keep your soul in the right place? What's going to cause you to overcome obstacles, reach your dreams, is when you are anchored to hope. That means no matter what you face, no matter how big the difficulty, no matter how long it's taking, you know God is still on the throne. You know His plans for you are for good, that He's bigger than any challenge. When you're anchored to this hope, nothing moves you. The winds, the waves, the storms may come. You're not worried. You have your anchor down. You receive a bad medical report. A lot of people would be upset, negative. Not you. You're anchored to hope. I know God is restoring health back into me. You go through a loss, a disappointment. Your emotions are pulling you toward discouragement, toward bitterness, but something's holding you back. You can't explain it, but down in here you hear a voice saying, everything's going to be all right. God has beauty for these ashes. That's the anchor of hope. Or maybe your dream looks impossible. Every voice tells you, it's not going to work out. Forget it. You're wasting your time. Most people would throw in the towel, but your attitude is, I may not see a way, but I know God has a way. I know He's opening doors no man can shut. When you're anchored to hope, God will make things happen that you could never make happen. But I've learned there's always something trying to convince us to pull up our anchor. Delays, disappointments, bad breaks. In the

tough times when life doesn't seem fair, when your prayers weren't answered, when it's taken longer than you thought, you have to make sure to keep your anchor down. If you pull it up, you'll drift into bitterness, discouragement, self-pity. When you're anchored to hope, it's like you're tied to it. You can't go very far. You may have some negative thoughts, thoughts of doubt saying, well, it's never going to work out, but your faith will kick in. No, I know the answer's on the way. On paper, it looks like it'll take 30 years to get out of debt. You could accept it, but because you're anchored to hope, something in you says, no, I know God can accelerate it. I know He has explosive blessings coming my way. Or perhaps your children are off course. Doesn't look like they'll ever change. You should be discouraged, but you're tied to hope. Every time those negative thoughts come trying to pull you away, your anchor kicks in. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. My question today is, do you have your anchor down? Do you have this hope, this expectancy that you're going to accomplish your dreams, that you're going to break the addiction, that you're going to see your family restored? Or have you pulled up your anchor and drifted into doubt, mediocrity, not expecting anything good? I'm asking you to put your anchor back down. The scripture says, faith is the substance of things hoped for. You can't have faith if you don't first have hope. One time David had a lot coming against him. He was down and discouraged. He felt overwhelmed by life. He'd given up on his dreams. Everything kept getting worse and worse. He finally said to himself, Why are you cast down, O my soul? Hope in the Lord. He recognized he'd let his circumstances convince him to pull up his anchor. He said, in effect, I'm going to put my anchor back down. I'm going to hope in the Lord. You may not have any reason in the natural to be hopeful. Doesn't look like you'll get well,

meet the right person, start your business. You have to do like David and hope in the Lord. Don't put your hope in your circumstances. They may not turn out the way you thought. Don't put your hope in people. They may let you down. Don't put your hope in your career. Things may change. Put your hope in the Lord, in the God who spoke worlds into existence, in the God who flung stars into space. When you have your hope in Him, the scripture says you will never be disappointed. And sure, you may go through some temporary setbacks. Life will happen, but when it's all said and done, you'll come out better than you were before. This is what Joseph did. He had plenty of opportunities to pull up his anchor. He was betrayed by his brothers, thrown into a pit. He could have become negative, angry. That's not right. My own family did me wrong, but he kept his anchor down. They sold him into slavery. He was falsely accused, put in prison. It was unfair.

He had a good reason to be sour. Nobody would have faulted him. But through all the trouble, through all the things that didn't make sense, he didn't pull up his anchor. His attitude was, God, you have the final say. People don't determine my destiny. A bad break can't keep me from my purpose. All the forces of darkness cannot stop your plan for my life. Because he was anchored to hope, he didn't stay disappointed. He was vindicated, promoted, put in charge of the whole nation. Zechariah puts it this way. If you'll be a prisoner of hope, God will restore back to you double what you lost. Prisoner of hope means you can't get away from it. You're anchored to it. You should be discouraged, but you can't help it. Despite all that's come against you, like Joseph, you still believe you're going to accomplish your dreams. You should be overwhelmed. The obstacle looks bigger. Goliath looks stronger, more powerful. But like David, you have your hope in the Lord. You know if God be for you, who dare be against you? That sickness may seem like it's going to be the end of you. You could live worried, stressed out,

but you know nothing can snatch you out of God's hand. Your hope is not in the medicine, not in the treatment, not in the professionals, even though all those things are good. We're grateful for them. Your hope is in the Lord, in the God who breathed life into you, in the God who makes blind eyes to see, in the God who took Joseph from the pit to the palace, in the God who caused David, a teenage shepherd boy, to defeat a huge giant, in the God who healed my mother of terminal cancer. I'm asking you to keep your anchor down, keep your hope in the Lord. When you find yourself negative, worried, not thinking it's going to work out, recognize what's happened. You pulled your anchor up. The good news is you can put it back down. Instead of dwelling on those negative thoughts, you'll never get well, never break the addiction, never meet the right person, turn it around. Father, thank you that the answer's already on the way. Thank you that healing's coming, promotion's coming, the right people are coming. Thank you that favor is in my future. That's how you stay anchored to hope. This is what Abraham did. God gave him the promise that he and his wife Sarah were going to have a baby, but they were 80 years old.

It was impossible. It had never happened before. Abraham could have dismissed it, thought I must have heard God wrong. I'm sure his friends said, Abraham, you really think you're going to have a baby? You're an old man. He could have talked himself out of it, but it says in Romans 4, all human reason for hope being gone, Abraham hoped on in faith. Sometimes there's no logical reason to have hope. The medical report said my mother would never get well. In 1981, it was terminal cancer. All the experts told us we would never get this facility. Our opponents were too big. They had more resources. You may have plenty of reasons why your situation is not going to work out, but you have to do like Abraham. against all hope, hope on in faith. Keep your anchor down. Don't talk yourself out of it. God is not limited by the natural. He is a supernatural God. At nearly a hundred years of age, Sarah gave birth to a baby. The promise came to pass. Didn't happen overnight. They waited some 20 years. They had plenty of times they were tempted to think it's never gonna happen. We're too old. It's been too long. If they would have believed those lies and pulled up their anchor of hope, they would have drifted into doubt, discouragement, never saw the promise come to pass. Are you drifting today? Worried, negative, in self-pity? Why don't you put your anchor back down? Why don't you get your hopes back up? Just because the promise hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it's not going to happen. You may

have had some bad breaks like Joseph. That doesn't mean you're not going to fulfill your purpose. God wouldn't have allowed it if he wasn't going to use it for your good. Shake off the discouragement, the self-pity. What God started in your life, he's still going to bring to pass. I know a young lady that I grew up with here at Lakewood. When she and her husband got married, they really wanted to have a baby so badly, and they tried and went through all the fertility treatments with no success. Year after year went by. At that time, she was the head of our children's department. When my dad went to be with the Lord and I stepped up to pastor the church, she had already been believing to have this baby for over 20 years. One day, we were in this meeting. She made the statement, I have a good assistant trained because when I have my baby, I'm going to be out for a little while. I thought I had missed something, that she was pregnant and nobody told me. After the meeting, I asked my sister Lisa, is she going to have a baby? Lisa kind of laughed and said, no, she's just believing to have it. She talked like the baby was on the way. She didn't say if I have it, she said when I have it. What was that? She was anchored to hope. I thought to myself when Lisa told me that, being the great man of faith that I am, you've been believing to have this baby for over 20 years. Time to let it go, move on. Maybe God wants to do it another way. Don't let other people talk you out of what God put in your heart. Don't let someone convince you, even if it's your pastor, to pull up your anchor. God didn't put the promise in them, he put the promise in you. That's why you can have faith when they think it's far out. That's why you can believe for it when to them it seems totally impossible. This young lady kept her anchor down. Like Abraham, against all hope, she hoped on in faith. 29 years later, she went to the doctor for a checkup. He said, congratulations, you're pregnant, not with one baby, you're pregnant with twins. That's what Zachariah said. If you'll stay anchored to hope, God will restore back to you double what you lost. What you've been believing for may be taking a long time, but what God started, he's going to finish. God doesn't abort dreams. Keep your anchor down. When I was a young boy, our family used to go to Galveston a lot.

I couldn't wait to get in the water and play in the waves. We would find a place there on the beach for our shoes and our towels and put them up on the sand. Then we'd take off and start having fun in the water. In a couple of hours, when we were ready to take a break, we would look up and realize we were way down the beach from where we started. Our towels were a couple hundred yards away. We didn't know it, but that whole time we had been slowly drifting. The scripture describes hope as the anchor of our souls. It wouldn't use the word anchor unless there was a possibility of drifting. This is what happens in life. If you don't keep your anchor down, if you don't stay filled with hope, little by little you'll start drifting, getting a little negative, worried, discouraged. I'm never gonna have the baby, Joel. It's been too long. I'll never break this addiction. I'll never overcome this challenge. The problem is you don't have your anchor down. When you're anchored to hope, you may have negative circumstances, but you're not worried. You know God is fighting your battles. You may not see how your dream can come to pass, but you don't give up. You know God is behind the scenes, arranging things in your favor. You may go through a bad... break, a loss, but you don't get bitter. You know weeping endures for a night, but joy is coming in the morning. Here's what I'm saying. When you're anchored to hope, doesn't mean you won't have difficulties. It means when those difficulties come, you won't drift. Nothing will move you. The storms, the waves, the tides, they may change, but you're consistent. Your hope is in the Lord. What's interesting is when we were at the beach in the water, it wasn't a big storm that caused us to drift. It wasn't a hurricane, a flood, or tornado. It was the normal movement of the ocean. If you don't keep your anchor down, the normal currents of life will pull you off course. Not a major sickness, a divorce, a layoff, just everyday life. Perhaps you don't realize that you've drifted into doubt. You're not believing for your dreams anymore. You used to be excited about it. It's been a long time. Now you've lost your passion. Have you drifted into self-pity? You had a bad break. Somebody did you wrong. You used to be loving, kind, fun. Now you're more sour, hard to get along with. Maybe you've drifted into worry. You used to believe

that God was in control, that He's taking care of you, but you pulled up your anchor. You're living stressed out. You can get back to where you're supposed to be. You can put your anchor of hope down today. Start believing again. Start expecting again. Life is too short to go through it drifting, negative, worried, no passion. If you don't have this hope that something good is coming, it will limit what God can do. That's why Paul told Timothy, stir up your gifts. You have to stir up your hope. Otherwise, you'll drift toward the negative. Well, Joel, if God was so good, why haven't my dreams come to pass? Why did I have these bad breaks? It's because there is an enemy of your soul that's trying to keep you from your destiny. The good news is the forces that are for you are greater than the forces that are against you. Don't let what happens in life, big or small, convince you to pull up your anchor. If you'll keep your hope in the Lord, all the forces of darkness cannot hold you back. And this is not about just being positive, being hopeful. This is about keeping your soul anchored to the right thing. Because I've learned if you don't stay anchored to hope, over time, you'll become anchored to something else. You can become anchored to discouragement, where that's your default setting. You wake up in the morning discouraged. You see everything through a tainted perspective. Everything is sour. It's because you're anchored to the wrong thing. I know people who are anchored to bitterness. They're so focused on the bad breaks, on who hurt them, now that bitterness is poisoning their life. And you may have a good reason to feel that way. I'm simply saying, staying anchored to those things will keep you from your destiny. It will cause you to miss your purpose. It's time to cut those anchors and come over into hope. God did not breathe His life into you, crown you with favor, give you a royal robe so you could go around anchored to bitterness, anchored to doubt, anchored to worry. He created you to be anchored to hope, to go out each day expecting His goodness, knowing that the days ahead are greater than the days we leave. And when you face difficulties, and we all do, keep the right perspective. If David would have looked at Goliath and thought, oh man, I'll never defeat him. He's twice my size. I don't have a chance. If he would have

pulled up his anchor of hope, we wouldn't be talking about him today. Goliath wasn't sent to defeat David. He was sent to promote David. What you're facing is not meant to stop you. It's meant to move you towards your divine destiny. Instead of being negative, why is this happening to me? How's it ever going to work out? No, turn it around. Lord, I don't see a way, but my hope is in you. I know you have it figured out. You'll get me to where I'm supposed to be. Proverbs says, hope deferred makes the heart sick. If you don't have the hope that the problem's going to turn around, the hope that the baby's on the way, that the new house is in your future, then your heart, that means your spirit will be sick. When we're not hopeful, something is wrong on the inside. Even physically, when we're stressed, run down, worried, that weakens our immune system. Doesn't fight off disease like it should. For your health's sake, keep your anchor of hope down. We all go through seasons in life where it's not real exciting. It's easy to have the blaws, lose our enthusiasm. Those are the normal currents of life. Nobody lives on cloud nine where it's exciting all the time. Part of the good fight of faith is to stay hopeful in the dry seasons. When you don't see anything happening, when it's taking a long time, keep a smile on your face. All through the day, Lord, thank you that something good is coming my way. Well, Joel, what if I do that and nothing happens? What if you do it and something does happen? I'd rather go through life anchored to hope than anchored to fear, anchored to worry, anchored to bitterness. That's going to draw in more defeat. One time in high school, a friend of mine invited me to go fishing with him. We drove about an hour out in his boat off the coast, and we fished for most of the morning. When we were finished, he asked me to pull up the anchor.

I pulled and pulled to all of my strength. I couldn't get it up. His father came over, and we pulled together. It still wouldn't budge. My friend cranked up the engine. It's a big, powerful motor, and he started pulling away real slowly, hoping that we would dislodge it and make it come loose. But that anchor must have been caught under a big rock or a big tree because when he pulled forward, it pulled the boat backwards. We started to tip over. He stopped, and he circled around, tried pulling in different directions, but same thing, it wouldn't come loose. Finally, his dad got a big knife out and said, Well, this is all we can do. He cut the line. We left the anchor there in the ocean. Sometimes we're anchored to things that don't come off easily. If you've been anchored to doubt, fear, discouragement for a long time, you're going to have to do like my friend and cut those lines. Let me tell you, the enemy doesn't want you to be free. He doesn't want you to go through life anchored to hope. He wants you to go around depressed, bitter, angry. It's time to cut some lines. It's time to say this is a new day. I've been anchored to that junk long enough. I'm done living bitter, depressed, no passion. I'm cutting those lines. I'm anchoring myself to hope. Keep the right perspective. That sickness can't defeat you.

That addiction is temporary. The right breaks are already in your future. You may have had some disappointments. Life threw you a curve. That cannot stop your destiny. The odds may be against you, but the Most High God is for you. When you stay anchored to hope, he'll show out in your life ways you've never imagined. There's a young man that attends here with his family named Owen. He's 15 years old, and one of his favorite things to do was play basketball. He was always one of the best players on his team. Six o'clock in the morning, he would be out practicing. His dream was to get a scholarship to play in college. A couple of years earlier, Owen and his father were watching the NBA draft on television. There was a standout player from Baylor named Isaiah Austin. He was projected to go in the first round, but a few weeks earlier learned that he had a life-threatening disease called Marfan syndrome. It's a genetic disorder that weakens the connective tissue of the body, tissue that holds the heart, the blood vessels, muscles together so you can grow and develop. If not treated, it can easily be fatal. It's very dangerous to play any high-energy sports. Isaiah, since he couldn't play anymore, was given a ceremonial draft pick. They told all about his disease there on television. Owen's father recognized many of the same symptoms in Owen.

He took him to the doctor the next day, and Owen was diagnosed with Marfan syndrome, told he could never play basketball again. His body couldn't support it. Owen could have pulled up his anchor of hope, been angry, bitter, God, why did this happen to me? But he knew that disappointment wasn't a surprise to God. His father said when he heard the news, he cried for about 30 seconds. Then he said, Dad, I'm only 13. I can still become a coach, a referee, or maybe even work for the NBA. Owen had a desire to help other people who had Marfan syndrome. He started holding fundraisers. This last February, he raised over $140,000. He needs to come work for us. Owen says you can make it your excuse or you can make it your purpose. Recently, Owen had to have open-heart surgery, a very serious procedure to correct the valves in his heart. They were much too large. If they continued growing like a balloon, they would burst and cause instant death. One of the best surgeons in the world for Marfan syndrome right here in Houston operated on him. Twenty-four hours after the operation, he was out of the intensive care. One week later, he was out of the hospital. Four weeks later, he was back at Lakewood. That was last week.

And today, Owen and his family are right here with us on the front row, a mighty man of faith. What am I saying? A bad break can't stop you, a disappointment, a divorce, a sickness. When life throws you a curve, don't you dare pull up your anchor. Do like Owen and keep hoping on in faith. God has you in the palm of His hand. What may have been meant for your harm, God's going to turn it for your good. Have you drifted into doubt, discouragement, worry, self-pity? I'm asking you to put your anchor of hope back down today. If you'll do this, I believe and declare what is now your test will soon become your testimony. Like Owen, you will rise above every challenge, accomplish every dream, and become everything you were created to be in Jesus' name. If you receive it, can you say amen today? I'd like to give you an opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Would you pray with me? Just say, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins, come into my heart, I make you my Lord and Savior. Friends, if you prayed that simple prayer, we believe you got born again. Get in a good Bible-based church. Keep God first place. He's going to take you places that you've never dreamed.