Anchored - Week 2

As we get set to get into this week two, week two of this series of this season called Anchored, I've been praying, I've been believing God for just his will and his way to be done. And I know we celebrated earlier, but can we celebrate one more time for our 75 day journey that starts tomorrow? We have over 600 people who have registered and said they're ready to go along this journey. And man, I've been praying for each and every one of you. I'll also say this because I'm, I can read the room. I know the bill's playing about an hour. Some of y'all was jumping and praying and believing God for a miracle for them. Let's see, let's see. As I was mapping out this series, I just began to map out the different weeks, week one, week two, week three, the different things that God was placing on my heart that I'm like, man, if we're going to do this 75 day journey, if we're going to do it, we got to talk on this topic and we're going to talk on this topic and all of those topics we're going to get to and they're important. But there's one thing that hit me Thursday as I'm preparing on Thursday and I had this moment, this moment was kind of like Kevin's mother from Home Alone. Any, any Home Alone fans like me, you know, there's a moment in Home Alone where Kevin's mom, when she first realized that she forgot Kevin and she's on a plane and she's like, Kevin, I can't even do it. My voice is miracles. But I, oh, he's playing now. I hear you. I see what you're doing there, man. I'm a Home Alone guy. But she has this moment where she realized, how could I forget? How could I forget the most important thing? And as I'm mapping out this series and I'm prepping, God just gave me this thing and I'm like, how could I forget? If we're going to do the 75 day journey correctly, the thing that we cannot forget, we're going to read Jeremiah's chapter 17, verse 7 to 8. Because, because it's like I can show you better than I could tell you. This is our anchor scripture for this season and I've been reading it every day. I've been going back to it every day and we're going to read it again today. Verse 7 says this, but blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sent out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when he comes. Its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. There's two things that's happening in this passage. Part one is the overall statement that Jeremiah wants us to get. It's the overall statement that God speaks to us. He says, blessed is the one who trusts in

the Lord, whose confidence is in him, period. If you get that, that's really all you need to get. If you put your trust in the Lord and your confidence is in him, that's the point. That's where it all starts. But he goes on and says, I want to give you a picture of what it looks like when your trust is in the Lord and your confidence is in him. What that looks like is like this tree that's planted by the water, who's sending his roots out into the stream. It does not fear when heat comes. In the year of drought, it's not worried and it continues to produce fruit. I want you to know and understand that this picture that's painted is a picture of the thing that I forgot, which is the most important thing if we're going to do this right. It's a picture of rest. A picture of rest. And not just a picture of rest, but a picture of how can you be fruitful and rested? How can you still produce? How can your leaves still be green while you rest? It's, we talked about miracles, it's one of the miracles of Jesus, because you know why? We, most of us only relate fruitfulness to hustle. We will relate fruitfulness to grind. It's hustle, hustle, grind, hustle, grind, grind, hustle. It's my author, people. But some of us, that's all we know, and God is like, what if I want to show you this year how you can be fruitful and rested, instead of fruitful and burnt out, instead of fruitful and tired, instead of fruitful and mean, instead of fruitful and frustrated, instead of fruitful and ruin your relationship with your kids, instead of fruitful and ruin your relationship with your spouse. If you try to be fruitful the way the world has told us to be fruitful, you will always sacrifice something God never called you to sacrifice. God said, I want to show you how to be fruitful while you're rested. For some of us, we misunderstand what it means to rest. For some of us, when we hear rest, we automatically go to self-care Sundays. We automatically jump right to the vacation in Jamaica. God is like, that cool, that that might be an expression of rest. You know what gets me sometimes? And I'm not singling anybody out, I'm not pointing anybody out, if this is you, I wasn't

thinking about you when I... When I talk to people sometimes, and they say things like, and when I ask them like, oh, I haven't seen you, like at church, yeah, you know, I had to rest, I had to take some, I had to rest. I'm like, wait, so you rested from Jesus? Some people are like, no, no, I haven't been able to pray, because you know, I just had to rest. I'm like, I get it, I get it, I get it, I get it. But it's a disconnect, and what we understand rest to be, and the rest Jesus wants to provide us. There's a rest that he gives, that is like, listen, this rest is not something you walk, you work towards, this is a rest that you work from. This is a rest that when you really get it, you can still move, you can still be fruitful, you can still be, and people will look at you and all the things that you're doing. Sometimes you could be fruitful, and people be like, yo, how you doing all of this and still not tired? How you doing all of this and still not burnt out? How you doing all of this and still not angry? It's because I am anchored to the source, and the fruit that you begin to see is a direct indication of the source that I'm connected to. I want to go to Hebrews 4 quickly. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 9, it says this, there remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for anyone who enters God's rest also rest from their works, just as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. Let me explain that last part. So no one will perish by following their example of disobedience, who is there that they're talking about? In that passage, there is the children of Israel who was stuck in the wilderness for

over 40 years just wandering, and they were never able to enter into the promised land. They were never able to enter into the rest, and it said it was because of their disobedience. The disobedience that is being referred to there, if you go back and read Hebrews chapter 3, their disobedience was their unbelief. Their unbelief, their inability to trust, and when you go back to Jeremiah, it starts to paint a full picture when he says, blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, and whose confidence is in him. When you do that, you will look like this picture of rest that's planted by the stream and sending its roots out. Jesus is like, my goal for my people. Not for you to enter this 75 day journey and try to do all of this or for muscle or for grind He said no no No I want you to enter this fully rested that there's nothing that this 75 thing is going to accomplish that I didn't already accomplish What this 75 day journey does is helps us to stay connected to the source It it will continue to point you back to the source I say it like this when when you It says if you trust in him if your trust is in him It says this you won't fear when he comes you don't got to be anxious and in the time of drought I like to think when when I see fear in my life When I see anxiety in my life when I see restlessness in my life It's almost like the check engine light on the car that comes on It's the check engine light to say hey, hey Get back to the source Get back to the source you restless You you you getting scared you you you you worried about running out you getting tired and burnt out I need you to get back to the source. I need you to fix your focus back to the hills From which cometh your help? Your help comes from the lord. I need you to refocus you worried about running out Did you forget your source

Get back to the source I can tell you the times in my life when i've been the most anxious is when my eyes And my heart started trusting and going back to the things That was shaking I start seeing a bank account look low. I'm like, oh my gosh, what's gonna happen? I start watching the news. I'm like, oh my gosh, what's gonna happen? I I get the the the the the report from the doctor. I'm like, oh my gosh, what's gonna happen? The times in my life when i've been the most confident The times in my life when i've been the most rested and secure and just fruitful Has been the times in my life where each and every day I just got down and say god. I need you god I thank you God, I trust that you are my provider god. I trust that you are my source And how i'm able to function and move from that place Is different And that's the place that god wants us all to be I think about when I go back to the scripture in hebrews 4. It says this it says he It's the the sabbath rest there remains a sabbath rest this concept of sabbath goes all the way back to genesis This is important If we're going to understand the type of rest that god wants us To be anchored in the type of rest that god wants us to rest secure and it goes back to genesis Where after god had created the earth it said on the seventh day he rested Here's what we need to know about god resting god did not rest because he was tired He rested because he was finished He rested because it was complete when you understand that his rest came from a place of completion You understand that his rest came because he was finished You go to the new testament and you start to recognize that perhaps the most powerful three words of the new testament

Came when jesus is on the cross and he says it is finished When he says it is finished he's essentially telling us you can rest now Because your life begins when my work finished And if it's finished it's already done so when you start living from this place of What am I worried about? It's already finished What am I stressing about? He already took care of it What what what what am I trying to accomplish that my god didn't already accomplish on a cross? There are some things that we are burnt out about there are some things that we are frustrated about We are burnt out about there are some things that we are frustrated about there are some things we are anxious about And god is like it's because you're trying to pick up something that's not in your drive description. It's in mine And not only is it in my job description it's in my resume I already did it That went over some people I didn't even I already did it Go look back at what I already accomplished Understand my work understand that what I did on the cross you already have victory With what I did on the cross you have access to me. You could go straight to me Some of us are waiting to come to church on a sunday to hear what God says which is good. But listen, this is why an important part of this journey is recognizing monday through saturday I can go pray to god for myself He can speak to me he can make himself real to me What is it that you anxious about what is it that you're worried about some people are probably worried about the 75-day journey I can tell you if it does not come from a place of rest If it does not come from a place of confidence in what god has already done you'll get to day three you'll be like How many days did he say 75 days straight I was like no when you recognize It comes from a place of rest you like listen I pray because I trust god hears me I'm Stewarding my body because I trust that my body is the temple

I give because I trust my source and I don't just give i'm able to be generous Because I trust my source who will not run out i'm able to fast because I know god will answer. I know god will come through I'm not hoping in god. Am I doing it enough? God? Did I work out enough god? Did I pray enough? He wants us to get our trust back in him I had something that happened and I said this during the first service I didn't plan on saying it today, but I feel like it's good sometimes just to paint a picture Of what it looks like to have your trust in god I was I went to eat yesterday with my daughter After prayer me and my daughter we went to a restaurant to sit down and eat And I don't have these moments often but as i'm eating I feel god just kind of like put in my heart Put in my mind I want you to Pay for the table over there Now I'll be honest Because it's not many times in my life where I start thinking about my budget But when he said that I started thinking about the budget well If I give that kind of mess up the budget right god And then I start checking the account like should I can I can I actually do this And the feeling wasn't leaving It's like Right over there and I start thinking and in real time god began to just just show me remember the 75 day journey you're doing If your trust is anchored in me As your supplier as your source it frees you to be generous So now i'm not worried about

man, like what if What if if I give this and then I won't have no more? As the song says I trust in god my savior the one who will never fail You know what that frees you to do it frees you to be obedient Some of us can't be obedient because our trust is in these other things God is like if you really Trust me. Here's what I learned about trust Some of us hear trust and we hear rest and we think oh rest. I trust god. I'm just gonna lay back and do nothing Cj said god got it Just chilling Right If you really understand trust if you really understand faith you recognize that faith is a catalyst for action If you really trust god you act on it When your trust is really in god you'll be like peter When god goes to peter and he's walking and he's he's like he's like peter I want you to come and this is when peter begins to walk on water It's an act of trust When you really trust When you really believe Your life starts to look starts to look different It starts to line up With what you say you actually trust And when I think of the sabbath I think about it like this When I if I need to give myself a working understanding Understanding Sabbath is truly When initial trust in god meets continued trust in god When you trust god initially And the trust just doesn't stop there You continue to live trusted and reliable

iron and rusted and anchored in him. Some of us haven't been able to enter into the rest that God has for his people is because some of us have not trusted God continually. We trusted God initially. We proclaimed him as our Lord and Savior. We say, God, I trust you. God, I love you. God, I put my hope in you. And then the next week came and your trust went right back to your job. So we still live restless. People of God, but still living restless. Some of us live restless because we've never actually initially put our trust in God. We've never initially said, God, I trust you as the Lord of my life. God, some of us, for some of us, we're just living restless because we don't even trust God exists. Some of us don't even believe him. Some of us just came because somebody invited us to come today. And maybe God brought you into here today. Hey, if you wanna stop living restless, I need you to trust in me. I am the source of life. I'm the very reason why you're here today. I'm the very reason why you're breathing. If you wanna rest easy,

if you wanna see a different life, here's what I want you to do. I need you to put your trust in me. I love you. And I showed my love for you in this way that while you were still sinning, while you wasn't even thinking about me, I died for you. I went before you. And guess what? I'm still here for you. You haven't trusted me with your life yet, but I'm still knocking. I've still protected you. I've still provided for you. We've been talking about miracles and ways that God has come through. Some of us, God has been coming through for us in so many ways and you still don't recognize it's him. God wants you to know his arms are wide open for you today. His invitation of rest still remains. He says, come to me all who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest. And when I give you rest, it's not the rest that the world gives. It's not that kind of rest. It's not a self-care Sunday kind of rest. It's a rest that'll lead you, guide you, and help you to be fruitful. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, when the sun is shining,

when the rain is falling, when it's drought, when it's heat, when it's cold, he said you can still be anchored. You can still be planted. You can still be rooted if you trust God. It's in me. Heads bowed, eyes closed. I feel like right now it's important for us to take inventory of our hearts. The Bible tells us examine your heart. Where in your life have you struggled to trust God? Remember what I said. If you need help identifying where in your life you struggled to trust him, think about the areas in your life right now that cause you the most anxiety. The areas in your life right now that's causing you the most stress. For some of us, that's every area. For some of us, it's one specific area. God said that's the check engine light going off. And he wants you to invite him into that area. For some of you, like I said, you've never trusted God initially. Some of you never put your hope and your faith and your confidence in God and say, God, I want you to be Lord of my life. God, you are my savior. Even as the song says, I trust in God, my savior. God, I thank you for saving me.

God, I thank you for going to the cross and dying for my sins and resurrecting again. Now I can have new life because of you. I want to do one thing before we leave today. If you're in this room and you find yourself in either bucket, maybe you're one who trusted God initially, but you become disconnected from that trust in certain areas of your life, or maybe you're in a room where you're in a room or maybe you're in a room and you never trusted God with your life to begin with. You never said, God, come into my life, take my heart. If you fall in any bucket, can you do me a favor? Just slip your hand up in the air while nobody's looking. Father, we need you. If your hand is up right now, could you do me a favor? The prayer team is going to come up to the front. And if you're in the room right now and you raise your hand, could you take one more step of faith? Remember, trust is a catalyst for action. Could you take one more step of faith and just come meet me at the altar? Father, I just want to pray with you simply. Just come meet us at the altar. We're going to pray for you. Don't worry about who's around you. Don't worry about who's coming and who's not. This is between you and God right now. Come on, we give you some time just to make you look. I want to pray for those right now who are up here.

As you continue to make your way forward, I want to pray for those right now who just need help to continue to trust God. Father God, for the ones here who's represented, who just needs to put their trust back in you in a certain areas of their life. Father God, would you remind them that you are the source, that you are their supplier, that you are their provider. Your word says you are the good shepherd and we lack nothing. Father God, help us not to forget it. Help us not work from a place of angst or a place of frustration or a place of fear. Help us to work from a place of rest and trust in you. For some of us who are worried about health concerns, financial concerns, Father God, would you fix our eyes on you? And if you're up here, you never put your faith, you never put your trust in God initially to begin with. Can we do something right now? I want you to repeat this prayer. And I'm going to ask everyone in the room to repeat this prayer with them so they don't feel alone. Say dear God, I trust you. I thank you for bringing me here today. I thank you for not giving up on me. I thank you for dying on the cross for my sins, for forgiving me, for making a way for me. Father God, I ask you to please forgive me of my sins and my unbelief. I put my trust in you. I put my hope in you. I put my life in your hands. From this day forward, I declare that I'm yours. I love you. I thank you.

And help me to live my life from this place, from this day forward. In Jesus' name I pray, amen, amen, amen. Can we sing that song one more time? Sing I trust in, I trust in God. Come on, as we leave. My Savior, the one who will never fail. He will never fail. Father God, we thank you for everything that you've done today. Everything that you will continue to do throughout this week. Bless us, give us strength as we go about this 75-day journey. Father God, for those who need to sign up, for those who need a team, Father God, help them to sign up even right now. Find a team. We love you. We thank you. We appreciate you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen, amen. We will see you next week. They have the QR code up on the screen if you need to sign up. God bless you.