Anchored - Week 3

Anchored. We are in this series called Anchored, and the topic of today is simply this. Anchored in the Word. Anchored in the Word. I believe God wants to make himself so real to us this season. He wants to make himself so real to us today, but the way God reveals himself is through his Word. Everybody say his Word. It's all about the Word. In John chapter 1 verse 1, it says this. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him nothing was made that has been made. John 1 starts with this. It says if we are going to be anchored, we have to understand that we cannot be anchored without being anchored first and foremost to the source of life, which is the Word himself. He says there is nothing that has been made that is made without him. There is nothing that exists. Even as we were just singing, tell me what can I do? I can't live without you. I can't breathe without you. He's saying there's literally nothing that exists that exists outside of the Word of God. He says if you go back to the beginning, back to Genesis in the beginning, what was there? It was the Word of God, and it was his Word that brought order to chaos. It was his Word that brought life. We are sitting here today only because of the Word of God, and if we are going to understand what it means to be anchored to the Word of God, if we are going to understand what it means to live by the Word, we have to understand this. When it comes to the Word of God, there are three. I like to look at it as three levels when it comes to understanding and knowing and being anchored to the Word. Here it is. There it is, and I'm gonna just run through this. One is this. It's hearing the Word. After you hear the Word, and when I say hear the Word, I mean knowing what the Word says. We have to know what the Word says, and it's not just knowing what the Word says, but level two is this. Understanding the Word, because there's some people who know what the Word says but does not know what the Word means. He says if you're going to be anchored to the Word, you have to know what it says, but you also have to know what it means, but it doesn't just stop there. Here's the third level. You then have to live what the Word says. There's knowing what it says, there's understanding what it means, and then it's actually living out that. I didn't give this scripture to the team, but one of the scriptures that is in Luke chapter 10, verse 26 to 28, this is when the experts of the law was trying to test Jesus. Jesus says this to them about the Word. He says, what is written in the law? And then he says, and how do you read it? He asks him a question. He says, first I want you to identify what the Word actually says. What does, what is written in the law? What does it

actually say? And after you tell me what it says, I don't want you to just tell me what it says. I want you to tell me how you read that. What does that actually mean? And then after he gave Jesus the answer, Jesus says, correct. Now do this next step. Do it and you'll live. When it comes to being anchored in the Word, I know sometimes we hear about the Word of God and we see it as a cliche kind of thing, but it's not until you begin to know what the Word says, understand what the Word means, and begin to live that out, do you actually see the power of the Word working in your life. God wants us to get to the point where we actually see, this is what the Bible says, it says don't just be hearers of the Word, but be also doers of the Word. There are some of us sometimes, I love in that same, in that same passage where it says this, it says don't just hear the Word and deceive yourselves. There are sometimes we might come in the church and we might hear the Word and after we hear it, we feel like we did something. He's like, no, no, no, no, no, don't just hear the Word and deceive yourself, you got to actually put the Word into action. Because it's those who hear the Word and do the Word, the Bible says this, you will be blessed in what you do. Hear the Word, understand the Word, and do the Word, and you will be blessed in what you do. the word live the word hear the word understand the word live the word this is the very practical but powerful message today and i want you to get it i think about my life and i think what comes up out of you in the time of storm what comes up out of you in the time of chaos what comes up out of you when you're going through something can i tell you something if you go through a time of chaos and confusion and no you have no word on the inside of you you have nothing to combat the things that's going on around you there are so many times in our life when things come up but because we on level one where it says know what the word says we don't know what the word says we have nothing to combat the things that's going on around us i'm so thankful i grew up in the house and this may sound like a joke but it's serious it is serious i'm so thankful i grew up in the house where i was only able to watch two things going up and if you heard me speak before you heard me say this before the only two things i was able to watch growing up was the knicks and bible tapes the knicks and bible tapes so it's no wonder i'm a diehard knick fan and a pastor right now it was the only things i was able to watch i couldn't watch no puff the magic dragon pokemon

none of this stuff i used to go to school they used to talk about that stuff and all i knew was salty the singing songbook raise your hand if you're in a building you ever heard of salty the singing song okay we got we got some people yeah there you go yeah y'all know it was in church church growing up now it was he was he was it was a kid he was like the book of psalms he was supposed to be and he was singing these these these these songs about the bible here was another one i used to watch anyone here ever heard of the donut man they heard the donut man too raise your hand if you heard of the donut man rob evans oh see this it was another bible tape i had to watch growing up he had this thing he used to go life without jesus it's like a donut because there's a hole in the middle of your heart exactly that's theology at six i was like man that's probably why i was eating so many donuts too but i'm like man growing up with that stuff and when i used to watch the donut man the donut man he used to have songs about jeremiah he said jeremiah used to go go down to the potter's house and the lord will talk to you there he had songs about the walls of jericho falling he had songs about paul and silas being in jail and praising god and the jail cell began to shake and open up and it's these things that even to this day can i tell you when i go through things even to this day some of those same songs start to come back up some of those same songs i i remember just sitting there and that song even working through this series that jeremiah go down to the potter's house and the lord will talk to you there so jeremiah went down to the potter's house and the lord talked to him there and i go back to the scriptures and i start reading the scriptures and i start thanking god that god i thank you that your word is on a deep down on the inside of me i thank god that i have a foundation of the word that i can turn to when things go crazy because here's what happens when you begin to get anchored to the word and you begin to know what the word says and understand what it means and begin to live it out you find out that the word of god is not just the source of life of life but here's what it is also it's also the sustainer of life god is like i'm not just gonna start this thing off i'm gonna give you a way for this thing to continue to form you to continue to build you to continue to keep you it's the sustenance it's the thing that keeps us i'm convinced that a lot of times we quit things we shouldn't quit we walk away from things we shouldn't walk away from why because we have nothing sustaining us

the word of god is meant to sustain you matthew 4 4 says this jesus is being tempted by satan and jesus says it is written man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of god he says you you're not only supposed to be living on these physical things he said as as someone who was created by the word through the word because of the word you should be being sustained by the word the bad news is this when you don't have no word and you to sustain you everything else around you will drain you some of us get so drained by any and everything that comes around and we're getting drained because we have nothing to sustain us everything is taken from us and taken from us our job is taken from us our relationships are taken from us and we're being drained and tired and god is like no no no no no you want me to change the situation but what i really want you to do is get to the thing that sustains you if i took it away if i took away the troubles if i took away the things you would never come back to the thing that's supposed to sustain you the thing that's supposed to give you life i can tell you right now there's times in my life i promise you i would have walked away from a lot of things if it wasn't for the word that god has spoke to me if it wasn't for the word that was deep down in me god wants to get us to the point where these things of our life is not shaking us it's not moving us this is why the theme of this season is anchored anchored how do we get to the point where we're anchored you cannot be anchored if you do not get the word here's the the word is not it's not only our source of life the word is not only our sustainer of life our sustenance but here's what it also the word of god actually also steers our life it guides us it shows us where to go i love the scripture in psalm 119 verse 105 it says this your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path what is that saying it's saying his word is the thing that actually allows us to see his word is the thing that actually gives us vision and here's what the scripture says about vision in proverbs 29 and i'm jumping around proverbs 29 says this 18 and i'm not sure which version they have up there but it says with there is no revelation people cast off restraint some version says this where there is no vision people cast off restraint what vision is vision is the word of god revealed where there is no revelation of the word of god people cast off restraint meaning they have nothing that's keeping them

on a straight and narrow they have they lose all sense of self-control they just start going based on everything else but the thing that is supposed to be guiding them what does it look like to live a life with no word so you start going here's how we live when we don't have the word of god to be austere here's how we live when we don't have the word of god to be our guide when you don't have the word of god you start living based off of your feelings when you start when you start when you have no word of god you start living i told this to the first service because i started talking about sometimes what we do we start living based off our fear our fear starts guiding us and you know what's crazy we often it's easy to point out the bad things and how the bad things can steer us wrong but let me point out this sometimes it's the good things in our life that end up taking the place of the word of god sometimes it's not just the fear that's guiding us here's something that sounds good but it's terrible if it becomes the thing that guides your life in place of the word of god i know some people who say you know what i go based off of the facts i look at the facts and based on the facts that's how i make my moves what happened if the facts go against faith what happened if the facts look can i i don't know where i would be if i based my life off of the facts i'm just going this is this is the facts i'm going based off of the facts can i tell you another good thing that people tend to let replace the word of god in your life it's not only facts some people base their life off of feedback feedback i would not be in rochester new york right now if i base my life off of feedback when i told people i'm about to move to rochester from brooklyn they're like why would you do that that's about the dumbest thing you could do that makes absolutely no sense look at the facts look at the statistics why would you do that i would do that because the bible says this the just shall not live by feedback the just shall not live by facts the just shall not live by feelings but the just will live by faith and when you Who allow faith this is why the bible says we are supposed to walk by faith and not by sight The just will live by faith and how do you get faith the bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing by what the word of god

What are you living off of if you have no word of god? For some of us there should be a light bulb going off in our heads because you're like, oh man It's when I think about it. I really don't know what the word says and this is not shaming This is a chance to Turn a light bulb on me and realize what have I been living off of? I'll go as far to say if you have not been living your life based off the word of god Perhaps you have been living life based off a lie And we wonder sometimes why our lives look the way they do we wonder sometimes are we always distracted and down and And down tried and he's like because I you haven't been living your life based off the word And it's in and again, it might not be intentionally you you you you know, the other thing is and i'm gonna wrap up You the other thing i'm glad growing up My my my parents always encouraged me if I used to come home with homework. Listen, I wasn't the homework type of kid If there was an easy way To get the homework done that was me I tell everybody if chat gpt was out when I was in high school whoa Probably would have been valedictorian But I used to come home and I should be like mom, you know, we're reading these words Like I don't know what I don't know what this means. You just tell me what it means My parents are like boy, if you don't get the dictionary and look it up for yourself If You don't go find out for yourself because if you don't go find out for yourself All you have to go off is what everybody else tell you There are some of us that who have based our opinion and understanding of the word our opinion understanding of god our opinion understanding of jesus our opinion and understanding of church our opinion and understanding of giving All based off what people have said but god is like that's on you because you could go find out for yourself what I mean So When I started to learn the word for myself and understand it for myself, I recognize There's a lot of stuff people told me that was nonsense I'm sorry. Look i'm like guess what in the church, too Matter of fact it was mostly in the church

I'm seeing people live any kind of way. I'm like i'm searching through the scripture. I'm like Where'd you get that from You know what one of the the biggest traps is When I say you just can't know what it says you have to know what it means That a lot of times people will come to me and they'll quote scripture They'll quote scripture. This is what the word says This is what the word says I'm, like that's cool. That's cool. That's cool. That got nothing to do with the tea in china. What does the word mean? Because when people go off just what the word says without knowing what the word means That's when you have things like slavery being justified because of the bible Because people go on based off what the word that's what it says that what does it mean I don't know It's just what it says and you start going based off what it says says what you do When you go based off what it says and not really doing your homework and find out what it means You start making a word line up with your own prejudices and biases So you start making a word line up with your own feelings And when you refuse to do the homework yourself you at the mercy of everybody else I see people walking around with 15 different theologies Well, this is what my mom said this is what my dad said this is what my sunday school teacher said This is what my teacher said This is what my cousin said This is what? Have you ever took the time to study it for yourself? Uh No, but that's what they say I tell people this and rufus to come play. I tell people this when you start studying the word If everybody started if everybody in this room made a decision, you know what i'm going to start studying the word Our communities will start looking a lot different Our families will start looking a lot different Our relationships will start looking a lot different

Our churches will start looking a lot different I told my wife i'm like babe I there was a part of my life where I did a deep dive just on like like romans and all of paul's letters and when I came out of it, i'm I walked into my wife and I was like babe there's no way in the world everybody read this there's no and if they read it they definitely didn't understand what it was saying because if you read it and understood what it said you'll be a lot more loving if you read it and understood what it said you'll be a lot more kind if you read it and understood what it said I don't want you will learn to be quiet more and stop talking deep these are all things I learned just from reading the word you you will learn listen let people say what they gonna say feel how they gonna feel I'm good you will learn the difference between Pete things that people put on you that's rules that's made up of their own and things that Jesus actually said no this is how I want you to live it's for freedom that I set you free you start moving with a lot more confidence some of us can't even access some of the things God wants us to access because you're not moving with the confidence that only comes from his word I'm gonna say it again there are some of us God needs some of us to be a little bolder God needs some of us to be a little more confident God needs some of us to be a little more steadfast in order to access the things that he wants us to access but because we don't know what the word says we scared and we're shrinking back what a word says I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back we're in your life we're in your own journey are you when it comes to understanding the word knowing a word living what the word says I think a mic is on can you shut it off we're in your journey are you at right now is the time for all of us to take inventory because God wants us he don't want us to be ah this is just he don't want us to and don't take this the wrong way but he don't want us to be biblical dummies please don't take that the wrong way I love you he he wants us to have

the tools that we need to live the way he called us to live because when you start to live how he called you to live according to his word transformation becomes possible life change it's possible I say this all the time and I don't mean to be dramatic or go overboard when I say it I think we we put too much emphasis on trying to like wait for this one moment where everything changes God is like it starts to change will you open up my word begin to know what I said begin to understand what I said some of us we have even identity issues because we haven't opened up the word and know what the word says about us the only thing we go based off is is what we feel and what people said some of us had let people put labels on us Deborah talked about this in prayer Saturday morning some of us had let people put labels on us and God is like before I formed you in your mother's womb I knew you I'm the first one who put a label on you and you have accepted everybody else's label but mine do you know when I got comfortable being myself my loud sweaty whatever you think of meself I got comfortable being that when I open up the word and begin understand that he made me on purpose with the purpose perhaps God just wants to increase some of you confidence in here somebody's any confidence may have been low and God is like there's no need for it to be low come read my word come find out what I have to say about you come find out what I've what I've purpose for you so you can live and move in confidence head bowed eyes closed very simple word today practical but powerful if we apply it here's what I wanted to do with our heads bowed and our eyes closed right now I wanted to take a quick inventory And see, when it comes to the Word of God, what's our relationship like with the Word of God when it comes to understanding what it says, knowing what it says, living what it says? For some of you, if you're here and you're like, if I'm honest, I just don't know what it says. I've never really taken the time to open up the Word.

I never grew up with Bible tapes like you did. For some people, it's like, I know what it says, but if I'm honest, I never took any time to really study the Word and understand what it says. Maybe some of you are like, you know what, I'm guilty of knowing what it says and understanding what it says, but I just haven't been living what it says. I haven't really applied it. If that's you, God wants to let you know, now is the time to take that next step. Now is the time to open up the Word and know what it says. Now is the time to start understanding. Now is the time to start living. Now is the time to get anchored. Father God, I pray over everyone that's in this room, no matter where in the journey that they're on. There's some of us who have been at the same level for years. God, we hear your voice today saying to take that next step. Go to the next level so we can begin to see just what you want us to see. God, I pray that no one leaves here the same today. May everyone leave here and recognize, I got to go, I got to make another step. You called us to continue to grow. God, I pray that our faith not be relegated to a Sunday morning service. Let it go beyond this. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Can we, I said this a while ago and I feel like it's important to repeat again. God showed me a long time ago, he said, CJ, with this revelation, there now becomes responsibility. Once I reveal something to you, once I show you something, now you have responsibility. And it's not just you in the seats, but it's us as a church as I begin to like read and understand and study, God is like, CJ, there, my people might need help getting to that next level. And so as we begin to pray, as we begin to talk to the team, God placed on our hearts, what would it look like if TFH had a Bible study?

A place where you could actually come, know what the word says, learn what it means and learn how to apply it to your daily life. Raise your hand if you would like that. So January 28th, Wednesday, January 28th, we're having our first TFH Bible study. We're going to do it right here. And this is what we need you to do, because we don't know how many people to expect. This is what we need you to do. We need you to scan the QR code and we need you to RZP, just so we know how many people to expect so we can plan appropriately, we can lay out the format correctly. We want to see lives transformed and it happens only through the word of God. And this is what else I want to, this is what else I want to encourage you with. If you know somebody that you feel like will benefit from coming to the Bible study and this is how the Bible said, we're going to have worship and we'll talk about why that's important. We're going to have the word and we're going to gather and it'll be 90 minutes. We're going to help you be equipped to go live lives according to God's word. And I believe with all my heart that as you come, as you learn, as you apply, as you study, we're going to come back with testimonies like, man, I started living like this and man, I didn't even know it was that, I didn't even know it was that simple. I promise you once you start getting it, it's like, man, this the thing I was avoiding reading. This the thing I was avoiding studying. I believe God is going to do something miraculous in this season. Everybody stand to your feet. The QR codes will remain up on the screen so you can scan it. You can RGP, it'll be Wednesday, January 28th, 6.30 PM. Now listen. Now don't not come. And then send an email or a text or a phone call and be like why are tfh never Why do we ever Come out

See for yourself And see what god would do hands lifted all over this place father god I thank you for every life every generation every soul that's represented all over this room father god I pray that you begin to grow a deep deep hunger a deep appetite for your word Develop it in us lord god so that we will come hungry learning Expecting from your word It's a word that is our source of life It's our sustenance And it's a thing that god doesn't give us vision. We love you. We thank you We appreciate you for it and jesus precious and mighty name. We pray. Amen. Amen. Amen Have a great rest of your week scan the qr code. I love you. See you