Better | Part 2: Better Hope | Chris Vaught

I have felt the hands that bear the scars Reach down and rescue me I have known the love of the Father's heart I'm proud to go now already From where I was To where I'm now It's home around me Good morning more I see you move all around me Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but lift Shouts of joy The wind I think of how could you make Pray from out to the end Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, the blood he's filled to save my life The dead I cannot repay Before the cross You bore with open arms Salvation that caught my name From where I was Where I'm now It's home around me Good morning more I see you move all around me Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but lift

Shouts of joy The wind I think of how could you make Pray from out to the end Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but lift Shouts of joy Oh, when I think of how could you make Pray from out to the end Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you

Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you

Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you

Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love Oh, I can't help but praise you Pray to love ♪ My name is today ♪ ♪ Isn't that amazing grace ♪ ♪ Isn't that amazing grace ♪ ♪ Isn't that amazing grace ♪ ♪ He's an hallelujah to the man on the middle cross ♪ ♪ 'Cause he didn't know the dead but he paid it off ♪ ♪ And he rode away the stone now I'm getting up ♪ ♪ I'm getting up oh come on praise him today ♪ ♪ Hallelujah to the man on the middle cross ♪ ♪ 'Cause he didn't know the dead but he paid it off ♪ ♪ And he rode away the stone now I'm getting up ♪ ♪ I'm getting up say no I'm getting up ♪ ♪ Hallelujah to the man on the middle cross ♪ ♪ 'Cause he didn't know the dead but he paid it off ♪ ♪ And he rode away the stone now I'm getting up ♪ ♪ I'm getting up say no I'm getting up ♪ ♪ Hallelujah to the man on the middle cross ♪ ♪ 'Cause he didn't know the dead but he paid it off ♪ ♪ And he rode away the stone now I'm getting up ♪ ♪ I'm getting up now I'm getting up ♪ ♪ I'm getting up oh come on praise him today ♪ ♪ Hallelujah to the man on the middle cross ♪ ♪ 'Cause he didn't know the dead but he paid it off ♪ ♪ And he rode away the stone now I'm getting up ♪ ♪ I'm getting up oh come on praise him today ♪

♪ Hallelujah to the man on the middle cross ♪ ♪ 'Cause he didn't know the dead but he paid it off ♪ ♪ And he rode away the stone now I'm getting up ♪ ♪ And he rode away the stone now I'm getting up ♪ ♪ I'm getting up oh now I'm getting up ♪ ♪ Hallelujah to the man on the middle cross ♪ ♪ 'Cause he didn't know the dead but he paid it off ♪ ♪ And he rode away the stone now I'm getting up ♪ ♪ I'm getting up oh now I'm getting up ♪ ♪ Hallelujah to the man on the middle cross ♪ ♪ 'Cause he didn't know the dead but he paid it off ♪ ♪ And he rode away the stone now I'm getting up ♪ ♪ 'Cause he didn't know the dead but he paid it off ♪ ♪ And he rode away the stone now I'm getting up ♪ ♪ I'm getting up oh I'm getting up ♪ ♪ I believe in Jesus' name ♪ ♪ I believe he died just say ♪ ♪ On the cross he cleared my name ♪ ♪ Isn't that amazing? Yes it is ♪ ♪ I believe on that third day ♪ ♪ That he walks right out the grave ♪ ♪ Full of life with him I'm raised ♪ ♪ Isn't that amazing? Come on church lift your praise today ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ Oh man, it's been a good day. I'm so glad you guys are here. If you're watching online I want to say welcome. I'm so glad you're here that you're joining us today. But for those that are new here I'm even more glad. Because for some reason today you decided to get in your car and drive

to a connection point. You see I don't believe that it was just some reason. I believe that you're here on purpose. I believe that God put this nudge in your heart for you to come today and just have an encounter with him. And I'm excited for what he's going to do today in your life. If you could scan the QR code on the screen or text the word guest to 573-340-4037. Or you can just tap the tag on the back of the chair in front of you. Again, I'm so glad you're here. We're going to continue in our worship here in just a moment. And as we worship if you have a knee today, if you're sick, if you're hurting I encourage you to come forward. We're going to have our prayer workers line this stage. We want to agree with you in prayer over that knee today. But this week I believe God was showing me that there's another need that we need to pray over. As we were in our staff meeting on Wednesday, we were spending a time at the beginning in worship and in prayer. And we tried something new this week. We wrote all the needs that we had. The people that we knew that needed healing, whatever it may be, we wrote it on a whiteboard. And as we would worship, we would go up and pray over these names. And I had a hope for these names because I heard a pastor say one time that all Christians will be healed in one or three ways. Either miraculously in an instant, over time, through medicine, or eventually in eternity. We all who believe, who put our faith and our trust in Jesus, we have this hope that one day all the ills and the pains of this life

will be gone and we will be healed when we're in the presence of Jesus. But as I was praying over, as I was praying over these names, Because if they don't know, they won't receive that healing. They'll stand before the throne of judgment and Jesus will say, "The part for me, for I never knew you, and they'll spend an eternity apart from Jesus." I can't help but think that we all have someone that's popping into our heads right now. Someone that we know, whether it's a family member, a co-worker, a friend who does not believe, who does not have that hope for healing to come in eternity. And I felt the need this week that we as the body of Christ need to pray for those people. So today as we continue to worship, if you have a need, yes, come forward, we want to pray with you, we want to pray for you. But I encourage you to come forward and ask that we agree and prayer with you for that family member, for that friend, for that co-worker that does not believe that some way, somehow, may have an encounter with the Lord, that they may put their faith and their trust in this. Looking forward as we worship, let's pray. Oh, your mercy never fails, and all my tears, I've been held in your hand, from the moment that I wake up, until I lay in my head, I will see the goodness. Oh, my life you have been saved, oh, my life you have been so, so good, every prayer that I've been saved, oh, my life you have made me through the fire, and our dear friend, you are close like no other, no you as a father, I've known you as a friend, I've met in the goodness of God, oh, oh, my life you have been faithful, oh, my life you have been faithful, oh, my life you have been so, so good, every prayer that I have made, oh, I will see the goodness is running out, you're turning out to me, your goodness is running out, you're turning out to me, my life lay down, I surrender my, I give you everything, your goodness is running out to me, your goodness is running out, it's running out to me, your goodness is running out to me, my life lay down, surrender my, I give you everything, your goodness is running out, it's running out to me, my life lay down, I surrender my, I give you everything, ♪ And all my life you have been faithful ♪ ♪ And all my life you have been shown ♪

♪ So good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I have made ♪ ♪ All I'm gonna see ♪ ♪ Have a goodness of God ♪ ♪ I'm gonna stay ♪ ♪ 'Cause all my life you have been faithful ♪ ♪ And all my life you have been shown ♪ ♪ So good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I have made ♪ ♪ All I'm gonna see ♪ ♪ Have a goodness of God ♪ ♪ All I'm gonna see ♪ ♪ Have a goodness of God ♪ Amen. How many is glad to be in God's house this morning? Can we give him our best praise? Amen. [Applause] How awesome is it to get to worship Jesus here together with our folks online and in prisons across America? How amazing is it to sing like we did just a moment ago about the goodness of God and the song before that you think about the goodness? We were on our way to hell until Jesus stepped in. How many thanking for the cross? How many thanking for the resurrection? Changes everything, amen? Go ahead and fist bump two people this morning and say, "You look marvelous, so glad to see you." What a great 1145 crowd. Hey, we love you. Thank you for being here. And those of you watching online, thank you for tuning in wherever you're at. You can download our message notes right now for any of the media outlets. In-house, grab yours, grab your Bible, grab your journal, and together we're gonna turn again to the Book of Hebrews.

If you're following the Bible reading plan, you know we're gonna be in the Book of Hebrews for about three weeks. And so we're gonna call this little time together a little mini-series better because the whole message of the Book of Hebrews is if you've got Jesus, you've got the better option. Can I get an amen from somebody? If you've got Jesus, you've got the better option, amen? And so last week we talked about how Jesus is better. Today I want to talk to you about this subject. We have a better hope. And listen, I want to tell you, this one is one of those messages that the Lord has just really, really been stern on my own soul this week. So I'm gonna tell you up front, here's what's gonna happen. I want to talk to you about this out of Hebrews chapter three through six. Are you reading plan? And by the way, if you're new here and you're like, he keeps talking about a reading plan. What are we doing? If you're new here today, you can join us this week in our reading plan. We have hard copies of it at the next step station. You can download it online, and here's what it is. We're reading through the New Testament and the Book of Psalms together as a church. And then I preach somewhere from it every weekend, which five chapters a week, one chapter a day, five days a week, so easy. And then we have these little Bible huddles where people are going together and sharing what God is speaking to them, and it's powerful. And if you're interested in that, we can help you with that. So we love for you to dive in with us. We're in Hebrews right now, and here's what we're seeing. That the Book of Hebrews is written to these first century Jewish believers who are going through a very difficult season, and as I studied for this week, the Lord just continued to impress upon my heart that there are times

when all of us are going through these type of seasons, and we need to have a moment to just come back and come close to the Lord. And so at the end of this message, I'm going to ask you, as the worship team's going to come back up, and we're going to have a little bit of worship, we're not going to drag it out, I promise, but we are going to have just a moment. And we're going to ask you not to go in and out of the room during that moment because we don't want you to interrupt what the Holy Spirit may be doing, because we're going to have a moment where we're going to be able to bring our burdens, our cares, our needs, and we're going to bring them to the throne of grace, and we're going to give it back to Jesus and realign our focus before we leave here today. Is that good with everybody? I just want you to know where we're headed. And I want to ask you to pray with me because, listen, watch this. You've already worshiped the Lord through singing. That's awesome. We've worshiped the Lord through serving. Many of you volunteer in our church, and thank you. And if you're looking to volunteer, we're ready for you. All right, I'll just tell you. Many of you have worshiped the Lord through your giving. We can't operate as a church and do what God's called us to do without your faithfulness to tithing and offering. So thank you for that. That's a form of worship. But right now, we're going to take the next 30 minutes we're going to come together in a beautiful time of prayer at the end, okay? So pray with me now to get started, Father, it's in Jesus' name. We love you. We thank you for this morning, for this incredible time you've given us to worship you through song or serving or giving.

God, we thank you for those in the room and those online and prisons across America. But God, for the next few moments, what we want to do and what we desire to do is to worship you while we behold truths from your word. So God, give us ears to hear what the Holy Spirit has to say. Let our minds comprehend these truths. Let our hearts be opened, receive in faith that we may become more like you and less like us. God, our world is dark and it needs believers who know what hope looks like. So God, help us to shine this hope in the world we live in, but first to shine it to the world. We've got to let it shine inside our own hearts. This morning I pray that the grace of God will rise up and overshadow many, many people here today in this room and watching online around the world. I pray that God, your truths come alive in us and that we'll draw near to you today. So give us minds of truth and voices of hope, hearts full of compassion, hands of service and feet of purpose and we pray all this in the mighty name of Jesus and all God's people shout, "Amen." Amen. Well, in 1983, Tammy Odom and Herfiancée, Richard Sharp, set out on a tour with her yacht. They set out to sail from Tahiti to San Diego. 1983 is also the year of Hurricane Raymond and while they were somewhere out in the Pacific Ocean, their yacht came running head on with Hurricane Raymond. You may think, "I think I know this story." Well, if you've read the book or watched the movie "Adrift," this is the true story of Tammy and Richard. All right. So they're somewhere out in the Pacific when they run into Hurricane Raymond and all of a sudden the boat is being tossed back and forth. Richard tells Tammy, "Go down into the lower quarters for safety. The only problem was the boat was capsizing.

It was tossing so much that she's being thrown around like a rag doll down in the hole of the boat and she gets knocked out. She doesn't regain consciousness for 27 hours when she woke up. She's laying in water. The cabin is filling up with water. The sail is broke. All the electronic devices of the ship are destroyed and Richard is nowhere to be found. In the movie, if you watch the movie, you know that she finds Richard and brings him, puts him on the ship and nurses him on her way back to shore. But in reality, Richard's body was never found. Here is a 23-year-old girl out in the Pacific. She is thousands of miles away from shore and she has a decision to make. She can drift along or she can set her gaze and steer. And here's where I want you to lean in today in this room and watch it online and wherever you are. I want you to challenge yourself with this question. When the storm hits your life, are you going to simply drift along with it or are you going to cast your gaze and steer? And if you're going to cast your gaze and steer, let me ask you, who or what are you steering toward? That's what we're going to think about today as we dive into the book of Hebrews. See, this young lady didn't get to choose the storm. The storm came without any warning. The storm came without her having an opinion on the matter. The storm came, that was not her choice, but the direction that she set was. And I want to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, storms are going to come in your life. And when they come, you have to make a decision. You can either drift along or you can set your gaze and you can set your direction. Last week, we were looking at Hebrews, chapters 1 and 2. Remember who we're writing to.

We're writing to Jewish believers in a very difficult season, most likely after 80-64 before 80-70. This is a time period. If you have never done the study, go back and read how Christians went through after Nero declared war on Christianity after Rome burned in 80-64. Go back and see how the Christians for the next 300 years would be fed to lions and burned say Caesar is Lord. At the same time these Jewish Christians are being told to denounce Christ and live, the Judaizers behind them are saying denounce Jesus and come back to Moses. Come back to the familiarity of what you were raised in. Come back to the law of Moses, and so these Christians, it's written to them because they're in a very difficult system full of pressure. And we saw last week Hebrews chapter two one, it struck a nerve with many of us. He says we must pay attention to what we have heard, and he's referring to Jesus. Chapter one's all about the supremacy and the divinity of Jesus as the son of God and the fulfillment of the law of Moses, and he's saying listen, listen, listen, I understand where you're at right now. Now you're going through some pressure, but you need to pay attention, read the last line with me, ready to go, so that we will not drift away. And that drifting away struck a nerve, and you have to think about that. What does it look like to drift away? For most of us, you don't wake up one morning and go. I just don't think I want to follow Jesus anymore. As we talked about last week, most of the time it's a thousand small distractions. It's just all these daily routines and distractions and these things that come up in life. And all of a sudden we're not praying and we're not getting into our word, we're not doing the here journals, we're not sitting with the Lord. And all of a sudden we just wake up one morning and realize, I don't even know how I got here. But God feels way over there. And then we look back and we realize it was all these little distractions that kind of

led us there. That was last week. Don't drift. But today I want to talk to you about the next level. What about it's not a thousand little distractions that cause you to drift? What about when you come face to face with a storm that shocks you and rocks your world? What about the moment when you get the diagnosis you never saw coming? Or you wake up and realize there's trouble in the marriage and you didn't know it? Or that relationship ended? And that child is making decisions that you wish they weren't, but you can't do anything about it. Where's that prayer you've been praying for a long time? And the answer just keeps coming back, no, never, not now, maybe someday. And you just can't figure out where God is in the middle of it. Maybe it's that guilty conscience, that shame that you keep carrying over the same sin you've repented of a million times before and you can't worship God and you can't lean into your walk with Christ. You can't take the next step in your faith because that voice in the back of your head keeps reminding you what you used to do, who you used to be, what you did back then and the shame is keeping you from worshiping with a clear conscience today. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Maybe it is that temptation that you're fighting even this morning. You fight it, you come to church, you get it to God, and then you go back and it's waiting for you when you get home and it's that same temptation that keeps dragging you back. Maybe it's an unconfessed sin that you just refuse to give up and give over to God. Maybe it's hurt or anger or unforgiveness or pain. Sometimes in this world of sin, we've come face to face with a storm out of nowhere and it doesn't drift us away silently. It's not like we wake up one more and we're like, oh no, where did I, how did I get here? No, no, no.

Sometimes what we're faced with so rocks our system. We don't feel a little gentle drift. We feel a rip current that is ripping us apart and pulling us away. And every time we try to come up, it drags us back down and rose us over the bottom of the floor. Anybody know what I'm talking about? I believe that's exactly where these Hebrew believers were at this point in the letter. I believe they're in a moment where they feel like no matter what we do, we're going to fail and we're going to, we're going to displease somebody. We're not going to make it through. The Romans are on one side, the Jews are on the other and the writer of Hebrews wants them to be reminded. What I pray you are reminded of this morning is that if you've got Jesus, you still got the better option. Don't just drip, but don't walk away, either. Don't pull away from Him. And look at Hebrews chapter three, here's what the writer Hebrews says. You want to talk about Moses, let's talk about Moses for a minute. Now listen, when you read passages, you can't just quickly read through. You're going to miss something and I want you to see He says, "Moses was faithful." Hey, go back to Moses. Moses was faithful. Watch this as a servant in all of God's household. As a testimony, watch this, of what would be said in the future, saying Moses wasn't the final. Moses wasn't the period at the end of God's statement. He was only proclaiming something yet to come. Or maybe I should say someone who was yet to come.

And then the author says, "But Christ." And any time you see a butt in the Bible, you need to stop and see what it's there for. Come on somebody. But Christ was a faithful, watch this, watch this, watch this, son. Now how many in the room and online understand there's a big difference between a servant and a son. And this is what the writer Hebrews is saying. This isn't by accident. He wants them to know. He wants to pick this out. Moses was a servant. I'm not talking about Moses. I'm talking about somebody greater than Moses. We're talking about Jesus, the son, over his household and watch this, watch this, watch this. Just in case you want to know where you become, when you become a follower of Jesus, who you become, he says, and that is the household we are if we hold on to our confession and the hope in which we boast. And the two words that I believe stands out in the passage that I want you to circle, if you've got your Bible open, are these two words right here, hold on. Because this is the whole message of the entire book of Hebrews to these Christians, these Jewish Christians who are struggling, do I renounce, do I go back to Moses? Or do I stay with Christ? And the two words the writer Hebrews wants to say,

"Sam, with me on the count of three, ready to go." One, two, three, hold on. And I am fully convicted that the Holy Spirit sent me to say to somebody in the room today or watching online or in a prison in America, hold on. And if you're not there yet, here's what I know about storms. You're either in a storm, you just came out of a storm or you live long enough, brother, sister, you're gonna come into a storm. Come on, so anybody know what I'm talking about. And when you find yourself in that moment, here is the words of the writer of Hebrews, hold on. Hold on to what? Hold on to your confidence. Hold on to your hope. Hold on to Jesus. Today what I wanna do is I want to give you two insights from Hebrews as to why placing your hope in Jesus is better. And I want you to think about it like this. You and I don't get to choose whether or not we're gonna face storms in life. They just kind of show up, somebody say, "Man." But here's where you and I get to decide. Remember that story I told you at the beginning? She didn't get to decide about Hurricane Raymond, but she got to decide where she's going afterwards. And by the way, she said her gaze, she said her gaze to Hawaii, which was 1,500 miles away. And after 41 days, she pulled into the port of Hilo.

She used the stars and the sun to navigate her direction. And she set her gaze and she made it. You and I don't get to choose the storm. Look at me, but we get to choose not to let the storm decide where we end up. Amen? Two insights I wanna share with you today from this story or from the scriptures rather. And the first one is this, a better hope in Jesus gives you the strength to endure. A better hope in Jesus gives you the strength to endure. And I want you to see how the writer Hebrews says this. He says, "Watch out, brothers and sisters, "so that there won't be in any of you, "watch us watch us an evil, unbelieving heart "that turns away from the living God." And then there's the bud again, all right? I don't want you to have an unbelieving heart. I don't want you to turn away from God. You're in the storm. You didn't see it coming. You need to set your direction now. How do we do that? Well, there's pieces to this, excuse me. Notice the next bud here. What is it is for all of us encourage one another how often daily, this is why you need to be more than a Sunday morning, a Christian here in our church. I encourage you to get in a group, get into a huddle,

get to know some people, get on a serve team, get to know some people that can live life with you because it's a daily battle. And sometimes you've got to have daily encouragement, iron, sharpening iron, and someone coming alongside you and reminding you that we are in this, keep your eyes on you. He says, but encourage each other daily while it's still called today. So that, watch this. Here's the warning so that none of you is hardened. God doesn't want your heart to get hard by sin's deception. For we have become participants in Christ if we hold firmly until the end of the reality that is that we had at the start. Every once in a while somebody asks me, how do I know if somebody's truly saved? Look up here. The only true people that know for sure that anyone saved is, you know, if you've surrendered your life to Jesus and Jesus knows if you surrendered your life. Can I get an amen? Can we just get real clear on that amen? But now now we live in a Christian community and we live in faith together. And every once in a while, someone in the Christian family messes up. We sin, we, you know, some, you do, how many know we're all sinners

and come short of the glory of God. And here's what happens. Somebody sees that, somebody hears about it, somebody watches, somebody experiences it. And all of a sudden we go on social media and go, I thought they were Christians. I thought they love Jesus. Did you not assault them yesterday? Uh-oh, at the ball game, I saw, right, I saw. And here's the problem, here's the problem. Galatians chapter six says, if we see a brother or sister who falls down into sin, we are to restore them with humility and meekness. Watch this, least we also might find ourselves in the same predicament. It might be you next week they're talking about, come on somebody. That is not, listen, we all fall down. A Christian is not somebody who never falls down. It's somebody who doesn't stay down. A Christian knows how to get back up, repent, and let brothers and sisters hold them accountable and get back up and keep living for the Lord. So stop listening to the law of perfectionism because it doesn't exist this side of heaven. Jesus is the only one who's ever been perfect. Jesus has never had nothing but a bunch of old sinners to work with, amen? Look at your name, I'm telling him he's talking about you now. Amen, amen.

Now, now, just think about this. The same person you just said that looked right back at you and said, yep, he's still talking to him right now. Amen. It's all of us, right? Here's the thing I want you to know. What is our go? Our go is to leave a testimony behind us that through the ups and the downs are faith hailed through the good moments and the bad through the storms to the failures through it all. We kept getting back up and we held on to the end and we leave a testimony of faithfulness behind us. How many want that to be how you are remembered? None of us are going to be remembered as perfectly. Let's pray that our faith holds on and we get to end with a great testimony, amen? The wise and the writer of Hebrew is talking about this. He's taken the Hebrew, these Jewish believers back to Moses and the children of Israel when they were out in the wilderness. He's bringing them back to say, listen, what you need is endurance. That's what this whole message is, to hold on, to hold firmly. It's that when God doesn't make sense or when your world's falling apart or you're hurting or you're in shame or you're struggling with a sin or whatever it is, when your world has been rocked, hold on.

Hold on to Jesus, don't turn away from him. Run to him. You got to have endurance in those moments and listen to me, endurance isn't pretending the storm doesn't exist. That is bad theology. When people come at you and say, I know I've got all the symptoms of an illness but I'm not saying I'm sick because then it'll come true. Bro, you're already sick. Stop lying to yourself and realize endurance doesn't mean I pretend it doesn't exist. Endurance means I trust Jesus in the middle of it. I'm not letting it have the last word. Jesus is going to have the last word. And don't run from God because listen, when you listen, don't go back to Egypt, don't turn away from him because when you turn away from him, you're going away from the one who can pull you out of it. Don't let what you're going through pull you away from Jesus because he's the one who can pull you through it. And that's what he is going to do here in chapter three. He says, you guys remember Moses and children of Israel, right? You remember how they went through, left Egypt and got to the Red Sea and couldn't cross. What did God do? God opened the Red Sea and we crossed over. That's right.

You remember when you got out there and you got hungry? Anybody ever get hungry? You get hungry when I preach too long? You're hungry. I'm hungry. They got there and got hungry. What did God do? God sent manna down from heaven. Bread came from heaven. Like Holy Ghost inspired sardos. and they ate it when they got tired of the sweet bread, God sent them quail, and now they had meat, and God took care of them. In the day they didn't know which way to go, and God put a cloud over the sun, and directed them with a cloud, and put shade over them. At night, He put fire in the sky, and warmed them up, and lit the way. God did all this, and watch this, watch this, watch this. You're gonna blow your absolute minds. In about two months, they arrived on Kedish Barnea, ready to go into the Promised Land. And I know what somebody just now thought, you just thought, I messed up, I'm alive, and I forgot the scripture, and you're saying, 40 years, preacher, 40 years, no, no, no. They actually arrived about two months into the journey. And they got round the edge of the Promised Land, and someone came from the group and said, "There are giants in the land, and we can't defeat them."

Storm. Look at me. The children of Israel had a decision right there. Who are they gonna put their eyes on? The giants, or the God that just got them out of Egypt. Sometimes the greatest thing you can do for your faith in the middle of your struggle, in the middle of your storm, is to sit with God in silence and solitude, and remind yourself all the faithful times God has been faithful in the past, to give you the courage you can have to face the present. And here, they should have done that, and they didn't. And the response of Israel was, let's go back to Egypt. It's because they wanted to go back to Egypt, they spent the next 40 years wondering in the desert. And they missed out on the blessing that God had from because of unbelief. In fact, the writer Hebrews says in verse 19, so we see that they were unable to enter because of their unbelief. Here's what I need you to capture. The wilderness was never the problem. Their view of God in the wilderness was the problem. The storm you may be in right now, look at me, look at me, look at me. The storm you may be in right now is really not the big issue. It's not about what's going on around you, is how you're allowing the storm to affect you on the inside.

The biggest danger of the storm is that it clouds or distorts your view of God in the moment. And the writer Hebrews is saying, we gotta get our eyes cleared up. We gotta hold on to what we know about Jesus. And you remember the warning that we read a moment ago in the passage so that our hearts do not become hardened. Because when your eyes on the storm and not on God, when it's on the giant instead of God, what happens is you go into disappointment and then disappointment leads to frustration. And then frustration leads to cynicism. And then cynicism becomes distance and then distance becomes hardness. How many of you have ever been here or know someone who has? You're in this moment and all of a sudden you've got your eyes on the storm and you don't understand what God is up to right now or the situation has occurred and it's rocked your world and now your faith is shaken. And if you don't deal with it and get your eyes back on, the father, if you don't get back into the word and get back into science and solitude, if you don't got the right voices speaking in your ear, your disappointment leads you to frustration. The longer you lean in the frustration, soon you become cynical. And the cynicism leads to this hardness of the heart where you can't even hear God speak anymore.

And God doesn't want that for you. God doesn't want that for you. There's so much better for you. It's not that the storm, what the storm is doing is how it's changed your heart. And what happens is when you find yourself walking in circles, how many have ever walked in circles? You ever felt like your life's just walking in circles? There's an interesting research that was done sometime back. They grabbed a group of participants, they brought them into a room, they blindfolded them and they told them to walk in a straight line. I so wanted to pull up audience attendance today to come on stage and do this, but I knew I wouldn't have enough time and do what I want to do at the end. And so here's what I'll tell you. Do this this afternoon with your grandbabies. Let them walk into walls and bounce off windows. This is gonna be so much fun. Can't wait, Brock, it's gonna be a blast. You get your grandchildren. All right, here we go. Here's what they did in the story or the research. They grabbed these people and they blindfolded them. And when you don't have a point of reference, it's really hard to walk in a straight line. And they said, now walk in a straight line. So they're blindfolded, here's what they're doing.

They walk in a straight line. Everybody, thanks for walking in a straight line. but you really don't know that what happens is in the long run, you just end up walking in circles. But the whole time you're walking in circles, you think you're walking straight. And then they ask this question. I wonder if that's true if you can see where you're going, without a blind phone. So they took these same participants out onto the woods and they put them at point A and they said, we want you to hike to point B. It's gonna take several hours for you to get there. They gave them all GPS trackers. Thank God, you're gonna know that in a minute. They gave them GPS trackers, but they're not blindfolded. And they say, here point, go in this direction to point B. Everyone started out well. They could see the sun and they could see a mountain off in the distance and they're walking toward that reference point, they know where they're headed. The problem was during the day, a system of clouds came in and it got really hazy and the clouds covered the sun and then they couldn't see the mountain peak anymore and it started getting dark. And all of a sudden they found out that not a single participant made it to point B because once they lost the visual of the destination, their preference point, every one of them veered off into the woods and the GPS trackers show them all walking in circles.

Lean in close, let me tell you something. There's something wired on the inside of us that once we lose our point of focus, we think we're going straight but we really just end up in circles. This is why rescue workers, when someone says, "Hey, someone's been missing for so many hours." They always start close to their beginning spot 'cause most of the time they're found within a mile of where they began, not miles away because they walk in circles. Look at me. When the storm that you go through in life or whatever it is that has rocked your world in that moment, when that's what your eyes begin to see, it distorts how you see God. And if you don't go back and get clear on your vision of God again, what will happen is without realizing it, you'll veer off course and start walking in spiritual circles. God has a better plan for you. And the book of Hebrews gives you the answer to how to get back into alignment. For one, he said, do you remember the line? Encourage one another, how often? Daily, we need to allow men and women in our lives and if you don't have them, this is why you need to join a group or get into a huddle and we can help you do this. You need people in your life in the church,

not just people you see on Sundays. This is why you need to linger in the cafe and build some relationships. You need people in your life that you give the right to be a Barnabas, that they have the right to speak into your life when they see you getting off track and they can say, hey, my friend, I believe you need to go pray about that a little longer. Hey, my friend, how's your Bible reading going? I'm starting to see you drift a little. Hey, bro, we need to get back to church on Sunday. Let's meet and worship and pray. Hey, let's get back into alignments. We need these people in our lives. We have to get rid of casual Christianity. And in this church, we're just gonna be real about stuff. Amen? We need to allow people to walk with us in our life 'cause God wants to keep you in alignment, but not just keep you in alignment so you make it through. Lean in close, lean in close, lean in close. He also wants you to find rest in the journey and that's number two. That our better hope gives your soul a place to rest. I love what the author does here in chapter four, verse nine. He says there is a Sabbath rest that remains for God's people for the person who has entered his rest, watch his, watch his, has rested from his own works just as God did from his. Stop for a moment, lean in close.

Let me make sure you got the context. He is directly referring here to our salvation that you cannot earn your way to salvation. You cannot work your way to God. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament, all the sacrifices, his blood, once and for all, has atoned you for your sins. You have to come into Christ and receive him and there is a rest from the weary of trying to earn your way to God that you can find when you by faith through grace receive salvation. Now, lean in close, at least why is this so important? Because he's dealing with the pressure they are of leaving because watch this, watch this. If Jesus can give you rest from trying to get to God by your own works, how much more can he give you rest from the storms that you're battling in the moment? Amen? So watch this. He says, "Just as God rested from His, and now comes the charge in the room, online, that's all read out loud together, ready? So let us come on, then make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience. So when you're in that storm, what is the charge? You have to recognize it and make every effort to get back into alignment with Jesus. That's why you've got to have people who can speak in your life and then you've got to listen to them. And you've got to humble yourself down and make every effort because the God that we serve is worthy for you to set your gaze back on. To get your eyes off that, how many of you remember the story of Peter walking on water? Isn't that one of the coolest stories in all the Bible? What are they in the middle of when he walks on water? A storm? How did Peter walk on the water in the midst of the storm? Where was his eyes on Jesus?

As long as his eyes was on Jesus, did the storm change? Did the waves change? Did the wind change? No, but he walked on the water. When did he begin to sink? The moment his eyes left Jesus and his gaze got on to the wind and the waves. Rest doesn't mean the absence of storms. Rest means you set your gaze on the one who can rescue you and hold you in the midst of them. Amen? His name is in Hebrews 4, verse 14 says it like this. "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who's passed through the heavens, say his name with me, everybody go, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way, just as we have, yet without sin, then there's the therefore." And I want us in this criminal line to read the therefore together. Ready? Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness so that we may receive what mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. And here's what I love about the writer of Hebrews and what I pray sinks into your own heart and soul this morning. What is the Bible teaching us? What is the word of God wanting to tell us? What did the writer of Hebrews want these early believers to know? Is Jesus understand you? He gets you. This is what separates Christianity from every other religion of the world. No other religion preaches what I'm telling you this morning. That God so loves you. He took on flesh. He came. He suffered. He was rejected. He was lied on. He knows what it is to lose a loved one. He knows what it is to be slandered and stabbed in the back by your best friends. He knows what it's like to hurt. He knows what it's like to forgive. He knows what it's like to fill in the blank. No one else preaches this. No one else claims this. Jesus alone, God in human flesh, came and now, not because he died, not because he was buried, but because on the third day death could not hold him down. He rose from the grave and now he sits at the right hand of the Father. Watch this and says, you can come to me. You can come close to me. You can come to my throne. And when you think of the word throne, you probably think of sovereignty, power, authority, and you should. But here's the goodness of God. He didn't say you could come to my throne, period. He wants you to know what the sovereign, all powerful, authoritative throne of God looks like, because we have all kinds of ideas. And the scripture here says, right now it is a throne of grace. This is the place you can come to, here's the one you can come. "and find out that there is mercy and there is grace." He understands what you're carrying. In fact, you read it this week, Hebrews 5-7 says, "And when He pray with loud cries and tears," He understands. And I want you to think about it like this. You don't have to explain your pain to someone who's familiar with it. You know one of the most beautiful things about sitting with the Lord is when you're reading scripture and praying and worshiping just sitting quiet with the Lord is,

is that when your words fail you, He still gets you. You ain't got to convince Him of nothing. You ain't got to convince Him of how hurt you are or how painful this moment is. He already gets you. Why? Because He's familiar with it. How many of you have ever put your arms around somebody who lost someone and you just sat with them because you lost someone too. They didn't have to say what they felt like. You knew what they felt like. Jesus knows what you feel like. Are you listening to me? What about you online and in prison? You listening? Jesus says come boldly. Are you struggling with pain today, come boldly? Are you dealing with unforgiveness, come boldly? Are you dealing with the temptation that you can't defeat, come boldly? Do you have an unconfessed sin, come boldly? Do you have an unforgiveness, come boldly? Do you have guilty conscience, come boldly? Do you have shame and regret, come boldly? Do you have fear or doubts or anger or frustration? Come boldly today to the throne of grace and you will find help in your time of need. If you don't come to Jesus, God didn't fail you because He's already gave you the invitation

and swung the doors of heaven open. You have failed yourself for not walking through the door that God has opened. Amen? Here's what I want you to capture, your big takeaway. A better hope is the anchor for your soul. I want you to lean in close and I want you to think about this. What is it that keeps a ship from drifting in the middle of the storm? Is it a better captain? Is it calmer waters? No, it's the anchor. It's the anchor in Hebrew 6, 19 says, I want you to know what the anchor is or who I should say the anchor is. Says we have this hope as an anchor for the soul. Say the next three words, ready to go? Firm and secure. Now watch this, this anchor enters into the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. And just so you know who he's talking about, he says his name, say it with me, Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner. In other words, just in case you're not, who is the anchor? Jesus is the anchor. And it's because he's resurrected and he sits at the right hand of the Father. He now is the anchor for your soul. Amen?

You can come to him. One of these days I hope to lead a tour to Rome. I'm going to leave one to Egypt in February. I don't know where we're going after that. We'll go to Israel one day but it's got to come way down. Come on somebody or I'm going to wait till Jesus comes and then go to Jerusalem. Anyway, one way or the other. But I want to go to Rome one day because I want to go to a series of tunnels that lie underneath the streets of the city and it's where first century Christians buried their dead. You can go there, you can go into these maze of tunnels. And there you'll find about 500 years worth of bodies, a years of people where they buried their dead, many of them to be Christians. And these are Christians who died in some of the worst times of persecution. It's called the catechomes. And in these catechomes where you walk through the tunnels, the tunnels of tombs, literally. The Christians would put emblems of their faith on the walls of the tomb, not for the dead, but for the living who are walking through the tunnels. There are at least 19 different Christian emblems found on the walls of the catechomes. There are some that you see quite often such as the fish with the Greek letters of iththness, which stands for Jesus Christ, son of God's savior. They're a fish all over.

There's the dove, which is the presence of God through the Holy Spirit. There's many of a shepherd carrying a lamb, which is an emblem of the good shepherd. This is actually a picture out of the catacombs of one of the engravings. And you see the two fish and the anchor with a cross embedded in the anchor. This was a message for Christians who were going through terrible persecution. It wasn't for the dead, it was for the living, and it was a message from those on the other side saying, hang in there, hold on, keep your eyes on Jesus. The anchor holds. The anchor holds. Every once in a while someone will ask me personally, they'll say, were you in the Navy? That has happened just the other day. Somebody asked me, I came here, I was an airport or someone, somebody asked me, were you in the Navy? Happens all the time. No, wasn't in the Navy, and they go, I just wondered because of the anchor on your arm. I know some of you gifted at tattoos, we can talk about Leviticus some other day. Don't miss a forest for the trees, get the message. But why do I have an anchor on my forearm? In a very difficult season of my own life wrestling with some things with the Lord, I just turned 50, I was wanting to finish well, thinking about, you know, where I was at and where I was at, just other things going on, family and so on, and just wrestling with some things to the Lord. I was in Turkey and I was sitting in my lead. The very place where Paul in Acts chapter 20 says goodbye to the Ephesian elders and says, my life is of no value of my own. My only aim is to finish the work that Lord Jesus has given me and to testify to God's grace. And as I was sitting there and I'm praying, I'm sitting with the Lord, the anchor came

back to my mind because I knew it was the emblem that was so dominant throughout the catacombs and for what early Christians would use to say, when you're in a storm, remember the anchor holds. And at that moment, I thought to myself, if I ever get a tattoo, it will be an anchor so that when people ask me, were you in the Navy, I can say no, but can I tell you about Jesus. Let me tell you what it's there for. And the reason I have a compass in the middle of it is because of that verse, because in that moment, I felt like the Holy Spirit said, if I can keep in my mind what Paul's heart was in that moment, that my life doesn't belong to me, that my aim is to finish the race that the Lord Jesus has given me to do His work and to testify to God's grace, that was what will be keeping me on my true north so I don't drift away and I'll finish well. And that's why that's the story for all you new folks has been wondering, there it is, because the anchor holds. And our eyes on Jesus is what keeps us from drifting, He's what keeps us on our true north. And this morning, here's what I'm going to ask you to do with me. Can we just have some so searching moments? The worship team's going to come out, I'm not going to linger this, we're not going to be here long, but the worship team's going to come out and we're going to sing just a little bit. And while we do, listen I'm just going to tell you, I'm going to kneel right here. And I'm going to invite any of you who just want to come and lift up your hands to the Lord and say, God, maybe I'm in a storm right now, maybe I'm dealing with this right now, and I just need to bring it back to you. I just need to get my eyes on you and off of this, whatever it is, come join me. If you're watching online, we've got people who are going to pray with you online right now, and listen to me. If you're here and you've never trusted in Christ, this is a beautiful time right here right now, just put your eyes on Jesus for your salvation. So I'm going to ask you to pray with me.

When I say, man, we're going to stand, we're going to worship little, and I'm going to invite you to come and pray. We'll have people here to pray with you at the altars, people pray with you online, whatever you need. We're just going to spend a little time getting our eyes on to Jesus, the anchor of our soul. Amen? Father in Jesus' name, thank you for this morning. Thank you for who you are and all that you're doing, and God, we just pray though over these next few moments you'll just speak, because we just lift up our hands and give you our gratitude to tell you how much we love you. We thank you that through God's Word, it speaks so clearly and directly to us that things are going to come in our lives and we're going to find ourselves sometimes distracted and sometimes being pulled away. And the Word of God calls us to stop and reflect on you, and that's what we're going to do for a few minutes. We're just going to stop and reflect and give you our gratitude, and in that moment, God, if there's something that we need to confess. or we need to ask your victory or strength or help or healing with. God, we're just gonna come to you and God, we're gonna put our faith on you and get our eyes off the storm and get it on the Savior. And if there's anybody here today that needs to follow you in salvation, I pray that right here, right now, they'll put their trust in you. Friend, if that's you, pray this with me. Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. She loved me, you died for me, and you rose again to give me eternal life.

And by faith, I receive you now as my Lord and my Savior. And it's in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen, and amen. Would you stand with me? As we worship, you can worship. But if you like prayer, you like to come join me? Come join me. And let's spend a moment casting our eyes back on the anchor of our soul. ♪ All my words, full shoes ♪ ♪ I've got nothing new ♪ ♪ How could I express ♪ ♪ All my gratitude ♪ ♪ I could sing these songs ♪ ♪ As I often do ♪ ♪ But every song must end ♪ ♪ And you never ♪ ♪ So I threw my hands ♪ ♪ And praise you again and again ♪ ♪ 'Cause all that I have is a hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ And I know it's not much ♪ ♪ But I've nothing else been for a key ♪ ♪ Except for a heart singing ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Yes ♪ ♪ I've got one response ♪ ♪ I've got just one move ♪

♪ With my arm stretched wide ♪ ♪ Oh I will worship you ♪ ♪ So I'll throw my hands ♪ ♪ And praise you again and again ♪ ♪ 'Cause all that I have is a hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ And I know it's not much ♪ ♪ But I've nothing else been for a key ♪ ♪ Except for a heart singing ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ And Lord Jesus ♪ ♪ We lift our praise to you today ♪ ♪ Come on just begin to lift our song to the Lord ♪ ♪ Come on my son ♪ ♪ And don't you get shy on me ♪ ♪ Lift up your song ♪ ♪ 'Cause you've got a lie and insight in all songs ♪ ♪ But get up and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Come on my son, oh don't you get shy on me ♪ ♪ Lift up your song ♪ ♪ 'Cause you've got a lie and insight in all songs ♪ ♪ But get up and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on my son ♪ ♪ Don't you get shy on me ♪ ♪ 'Cause you've got a lie and insight in all songs ♪ ♪ And don't you get up and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Come on every voice, sing and throw up my hands ♪ ♪ So I'll throw up my hands ♪ ♪ And praise you again and again ♪

♪ 'Cause all that I have is a hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah and I know it's not much ♪ ♪ But I'm nothing else before a king ♪ ♪ Except for a hard seat ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ - Church, we're gonna continue in this time of prayer. Lord is doing a great work up here. You have any need, come forward. We want to agree with you in prayer today. Go and be the hands of Peter, Jesus. Tell someone about Jesus this week. Tell someone about the anchor that you have for your hope and for your soul. It's been a good day. We love you guys. See you all next week. [BLANK_AUDIO]