Live Wide Awake | Live Well (Part Nine)

Thank you for listening to Riverbend Church's podcast.

To find out more about this message or Riverbend Church,

connect with us online at Riverbend Church dot live.

That was a video, just a snapshot of what our student and

student, students and student ministry have gone through this

past weekend. Got to experience through United

Weekend. If you were a part of United

Weekend, whether it's a student, a host, home transportation,

helping with some of our serve teams, food teams, if you would

just slip it, slip up your hand really quick.

A lot of them are downstairs. Thank you so much on behalf of

the rest of us. We are tired.

On behalf of you, thank you again so much for serving.

Right now our students are downstairs eating breakfast.

Our host homes are probably getting a quick nap in.

Small group leaders are probably still running on adrenaline.

But we can't wait just to hear about everything that God has

done in and through our students and our families out of this

weekend. So always an awesome privilege

of being a part of a church that gathers along with gathers

alongside other churches in our community, in our area, just to

come together and just lift Jesus high, proclaim his word

and just lead students into into a word of encouragement into a

deeper relationship with God. So we'll be hearing more about

United Weekend. Couple things that I do want to

kind of put on your radar is believe it or not, Easter is

actually rapidly approaching. I want to kind of put on your

radar. There's some things that are

coming up to get you to go ahead and pencil in on your calendars

for Easter week, Easter week, Easter Riverbend.

We're going to have a Good Friday service on Friday, April

3rd at 5:30 in this room. Just a really powerful time to

where we come together and just really take a look at everything

that Jesus went through for us. If you're here with us last year

and we went, we did a Good Friday service.

You know what a powerful time and a powerful experience that

was. So that's going to be that

Friday. Also on Saturday, the following

day, April 4th at 5:30, we're doing a special volunteer Easter

service back in this room. We're going to be doing the

exact same thing on Saturday night as we're going to be doing

on the following morning that Easter morning.

The reason that we're doing this is because we need help serving

our community, serving all the people that are going to be

coming onto our campus for Easter.

We need help in volunteers in our various ministry areas.

And you're going to be here more about that next week.

But we want to provide a special Easter service for you, the

volunteers, and that's going to be on Saturday, April 4th from

at 5:30. We're going to have child care

from birth to to three-year olds for that service.

And then of course, on Easter Sunday morning, that's going to

be on April 5th where it falls on the calendar.

We'll have our 9:30 and our 11th service with overflow in our

both of our Little River and river kids environments.

We'll be open and really looking forward to being able to pour

into pour into your kids. So really excited about

everything that that God has teed up for us.

Also next week we're going to be starting a brand new series

called Borrowed, Borrowed. And here's the gist of the

series. In Scripture, we see Jesus

borrowing 5 things. He borrowed a boat, He borrowed

some bread, He borrowed a donkey.

He borrowed a room, and he borrowed a tomb.

And we're going to come back together next week and we're

going to find out the significance of not only why he

borrowed those things, but what it actually means to you and I.

That's going to lead us through through this Easter season.

But as excited as I am about that series starting, I'm really

excited about being able to close out the series that we've

been in kicking since the very beginning of 2026, our Live Well

series. So if you were with us

throughout this series, it's been a non week journey.

It's a series that took us through our 21 days of prayer

and fasting. If there's any part of the

series that that you weren't able to pick up or maybe you're

just new to Riverbend, we would highly encourage you to go back

and kind of listen through where we've been.

You can access that through the Riverbend Church app or our

website or our YouTube channel or wherever you may listen to

podcasts. But it's, I hope that it's

really been a time to where you've been encouraged through

God's word that you, that you may have received a challenge to

grow deeper and experience God in a, in a, in a more real way

in your life. Maybe, maybe for you, it's been

a it's been really a series about the hope that can only

come through Jesus. As you know, if you've been with

us throughout this series, we've been allowing a small book

that's at the end of your Bible book called first Peter to be

our God throughout this Bible. And even though it's a small

book in size, it's absolutely just jam packed with some

incredible, applicable and awesome truth that God has for

us. So if you're, if you're new to

Riverbend, you're new to this series, I want to introduce you

to the main truth or what we've been calling the big idea

throughout the series. If you've been with us, this

would be one last time to walk through this big idea.

And it's to live well. It's to live God's way, firm in

faith, steady in trials, and anchored in hope to live well.

And, and this is the overall premise or the gist of the

series. God actually created you.

He loves you, and he desires his ultimate good for you.

For every single one of us. He desires that we live well.

And the disconnect between God's definition of of living well and

our definition of living well is often our definition involves

God giving us everything that we want.

Yet, however, when we look at God's word, we discover that God

actually loves us way too much to do that to us.

He wants he he knows that our best definition of living well

is for you and I to live out to become the man or woman that he

created us to be. So life is going to be a

constant refining and a dependence on him and, and, and

a growing in relationship with him and, and, and out of that

growing in relationship, there is a love and a peace and a

patience and, and, and a mercy and A and a gentleness and a

kindness that can only come from an experience with him, from a

relationship with him. Like I said, we've been going

through the book of First Peter, and this morning we're going to

end that journey in First Peter with a passage that I would tell

you that if there's one passage in the entire book that I would

encourage you to highlight, underline, memorize, and dig

deeper into is the passage that we're going to walk through this

morning. It's found in First Peter

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5. So if you have a Bible and just

invite you to make your way there.

If you don't have a Bible, then no worries, it's on the top of

your note sheet. Whether it's the hard copy note

sheet that you were handing on your way in or maybe you're

taking notes with us on the on the Riverbend Church app, it's

there as well and it's going to be on the screen.

So with that said, here's what I want to do.

Let's go ahead and read it together.

Humble yourselves, therefore under the mighty hand of God so

that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your

anxieties on him because he cares for you.

Be sober minded. Be your adversary.

The devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to

devour. Peter goes on.

Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of

suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout

the world. And after you have suffered a

little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his

eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm,

strengthen, and establish you to Him.

Be the dominion forever and ever.

A So here's what I want to do. I want to jump straight in and I

want us to look at. There are three distinct

promises that God gives us in this passage of Scripture.

If you're taking notes with us, here's the first one.

The more I humble myself before God, the more He can do through

me. The more I humble myself before

God, the more He can do through me.

Now here's the thing about humility.

Humility is always a journey. It's never really a destination.

And what I mean by that is there will never be a point in time to

where we can look at ourselves in the mirror and honestly be

able to say, hey, after all this time and after all this hard

work, I'm finally humble. That's just a complete oxymoron.

There'll never be a point in time to where we say, listen, I

have arrived. I am humble is not how humility

humility works right? Here's the thing about humility

though. Humility is not walking around

with a lesser than type of attitude.

It's walking around with and it's living with a all the cause

of God type of attitude. Humility is this intentional

daily commitment to empty myself of self so that I can make more

room for God to fill me and for God to use me.

You see, the more I am emptied of self and the more that I am

filled with God, then I begin to understand that I am an

instrument in God's hand and you're an instrument in God's

hand. And that means that God can use

you however He wants to use you where he wants to use and when

He wants to use you. You see, if you really want to

be used by God, if you really want to be able to look back

over your life and go listen, there were a lot of UPS, there

were a lot of downs. There were a lot of failings

there. There were a lot of mistakes in

my life. But I can say that I was used by

God. If you really want to be used by

God, it has got to start with an attitude of humility.

It's got to start with the intentional emptying yourself of

self so that you may be filled more with Him.

Second promise that Peter gives us in this The more I cast my

anxieties on God, the more I rest in His care for me.

The more I cast my anxieties on God, the more I can rest on His

care for me. I want you to check out what

Peter says very commonly used or known verse casting all your

anxieties or or stresses or cares.

Many translations say cares casting all your cares or

anxieties on him because he because God cares for you,

because God cares for you. There's 2 words that we cannot

casually skip over the first one.

If you're taking notes on our note sheet, I'd encourage you to

circle the word casting. Circle that word casting.

The reason I want you to circle that word casting is we know

that the Greek or that the Bible, the New Testament was

written in the Greek language. The Greek word that Peter uses.

There is a word that's called aparrypto.

Aparrypto literally means to heave upon or to hurl and it

signifies like an actual throwing, forceful throwing act.

This word aparipto casting is used only twice in the in the

New Testament. It's used only twice in the

entire Bible. The first one is found in Luke

Luke 19 · chapter mention

chapter 19, and it describes someone throwing a heavy blanket

on the back of a donkey. And the second one is used here

in first Peter 57. You may say, OK, Ben, what's the

big deal? Here's the big deal.

I think that a lot of times when we think about casting all of

our care, casting all of our anxiety on God, it's almost this

like soft, like gentle, like offering up to God.

God, you know that this is what I'm going through.

Would you please take it from me?

And what Peter's telling us is, no, no, no, it's not this like

soft, gentle offering to God. It is a hurling.

It is a heaving. There is a deep emotional, even

guttural sense of desperation. God, this is what I'm dealing

with. You know that I'm dealing with

it. I can't do anything with it but

you can. You take it?

And it is a throwing what is on your mind and on your heart own

to God. That is not only the invitation

of God, that is the instruction of God.

It is not just this peaceful like God.

You take it, it, it this is not going to make some like it's not

going to be like some Pinterest post with like a waterfall in

the background and A and a butterfly gently landing on a

flower type of imagery. This is deep guttural.

You take it, take it. God throwing it at God, that is

casting all your cares, all your anxieties.

Second word, I want you to underline or to circle.

Is that second word all? All?

You're going to be like, Ben, are we going to do this for

every word? No, I think it's really

important that we do it for these first 2 words though.

All is the Greek word Pisan. The sun is used all throughout

the Bible. She used all throughout the New

Testament. It means every, all, the whole,

and it signifies leaving nothing behind.

Here's why it's so important that we don't casually Passover.

The word all is if it is big enough.

If your stress, your care, your anxiety is big enough to weigh

on your heart, to weigh on your mind, it's big enough to hurl on

God. There's nothing too small.

There's nothing too minute for our Heavenly Father.

He wants you to give it all to Him.

All the whole, every. Leaving nothing behind

designates that. Listen.

Not only is humility emptying our self of self, but this whole

issue of casting all your anxieties, all your cares on him

because he cares for you is leave nothing behind.

Give it all to him. Empty yourself of that stress.

Cast it all on him because he cares for you.

This comes back to that second key point.

The degree to which I cast, I throw, I hurl.

All that it makes me anxious, all that weighs on my heart, on

my mind. The things that wake me up in

the middle of the night, the things that keep me up at night,

the things that start my day off in the morning, that are

constantly on my mind and weighing on my heart.

Those things, the degree to which I cast, I hurl.

Those things to God is the same degree to which I will be able

to experience rest all the cause of God.

I will be able to experience peace all the cause of God.

So the second promise that Peter has for us is the degree that I

cast all my cares on him, my anxieties on him is the is the

same degree to which I will be able to able to experience peace

from God. Third, promise that he has for

us. The more I can live wide awake,

the more I can resist my enemy's attacks.

The more I can live wide awake, the more I can resist my enemy's

attacks. I want you to look back.

Look back with me first, Peter, chapter 5, starting in verse 8.

Be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary of the devil

prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

Resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of

suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout

the world. This passage that that's

probably one of the like I said, verses 6 through 11, probably

with the most the most key verses, the most key passage in

the entire book of first Peter. Here's why this is so important

for us to remember. Living Wide awake is

understanding that you and I, that we are under attack, that

we face spiritual attack every day.

And here's what I see as your pastor, and you probably see

this too, You've probably experienced this here.

Kind of the two trappings that I see happening when we challenge

people to kind of live wide awake is either a, we fall into

the trap of downplaying the spiritual attacks in our lives.

And when we downplay it, maybe we're just ignoring it or, or

maybe we just choose not to acknowledge that there's

spiritual attacks. Maybe maybe you're new to

church, maybe you're with us in the room or with us online and

you're new to, to, to coming to church and you're new to the

things of God and to, to Scripture.

You're, you're truly just seeking truth.

So when you hear me say that, listen, we are under spiritual

attack, there may be a little bit of skepticism that's going

on in your mind or your heart right now.

And if there's skepticism and you're, you're downplaying

spiritual attack. Here's what ends up happening.

Here's what ends up happening is we get stuck, we get stuck out

of ignorance, we get stuck out of ignorance in this spiritual

attack. And if we're stuck out of

ignorance, the the, the problem with us downplaying or getting

stuck out of ignorance is it's really difficult to defeat an

enemy that we refuse to acknowledge.

The second trapping that I see happening all the time is not

just a a downplaying, but it's actually the other extreme.

It is a being overwhelmed by all the attacks that we see going on

around us by by by by the destruction that we see by the

results of sin that we see. Maybe for you over these over

the past day or so, you've just been overwhelmed by, by the news

of, of, you know, we're on the verge or not on the verge, but

we've committed to another war in, in, in Iran and, and what is

that going to mean? And, you know, we're, we're kind

of glued to, to our TV's and we're glued to, to YouTube.

And we want to know kind of what, what the experts are

saying about that. And on top of all that, we're,

we're navigating maybe some brokenness in, in, in, in, in

some relationships, maybe some friendships that we have that

that sin has taken a toll on those relationships.

Maybe we have somebody that's really close to us that that is

enslaved or in, chained in chains through, through

addiction. And we just everywhere we look,

we see the catastrophe, we see the shrapnel of sin and

destruction and spiritual attack.

And we we sit there and go, God, what in the world can we do?

And we become stuck because we're paralysed by fear.

And here's the problem with being stuck because we're

paralysed by fear. It's hard to live victoriously

in a battle that you are aren't convinced isn't already lost.

It's hard to live victoriously when you look at the world

around you and all you see is is lost.

So whether or not we're paralysed out of ignorance or

we're paralysed out of overwhelm, stuck is stuck.

And stuck makes us a sitting target for our enemy.

But here's the thing. Living wide awake, that's

incredibly important. Awareness, alertness, all

incredibly important. But that's not where it ends.

I want to get you to look at your note sheet with me.

There are two names. There are two names on your note

sheet, George Eliot Junior and Joseph Lockhart, George Elliott

Junior and Joseph Locker. My guess is you have no idea who

they are or who they, who they were.

Let me kind of tell you their story.

These two guys, they, they were US servicemen.

They were stationed together and and their their post was kind of

a kind of a mundane it, it was kind of an easy post.

It wasn't kind of out in the field marching, but they were

stationed at a, at a, at a radar.

Their post was a radar station. So their job on their shift was

just very mundane. You would even say pretty

boring. They were just looking at a

radar screen all day during during their shift.

They were looking at a radar screen day in, day out, just

looking at this screen. One morning, however, right

before their shift ended, these two guys, they started noticing

what they described as a strange quote UN quote blip on their

screen. So following protocol, they

reported this strange massive blip that that came across their

radar screen. They reported up the chain of

command and their superior officer.

He kind of chalked that strange massive blip up to, oh, those

just must be US planes flying in the vicinity of of our of our

base. Unfortunately for him and

everyone around him, that officer could not have been more

dead wrong. You see, what ensued over the

next few minutes was one of the greatest attacks on US, on U.S.

forces in our hit in our nation's history.

You see the time of the morning that these two guys detected

this blip on the radar screen. It was 7:55 AM.

The date was December 7th, 1941, and the location was Pearl

Harbor. The 2 numbers that you see out

beside those two guys names, over 2400 US servicemen died in

that attack and well over 1000 US servicemen they were.

They were injured in that attack.

Why? Because there wasn't an

awareness or there wasn't an alertness?

No, there's awareness and there was an alertness.

There just was no action. Listen to me very closely.

It is not enough for us to acknowledge that we are facing

attack. There also has to be action.

There has to be a plan of action that goes along with that

attack. Here's what, here's what we

know. We know that Satan and the

forces of hell has the same strategy or has the same goal

for every single person. And it's a 2 fold goal number

one, to keep every single person from a from a relationship, a

personal relationship with Jesus.

If if they fail at that mission, if they fail at that mission,

then they go into phase two. Phase two of the strategy is it

goes something like this. Make sin look normal and make

righteousness look weird. Do you see that playing out in

our culture? Make sin look normal and make

righteousness look weird. Even though that's the same

strategy for every single one of us in the room and online, the

individual tactics will look differently for each and every

one of us. You see, every single one of us,

we are facing spiritual attack, but that doesn't mean that we

have to be vulnerable to that spiritual attack.

Here's what I want to encourage us to do.

I want to, I want to just take a moment to where we kind of just

tune out everything else around us, everyone else around us, and

just take a moment just between US and God.

And when we talk about these spiritual attacks and we're,

we're about to walk through three major questions that every

single one of us in the room and online that we have to answer if

we don't want to be bait. I think it's very important that

we're not only honest, but then we also are very attuned to the

voice of the Holy Spirit and helping us to formulate a plan

of action, an action plan against these attacks.

And what I mean by action plan is specifics, passages or verses

of the Bible that can be wielded against the attacks that we face

or, or or maybe for, for for you, maybe it is being able to

pray specific prayers to God against these attacks, rather

than just the canned bless the gift and the giver type of

prayers. So if you're taking notes with

us, there's a section on your note sheet that says under

attack. And I want to walk you through

three questions that every single one of us that we need to

really answer. And it's really A2 fold thing.

It's an acknowledgement and an action plan.

Here's the first question we've got to ask.

How am I being attacked? How am I specifically?

You've got to start, we've got to start with a personal how am

I being attacked? I want to read for you several

attacks that are coming against us and I, I just want to see

we're not going to like, I'm not asking that you raise your hand

or, or shout out or certainly don't point at the person next

to you. But I just want to see if, if,

if one of these attacks, if you would sit there and go, then

that's, that's how I'm being attacked.

And, and if it is just to jot that out beside and, and if I

don't mention how you're being attacked, but you know how

you're being attacked, just jot that out to the side.

Here's the first one. How am I being attacked?

It could be isolation, a sense that you're all alone

comparison, discontentment. Maybe for maybe for you, the

attack is coming from the realm of like sexual sin, and that

applies for men and women. Maybe there's a self

centeredness that you feel that it that it that is set in.

Maybe there's a sense of entitlement.

Maybe there's a pervasive fear. Maybe for you, it's, it's an,

it's an addiction. It's an addiction either to a

substance or maybe even addiction to your, to your

phone. Maybe there's been a deep seated

bitterness that has set in. How, how am I being attacked?

Is it is one of the things that we just mentioned that I just

walked through, is that a, is that how you're being attacked?

I think it's really important that we acknowledge how we're

attacked. And then only when we're

truthful about the acknowledgement that then can we

form a plan of action. Here's the second question.

How's my family being attacked? How's my family being attacked?

It could be anxiety or busyness, maybe for your family, maybe

it's the the temptation to make an idol out of your kids.

And what I mean by that it's it's making your world revolve

around them. Maybe all that comes with with

addiction to to our phones or electronics.

Maybe your family's being attacked with feelings of not

being enough. Maybe there's an over ambition

of of career path to where family is always getting

shortchanged. Maybe it's materialism.

How about mental illness? Is your family being attacked

through mental illness or apathy towards the future?

Is the attack coming in the realm of of finances?

Again, I think it's really important that we acknowledge

where the attack is coming. What is the attack that's coming

against my family? And then I can formulate a plan

of action. And then there's a third

question I think that we need to ask.

How is my culture being attacked?

How is my culture being attacked?

When you look around you and you, you see, you see our world

or our culture kind of doing its thing and and living its life.

What are what are the attacks that are that are most evident

to you? Maybe it's a it's an erosion of

absolute truth. Maybe it's this mindset of Hey,

my truth, your truth. There's no really absolute

concrete truth. Maybe it's a promotion or an

over promotion of self or personal feelings and

experiences being ultimate gods for people.

Hey if I feels a certain way or I feel strong enough about it

then that must be my ultimate truth or I've experienced this

therefore it must be true. Our culture is also facing

attack with a bigger is better type of mentality.

There's also, I don't know if you see this, but there's also a

pervasive anger and, and, and sense of offence.

Maybe for you, when you look at our culture, maybe you see the

attacks of, of racism or greed, loneliness that can come from a

detachment from real life interactions, just overall

confusion. Maybe you see culturally, you

see one of our primary attacks being the outsourcing of

parenting or just this overall cynicism and innate mistrust of,

of all authority. Where, where do you see when,

when, when, when I say, how is my culture being attacked?

Where do you see? Like what do you jot down beside

that? You see, we've got to

acknowledge where the attack is coming from.

So then we can formulate a plan of action.

It is so, so important and pertinent that we have a plan of

action in place and it starts in this order because check this.

If we do not, if we ignore these attacks, then guess what's going

to happen? The way that my culture is being

attacked will eventually be the way my family is attacked.

And that will eventually become the way that I am attacked.

Do you see? Do you see how it's almost

cyclical there? We've got to break that cycle.

And it starts with an overall awareness, an alertness, but

also a plan of action, a plan of action and helping, helping us

come together to formulate that plan of action.

In large part, that's what the church is for, is for us to bear

one another, one another's burdens, and for us to pray for

one another and for us to really talk with one another and go,

hey, listen, this is where I'm being attacked.

And this is where my family's being attacked and been.

My heart and my mind and my soul are so heavy with the attacks

that that Satan and the forces of hell are waging against our

culture. Like, what are some verses?

What are some passages? How can I combat these attacks?

But I'll also tell you this, and I'm not telling you something

that you don't already know. This constant awareness and this

constant planning, this action planning, it can be exhausting.

Can it? And if you've been walking with

Jesus for years and you've been faithfully obedient for years,

you know, you know how rewarding it is, but you also know how

exhausting it is. And I want to give us a massive,

massive word of hope. A massive word of hope.

Let me show you. Let's go back to first Peter

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5. Let me show you what I mean in

verse 10, Peter, this is towards the end of his letter.

He says after you have suffered a little while, comparative to

eternity, after you've suffered a little while, the God of all

grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will

himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you to

Him be the dominion forever and ever.

Amen. Here is probably one of the

greatest words of encouragement that I can give us this morning,

and it actually serving as our last heading of our notes.

Here it is. Suffering has an expiration

date. Your trials, the attacks that

are coming against us, they all have an expiration date.

After that expiration date, God promises to do 4 things.

Number one, God will restore you.

What does that mean? It means that He will repair

what has been broken in the in the midst of all these attacks,

in the midst of all this suffering, in the midst of the

trials that you and I go through as a result of wanting to walk

faithfully and obedient to the words and the will and the ways

of God, there will be things within us over the course of our

lifetime that will be broken. And what does God promise to do?

I will restore what has been broken within you to any of you,

any of you ever gone through a time to where you just feel so

heavy and almost through tears you just this sense of like I am

so broken. What is wrong with me?

I'm so broken. Here's hope, that sense, that

emotion that has an expiration date.

And after that expiration date, God promises that He will repair

what has been broken. He doesn't stop there.

Number two, He tells us that He will confirm you.

He'll confirm us. That means that He'll stabilize

what's been wavering throughout the course of a lifetime.

And an attack after attack after attack coming from the left and

the right and up and down and all over, there will inevitably

be places within our own lives that have that have been

wavering. And what does God promise to do?

He promises to stabilize what has been wavering #3 He promises

to strengthen us. Suffering has an expiration

date. After that He will strengthen

you. He will toughen what has been

weakened. Again, this constant pelting of

attack after attack after attack, there will inevitably be

a weakening. He promises to strengthen or to

toughen up what has been weakened, and then #4 he will

establish you. That means that he'll firmly

plant what has been shaken. He'll firmly plant what has been

shaken. Here's how we want to end this

or how I want to end this series this morning.

I want to end this series just with a time of just giving you

some time and space just to interact with the Holy Spirit.

One of the things that I love that we often do is we sing

songs to God, and many of those songs are invitations of the

Holy Spirit to come and move among us.

And I firmly believe that we do not pray to, we do not sing to,

we do not worship a God that is distant, but we sing to, we pray

to and we worship a God who is here with us.

Now, if you're with us online and you're, you're a believer,

then God is with you. The Holy Spirit of God is with

you wherever you may be right now.

But I think that we would be very remiss if we didn't just

take some time to spend with the Holy Spirit of God.

And for that time, I want to get you to really ask yourself, and

I really want you to interact with God during this time.

And, and all that means is that we just spend a little bit of

time in prayer. This morning.

I want to get you to ask the Holy Spirit 4 questions.

Holy Spirit of God that knows me better than I know myself.

In what ways do I need to humble myself before God?

In what ways do I need to empty myself of self to make more room

for you to fill me and to use me how you like, where you like,

and when you like? Second question, Holy Spirit of

God, what anxieties do I need to cast on God?

If if you're new to church, I know that there's a temptation.

I know that there, I know there's this like way of

thinking that you're sitting in a room with, with people that we

all have our act together. And you know, everybody's

marriages are going great and everybody's personal lives are

going great and our finances are great and, and, and you're the

only one that's kind of messed up.

Can I tell you this? You're in a room full of messed

up people. One of the things I love about

Riverbend Church is we all acknowledge we are a we are a

group of messed up people, but we turn to the same savior.

Let me ask you a question. Coming in here this morning,

coming into this time, this place, this space, what's going

on in your life, this keeping you up at night, waking you up

in the middle of the night. And the first thing on your mind

when you wake up, What stresses, what worries, what cares, what

anxieties? Listen here, here's the

temptation. Here's the temptation for for,

for church people is we all know what the answer to that

question, that second question is.

But when we pull up in the parking lot, we kind of like

just stuff that back in the car and just close the door really

fast. And then it's so we can walk in

without having to worry about it.

Here's the problem with that is as soon as we walk out of here,

we open that car door and it all just comes boiling out.

This is a place to where we invite you to bring your

stresses, your cares, your anxiety, your baggage, because

you're bringing it to the only one that can do something about

it. Don't keep it in the parking

lot. Don't keep it in your car.

Bring it before God. Third question, Holy Spirit of

God, what attacks do I need to acknowledge and what action

plans do I need to put into place?

Where am I being attacked? Where's my family being

attacked? Where's my culture being

attacked? What do, what attacks do I need

to acknowledge? And then what action plans do I

need to put into place? And then 4th is this, what word

of encouragement do I need to give me strength for the battle

ahead? Holy Spirit of God, of the

promises that you give me, that suffering has an expiration

date, which one of those promises that you will restore

me, that you'll confirm me, that you'll strengthen me, or that

you'll establish me? Which one of those promises do I

need to hold on to for it to resonate within me far after I

leave this service and far after I leave this campus this

morning? So here's what I want to do.

I just want to invite you just wherever you're at, just to bow

your heads and to to close your eyes.

And we don't do this because it's some light religious

posture. We really do it just to tune out

all the distractions going on around us.

I would just also say that in this time, understanding that

people are really spending time with God, I would say if at all

possible that that we not that we not move around during this

time so that we're not distracting to the people around

us, but just wherever you're at this morning, I just want you to

to pray God based off of your word, based off of your word,

what do you want me to do? Based off of your word, what do

you want me to do? Do you want me to do I need to

humble myself before you? The things that are on my mind,

do I need to throw those at you, hurl those at you, Holy Spirit

of God, like is there a tact that I've been like ignoring or

that I'm not aware of God? Would you reveal that to me?

An attack against me, an attack against my family, and an attack

against my culture. God, of your 4 promises at the

end of First Peter, whether it's to restore me, confirm me,

strengthen me, or establish me, God, which of those promises do

you want to use to instill a sense of hope and strengthen me

for the battle ahead? So as you spend some time in

prayer, just talking to God, I want to pray over us.

And after I pray over us, we're going to invite you to, to

stand. And if what God's telling you to

do is hey, just stand and sing, worship me, then that's what you

should do. If God's calling you to come

down and and pray, maybe it's a maybe it's a prayer for for, for

the Holy Spirit to work more powerfully in you.

Maybe it's a prayer for your family.

Maybe it's a prayer for for friends or the way that you see

our culture being attacked. Maybe it's a prayer for the

protection of of innocent lives. It's a prayer that God that you

would bring a righteous justice to evil doers, but in the middle

of it, God, you will protect innocent lives.

Maybe it's a prayer to where you hold on to one of those 4 words

and you ask God for them to take root in your heart and in your

life. So I'm going to pray.

We're going to give you an opportunity to respond.

However, the Holy Spirit's calling you to respond this

morning. God, we love you and we thank

you for the fact that you are here with us.

God, we thank you for Lord your your inspiration to Peter over

2000 years ago to pen a letter that we now know is the book of

first Peter. God the the alertness and the

challenge for us to live wide awake, the alertness to our

enemy and his attacks. God, you do not give us that

information to scare us or to paralyze us.

God, you give us that information so that we can be

prepared. And God, our only preparedness,

our only move in this battle, in this spiritual battle that every

single one of us are facing in different ways is to turn to

you. So God, whatever that may look

like across this room and for those that are joining online,

God, I pray that we would move in obedience to your Holy

Spirit. God, that we would move in

freedom to how you call us to move.

It's in Jesus name that we pray, Amen.

Thank you for listening to Riverbend Church's podcast.

To find out more about this message or Riverbend Church,

connect with us online at Riverbend Church dot live.