Not Forgotten | Presence (Part Two)

Thank you so much for listening to Riverbend Church's podcast.

Riverbend Church exists to bring people to Jesus, grow

generations in Jesus, and send disciples for Jesus.

We hope that you enjoy this message.

I love, I love Christmas, don't y'all?

I love the season, I love the music, I love the lights, I love

the decorations. I love other people's

decorations for, for Christmas, just absolutely love it.

Do y'all remember as a kid just kind of that high, high

excitement and anticipation of Christmas morning that as a kid

you got so anxious, You, you, you thought that it would never

come, right? You thought that it would never

come. Like, when's Christmas ever

going to get here? Now I know that if you're a

teacher, you still have that high level of anxiousness.

When will Christmas break ever get here right, But you know, if

you think about it kind of as adults, we kind of look back at

that time when we, when we were kids with with kind of a, a, a

smirk on her face, right. Because every single year we

would get highly excited and highly anxious like Christmas is

coming, but will it ever get here?

And yet every single year it it got here and we would do the

same thing the next year. We would get really excited,

we'd get really anxious. We'd wonder like, is Christmas

ever going to get here? And it got here every single

year. But can I ask you a question,

just to use your imagination, Can you think what would, what

it would be like is if you were a kid and, and you had that high

degree of excitement, high degree of anxiousness about and

anticipation about Christmas getting here.

And, and on Christmas morning, you, you went into the living

room or you went into the family room and there were no trees.

There were, there were no lights, there were no gifts,

there were no presents. It was just a, it was just a, a

normal, a normal Thursday and, and Christmas Day just so

happened to fall on that normal Thursday.

But there was really nothing different for you.

Listen, I, I really, really hope that I didn't describe anybody's

childhood at all or anybody's experience.

As a matter of fact, at Riverbend, we're so committed to

making sure that that's no kids experience during the Christmas

season, that that's why we do everything that we do with, with

Project Hope and, and with the Hope tree.

And I just want to thank you so much for your incredible

generosity as a church, making sure that that's no kids

experience in our community. But Can you imagine if that was

you where year after year you had that high degree of

anticipation and excitement, yet year after year you were just

kind of let down? I, I think at the very least,

you know, we would be, we'd become bitter.

And, and I think if we're really honest with ourselves there,

there's a high degree of probability that we would

probably start to feel forgotten.

And we would be looking around it like the other kids in our

class or the other kids in our neighborhood or the, the other

families that we're aware of and go, why, why are they able to

celebrate Christmas? And, and, and I'm not, we just

feel forgotten. Like I said, I hope that that's

nobody's experience, that's been nobody's experience with us this

morning in the room or online. And as a church, we're committed

to making sure that that's no kids experience in our

community. But maybe as I was thinking

through Christmas, maybe there there's someone in this room or

maybe there's someone that you know of that if you're really

honest, you feel forgotten this Christmas.

Maybe maybe it's you, maybe it's maybe somebody that you know,

but you kind of you kind of feel forgotten.

And as long as we're really being honest with ourselves,

about ourselves, it's OK to be completely honest with God.

It's more than OK. We kind of feel forgotten,

Forgotten by God. You know, one of the things that

talk a lot about and I, I would, I would just encourage us to

hang on to this. If you, if you call Riverbend

home, you know, this is our heart.

If you're new to Riverbend, I want you to hear our heart.

God, God doesn't want to bring healing to a version of you.

God wants to bring healing to the real you.

So you don't, you don't have to dress yourself up.

You don't have to put on a facade or a mask or a happy face

to, to, to come to church. You, you, you don't have to, you

don't have to cover up like if, if you feel that you've been

forgotten by God through the loss or the grief of someone or

or or through life just haven't turning out being turned out the

way that you thought that it would or some unmet

expectations. I will tell you you're, you're

in the right place this morning. And here's here's where I want

to start because really the key question for us is how do we

navigate the Christmas season with feelings of feeling

forgotten? And I want to start with with

the a big truth, a core truth, a big idea this we're going to be

exploring throughout this Christmas season.

And if you're taking notes with us, I want to encourage you to

jot this down. Christmas isn't just a story of

Jesus birth. It's the story of God's heart.

It's not just a story of Jesus's birth, although it is the story

of the coming Messiah. It's the it's the story of, of,

of God stepping down into this world, taking on flesh, never

giving up an iota of divinity, still maintaining 100% God, yet

now taking on 100% man. He may say so Jesus was 200%.

I don't know how the math works out.

I just know he was 101 hundred, not 5050.

And as we celebrate Christmas, it's not simply the story of

Jesus birth. It's really the story of God's

heart for us. And if you were with us last

week, Pastor Nathan did an incredible job of walking us

through what I would call typically a fly over passage in

our Bible. You, you know, the, you know,

the pages or the passages or their chapters of the Bible that

we sit there and go, I can't pronounce those words, therefore

I need to skip over it. Nathan not only did a great job

of pronouncing the names there in Matthew chapter 1, but

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

walking us through how generation after generation

after generation, God proved his heart for us and, and, and what

Christmas is really about is this heart of God for us.

You know why, why do we support a mission like Rahab's wrote?

Because it reflects God's heart for people that may be very far

from him. It reflects God's heart for

people that that need him. And this morning what we're

going to be talking about is maybe this is for you, or maybe

it's for somebody that you're close to or that you know that

they may feel forgotten during this Christmas season.

So here's what I want to do. We're going to read a little bit

together and we're going to read in the the book of Luke, Luke

Luke 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. So if you have a Bible with you,

I'd encourage you to find Luke chapter one with me.

And we're going to talk about or we're going to read about two

women, Luke chapter 1. We're going to see how an entire

Luke 1 · chapter mention

people, an entire nation, it would have been easy for them to

feel forgotten. And then we're going to see how

an individual, it would have been very easy for her to feel

forgotten. And we're going to take a look

at Luke chapter 2. And we're going to start in

Luke 2 · chapter mention

verse 26 and we're going to see God's comfort to us.

For those of you that may feel forgotten, like I said, this may

be for you or this may be for you to take to somebody else in

your world, in your sphere of influence, in your circle of

friendship or family this morning.

But here we go. Luke chapter 1, starting verse

Luke 1 · chapter mention

26. In the sixth month the Angel

Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,

to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the

House of David. And the virgin's name was Mary.

And Gabriel came to her and said, Greetings, O favoured one,

the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at

the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might

be. And the Angel said to her, Do

not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb a bear son, and you

shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be

called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to

him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over

the House of Jacob Forever. And of his Kingdom there will be

no end. And this is kind of a

culmination of where Nathan left off last week as he walked us

through Matthew chapter one in the genealogy of Jesus.

And Mary said to the Angel, how will this be, since I'm a

virgin? And the Angel answered her, The

Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High

will over shadow you. Therefore the child to be born

will be called holy, the Son of God.

And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has

also conceived a son, and this is the 6th month with her who

was called barren. For nothing will be impossible

with God. And Mary said, behold, I'm the

servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.

And the Angel departed. Verse 39 is going to be a pivot

to where Mary then goes and visits her cousin Elizabeth.

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the Hill

Country to a town in Judah. And she entered the House of

Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the

greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.

And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

And she exclaimed with a loud cry.

Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your

womb. And why is this granted to me,

that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?

For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears,

the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

And blessed is she who believed that there would be a

fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.

So what we're going to do is we're going to look at Luke

chapter 126 through 45, and we're going to see together what

are some common reasons that we can often feel forgotten during

this season and then outside of the season.

Again, if you're taking notes with us, here's what I believe

to be the first one common reasons why we feel forgotten.

It's when the fulfillment of a promise feels delayed.

It's when the fulfillment of a promise feels delayed.

When the fulfillment of a promise feels delayed.

A main Bible verse that we often hang on to and hold on to and is

often quoted and used throughout the Christmas season is actually

Isaiah Chapter 7 verse 14. This is actually the key verse

Isaiah 7:14

of this entire series. I want to show you what Isaiah

714 says, says, therefore, the Lord himself will give you a

sign. Behold, the virgin shall

conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.

And if you know the Christmas story, you grew up in church,

you know that Emmanuel means God with us.

But here's something that you may not know about this verse.

That promise from Isaiah that was prophesied, that was

written, that was given to the people of Israel.

It was given somewhere between, some scholars say 700 years

before the birth of Jesus and others say 730 years before the

birth of Jesus, 700 years before the birth of Jesus.

It was almost like God was saying, hey, Israel, my people,

the Messiah is coming. And then 700 years of nothing.

Hey, the Messiah is coming, but not yet.

And for 700 years, not yet. Let me kind of let me kind of

put some 2025 boots on that. That would be like a US holding

on to a promise now that was made in the year 1325.

Now in case you forgot what happened in the year 1325, let

me kind of spark our spark our memory a little bit. 1325 is

when most scholars believe that the Aztec empire started. 13/25

was was a few years before the bubonic plague ravaged Europe.

1325 is about 150 years before North America was quote UN quote

discovered by Christopher Columbus, which I know was

exciting news for the indigenous people.

They were already here that they've been discovered, right?

13251325 was about 300 years before Galileo invented the

telescope and up until that point in time everybody believed

that the that the the earth, not the sun, was the was the center

of the universe. 1325 that is long, long before corn dogs were

ever invented. It is a long time.

Can you imagine us holding on to a promise that was made in 1325?

We have a hard time hanging on to a promise that was made six

months ago. Can you imagine if you were the

Jewish people 700 years after this promise was made?

Nothing. And, and to actually double down

on that, if you if you go to the page in your Bible, most Bibles

have this page right before Matthew, right between Malachi,

the end of Malachi and the beginning of Matthew, there's a

page that just says the New Testament.

That page represents 400 years of silence.

The last time God had spoken to his prophets, to his people was

through the last words of the prophet Malachi, 400 years

before the birth of Jesus. It would be so easy, so easy for

the people of Israel to feel forgotten by God.

Why? Because of the of the delayed

promise. If that's you this morning, have

you, have you ever felt like that to where you're, you're

holding on to a promise of God And, and, and even though you've

prayed and you've prayed and you've prayed, it seems like

nothing's changed. Even though you are, you are

striving to be obedient to God's word and his will and his ways.

It seems like your situation may be going backwards.

You ever you ever done it for an extended period of time to where

you often feel forgotten. If that's you, let me give you a

word of encouragement. Never mistake God's timing for

God's absence because 700 years before this prophet or after

this prophecy was made, God fulfilled His word.

Because God is always faithful. He fulfilled His word in a way

that was never anticipated. You see, everything changed when

Gabriel came to Mary on that seemingly random day, when a day

that most Jews that were holding on to that promise if if they

were still were holding on to that promise, most Jews that

they were just going about their day, day after day.

Everything changed when the Angel Gabriel came to Mary and

said, Mary, you have found favor with God through you.

God is going to bring his Son, the Messiah into this world.

Never mistake God's timing for God's absence.

I think there's a second reason or second way that we can all

very easily become discouraged and feel forgotten.

It's when life unfolds differently than we once thought

that it would, when life unfolds differently than we once thought

that it would. You see, when we read, by the

time we get to Luke chapter 1 and we we start reading to where

Luke 1 · chapter mention

Mary and Elizabeth are are talking with one another, we're

reading a passage about two pregnant women kind of

celebrating and being happy for one another, right?

But I would encourage you in your own time with God this

week, go back to the very beginning of Luke chapter 1 and

Luke 1 · chapter mention

at the very beginning of Luke chapter 1.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

I believe it's around in verse 5.

We're we're able to read about this woman, Elizabeth, who

wasn't able to bear children. Now here's something that you

and I should know about the time of Mary and Elizabeth.

In that time in history, childbearing for a woman, it was

everything. It was everything.

You see, if a if a woman wasn't able to conceive and and have

children of her own, culturally she was seen as broken or lesser

than. And it is cruel as it is even in

the Jewish culture, if a woman was seen as as barren, she was

often labeled as cursed by God. And here you have Elizabeth.

You know that she dreamed growing up of having children of

her own and yet up until her old age, she was she was barren.

Life hadn't turned out the way that she thought that it would.

You ever felt that way? You ever feel forgotten or you

ever felt lesser than because life hasn't turned out the way

that you thought that it would. Maybe by now you thought that

you would be married. Maybe by now you thought that

you would have grandkids or you would have kids.

Or maybe by now you thought that you would be further along

financially. Is kind of chasing a rabbit

here, but is it just me or the older you get, the more your

definition of old changes? Like I'm at the age I was at the

age several years ago that I once thought was old.

So it is crazy how like life doesn't always turn out the way

that we thought, but when life's often doesn't turn out the way

that we thought that it would, so many times we can feel

forgotten. And then to add to that, I think

there's a third reason that we often feel forgotten, and it's

when other people around us seem to be living out our dream, when

someone else is living out our dream.

Again, going back to Elizabeth, you have a woman who's married

to Zechariah. By the way, Zechariah is a

priest. He's a priest.

And by all accounts, they're faithful, they love God, they're

devoted, they're obedient to God.

Yet after trying and trying and trying, she can't conceive.

And they have no kids of their own.

Yet during that entire time, Elizabeth's friends and family

members, they're announcing, hey, we're having a baby, we're

having a baby. Another, another friend or

another family member. Hey, we're having a baby.

We're having another baby, we're having another baby.

And she, she's, she's trying to be happy and she's trying to

celebrate that. But deep down there's a there's

a hurt and there's a pain maybe that you can resonate with that

maybe, maybe your story involves infertility.

So there's that personal pain. You know, exactly what Elizabeth

probably went through until God miraculously provided.

Maybe for others of us this morning, that pain point is

triggered by something else, but you know exactly what I mean,

that there's something that that your heart has been yearning

for. There's something that has has

been at the very beginning and the very tip and the very end of

your prayers to where you've gone to God over and over and

over and over and over again and nothing's really changed yet.

The people around you, they're actually living out what you're

praying for that that that other person at work gets the

promotion or gets the recognition.

Maybe that other person, they're the ones that get married.

It could be, it could be 1,000,008 different things.

But we can so often feel forgotten when we see and when

we look and when we compare our lives up against somebody else

and they're living out what we have prayed for.

So I don't know, Again, I don't know if I described your story

or the story of somebody that you're close to this morning.

But I just want to tell you that there is hope.

And as we pivot this morning, I want to start off with a word of

encouragement to you. And then I want to give you some

handles to help navigate this Christmas season and to help

anchor us in this Christmas season.

If you're taking notes with us, here's the word of hope to you.

Here it is. Even though it may feel like it,

God hasn't forgotten you. And even though it may not feel

like it, God loves you. Listen, even though it may not

or it may feel like it, God has not forgotten about you.

Your prayers. You ever been, Let's just get

really honest, You ever been in that mode of prayer to where you

are praying urgently and it just feels like your prayers are just

bouncing off the ceiling? They're not going anywhere.

If you find yourself in that season, if you find yourself

kind of walking through, walking that path, it can so easily feel

like God has forgotten you. Let me encourage you, He has not

forgotten about you. And in those times and in those

seasons, it is so easy to feel like God doesn't love you.

Let me assure you, God loves you.

God still loves you. And one of the things that we're

going to look at in just a moment are these handles for us

to hold onto while we're in those seasons and while we may

be walking those paths. So again, if you're taking notes

with us, I want to give you 3 anchors for us to help us

navigate this Christmas season. And the reason the anchors are

so important for us is, is, is because we are either anchored

by something solid or we are tossed around by our feelings.

And listen, our feelings are very powerful, but our feelings

will lie to us, right? So our feelings, they, they,

they can go up and they can go down.

They, our feelings, if you think about them as waves, they can

get rough and they can get choppy.

We don't, I think that we would all agree, we don't want to be

tossed around by our feelings. We want to be anchored to

something that is real and something that is true.

In this Christmas season, God does not just want you to

celebrate the coming of Jesus, of baby Jesus and looking with

awe and wonder at a nativity. God wants every single one of us

to discover and to rediscover his heart for you.

So in that journey of discovery and rediscovery, I want to give

you 3 anchors, 3 anchor points for us as we are navigating this

Christmas season. Here's the first one.

Anchor yourself. In God's love, we've got to

anchor ourselves in God's love. The first thing that our

feelings will do, the first thing that our feelings are due

is they will get us to doubt God's love.

You ever been in a mode, or maybe you've heard somebody

around you been in a mode to where they feel so hopeless or

so forgotten, or they they don't know which way is up to where

they start to question, hey, is God even there?

Does God even care? Has God forgotten about me?

You, you. You have to believe that the

Jewish people, after 700 years of promise and 400 years of

solace, 4 centuries of silence from God, they had to have felt

forgotten. Yet the entire time God was

loving them, God was loving them, and God was preparing the

way for them. Don't believe me?

Let me tell you from the from the Jewish people's standpoint,

let me tell you what God was doing in those 400 years of

silence. In those 400 years of silence, a

military leader by the name of Alexander the Great conquered

the known world and then died in his early 30s.

But before he died, Alexander the Great had basically been

conquering the known world, brought about Greek culture and

Greek language to the entire known world.

So Greek was pretty much the international language of the

known world. And then after Alexander the

Great, there's a couple other small military dynasties.

And then the Romans came to power.

And through the rise of the Roman Empire, you have something

called the Pax Romana or the Peace of Rome.

And Rome began to construct Rd. systems or the Roman roads that

connected all the known world in the Roman Empire.

Why was that so important? Because God was setting the

stage the perfect time, He was setting the perfect time for his

Son to come to bring the Messiah into this world.

Did you know that in the Old Testament, by the New Testament,

we read about these, these this group of religious leaders, the

Pharisees and the Sadducees? We don't read about those groups

in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament we're we're

reading about these ultra, ultra legalistic religious people, the

Pharisees and the Sadducees and how did God use them?

God used them to communicate widely to the people.

There's got to be something more than just empty, hollow,

legalistic ritual and religion. There's got to be something more

to worshipping and loving God the entire time.

Just because God was solid doesn't mean that God wasn't

working. Now how does that translate to

us? How do we anchor ourselves to

God's love for us? It's how we anchor ourselves in

all things is through Scripture is through Scripture.

If you look at your note sheet, I would highly encourage you to

take this note sheet home because out beside each of these

points, you're going to see some, you're going to see some

scriptural texts or some passages.

I want to encourage you to read through and to, to write these

verses down and to remind yourself.

So when you go home tonight or when you wake up in the morning,

anchoring yourself in God's love, anchoring yourself in

God's love for you, you're going to go back to Psalm 139 and

you're going to be reminded I am fearfully and I am wonderfully

made. You're going to go back to

Jeremiah 29. God has a plan for me, for my

welfare. You're going to go to John 112.

I have been given the right to be a son or a daughter of God.

John 316 God loves me so much that he sent his only son into

this world for me. That is the heart of Christmas,

that God loves me so much that he sent Jesus.

Ephesians 2. You're going to read that and

you're going to be reminded and encouraged and anchored by the

fact that I am God's masterpiece created 4 good deeds to point

other people to Him. We've got to anchor ourselves in

God's love for us. The second anchor point is this

is we got to anchor ourselves in God's proven faithfulness.

We've got to anchor ourselves in God's proven faithfulness again,

kind of going back, people of Israel, 700 years of between

promise and pay off, between Isaiah and Jesus, 400 years of

silence. We've already talked about

everything that God was doing in that time period, even even in

Elizabeth's life, even in Elizabeth's life before God

allowed her to conceive in her old age, The baby within her

when he was born, he would grow up and, and he would become a

man. And this man would be the one

that would, would pave the way for, for Jesus.

This man, Elizabeth's child, Elizabeth's boy would grow up to

become John the Baptist. And if you know anything about

John the Baptist, John the Baptist, he was just an all out

wild man. The Bible describes him as

dressing in camel hair and eating locusts and honey.

And I'm not sure if that was out of necessity or just his unique

flavor palette. He was just a wild man.

So what was God doing in Elizabeths life?

And Elizabeth Hart, the entire time that she was barren, she

was, he was preparing her to be the woman and the resolute

mother that He knew that she needed to be to raise such a man

as John. God was always faithful even in

her barren years. God was always faithful even in

the silent years. God was always faithful for you.

And I. Again, coming back to this

point, never mistake God's timing for God's absence.

Isn't it amazing how 1 little thing goes wrong or one big

thing goes wrong in our lives and it causes us to question

God's faithfulness over our entire lives.

It causes us to question and bring into question God's

perfect track record. Let me tell you God, God is

never ever early. God is never ever late.

God is always on time. God is always on time.

He is always faithful. He has always been faithful.

He is always faithful. He always will be faithful.

So when we've got to anchor ourselves in God's faithfulness,

we've got to come to passages like Deuteronomy 31 in that

chapter twice, it reminds us God will never leave me.

God will never forsake me. And Psalm 23, four, it reminds

me, let come what may, even if it's the worst, even though I

walk through the valley of the shadow of death, You are with

me. I will fear no evil, for you're

with me. Your rod and your staff, they

comfort me. By the way, do you know what the

difference between the shepherd's rod and the

shepherd's staff is? A shepherd's rod was a weapon

that he would use to keep away the enemies.

He would beat off the wolves, He would beat off the wild animals.

A shepherd's staff with something had a crook on it to

where he would gently bring and guide the sheep back into the

right direction. And I love that imagery that

David gives us in Psalms about even though I walk to the

valley, the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because God,

you are with me. You're rod and your staff, they

comfort me. There's a Hebrew word, my

favorite word in all the Bible is a word just said and she said

is given 250 times in the Old Testament.

It literally means steadfast love. 250 times in the Old

Testament, 127 times in the book of Psalms alone just said,

steadfast love God. You've always been faithful to

me. Here's my encouragement to you,

Church. Pick one of the 270 and hold on

to it. The words fear not are given to

us in Scripture. 365 times, pick one.

You can pick one a day. Pick one and hold on to it.

But we've got to anchor ourselves in God's perfect track

record in his faithfulness to us.

And then the third anchor point, man, I love this one, is anchor

yourself in knowing that the story isn't over.

Anchor yourself in, in knowing that the story isn't over.

People of Israel, 700 years between promise and pay off,

story ain't over. Guess what's going to Pierce the

silence? A baby's cry.

A baby's cry, it ain't over. Elizabeth in her old age, after

trying over and over and over and over after, her and

Zechariah have probably come to grips.

Hey, I guess we're just going to have to be lesser than or I

guess this just isn't going to happen.

It ain't over. It ain't over.

Can I, can I remind you something?

If you've been praying for a son or a daughter for years, it

ain't over. If you've been praying for a

spouse for years and years, it ain't over.

If you have been praying for a deeper walk with God, it ain't

over. As a matter of fact, not good

English, great theology. As long as God's still in it, it

ain't over. I want to leave you.

And these are two verses that I want us to hang on to 1's

printed at the one's printed at the bottom of our note sheet, 2

verses. And I call these kind of the end

verses of the passage that we just read together in Luke

Luke 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. I want you to hold on to these

verses. Go home.

I would challenge you. Highlight them in your Bible.

Go home. Write them in your journal.

Write them over and over and over and over and over.

Speak God's truth over yourself. Here's the first one.

These are Gabriel's last words to Mary.

Mary, nothing will be impossible with God, period.

Nothing will be impossible for God.

If God's still in it, it ain't over.

Nothing will be impossible for God.

There's no financial situation. There's no relational situation.

You may feel like your marriage is on the rocks.

Listen, if God's still in it, it ain't over.

You may feel like emotionally or mentally that you are just

crumbled. If God's still in it, it ain't

over. Nothing will be impossible for

God. I don't care about the odds.

I don't care about the statistics.

I don't care about how we may feel about something.

Nothing, nothing will be impossible for God.

The second verse that I want to leave us with this morning is

Elizabeth's last words to Mary. Check this out And blessed is

she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what

was spoken to her from the Lord. Here's what that means.

You and I, we will be blessed if we hold on to the promises of

God when we can't see them fulfilled.

Yet you want to be blessed by God.

You want a peace and a comfort and a hope that supersedes all

situations and circumstances in your life, that supersedes your

feelings. Hold on to the promises of God

even when you may not see them yet.

Faith always comes before the fruit.

Being a man or a woman of faith means that saying God, I believe

you still are who you say that you are, and you will still do

what you say that you will do, even when my situation speaks

otherwise. That's faith.

That's the definition of faith. Blessed is she or blessed is he.

Blessed are you, blessed are me blessed are US, blessed are we

who believe that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken

to us from the Lord. Here's my question to you,

Church, Where do you or where does somebody that you know,

where do you need to be anchored this morning?

Where do you need to be anchored?

What do you need to be reminded of?

What do you need to come and ask God?

God, remind me of your love for me, 'cause God, I just don't

feel like it right now. I don't feel like you love me.

Remind me of your love. God, allow the presence of your

Holy Spirit to over shadow what I may feel like.

God, remind me of your faithfulness.

God, there's some junk going on in my life and there's some

situations that are out of my control or maybe there's some

situations that are consequences and some actions that I that I

unwisely took before. But God, I don't see any way

out. And, and God, I don't, I don't

see how any of this is going to work for the good.

God, would you remind me of your faithfulness that you have not

brought me this far just to leave me here just to drop me?

Would you remind me of your faithfulness?

God, would you remind me that when I'm right on the verge of

I'm just going to give up praying, I'm just going to give

up showing up, I'm going to give up trying.

I'm going to give up giving. I'm going to give.

I'm just going to give up of pouring myself out.

I'm just going to give up. God, would you remind me that

the story isn't over yet? Would you remind me not to

mistake your timing with your absence?

So here's what that means. That means for some of us,

because we're about to stand and and sing there, there's a great

song that we're about to sing together and it's a song that

that if you've been a part of Riverbend that you know it was

something familiar to you as faithful now just as he's always

been faithful. He's faithful now and he will

always be faithful. Some of us are are at our our

time of response is just to stand and to to bro boldly

proclaim and to sing that almost as a prayer back to God for

others of us. It's to come down and to pray.

Maybe it's to pray over ourselves.

Maybe it's to pray over someone else.

Maybe this morning resonated very, very specifically with you

to where some area of your life you feel you felt forgotten.

Maybe there's somebody in your life that you know that they're

struggling with feeling forgotten again.

Christmas, this Christmas, God does not want us just to have a

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

God desires deeply for us to rediscover and for some of us to

first time for us to discover His heart for us.

But that heart is always found in a posture of surrender.

God, here I am pouring my heart out to you.

God, would you heal? Would you take what I'm pouring

out to you? And would you heal it?

Would you use it? Would you encourage me through

it? So what we're going to do is I'm

going to pray, We'll stand, we'll sing.

Give you a chance to respond this morning.

God, we love you and we thank you for who you are.

God, you are a God that not only loves us, but God, your love

pursues us. God, your love pursues us

through the generations. God, if we ever doubt your love,

God, I pray that you would remind us of your Son coming

into the mess for our mess. God, you gave everything for us.

God, some of us, we need to be anchored in your love for us.

God, some of us need to be reminded and anchored in your

faithfulness towards us. God, some of us need to be

reminded and encouraged. The story ain't over.

If you're still in it, it ain't over.

So God, I pray that you would do a work in each and every one of

us in a way that only you can do.

Because God, there are places in our lives, in our hearts and our

minds and our souls that you can, that only you can go to.

So God, I pray that you would go to the deep places within us to

bring about your deep healing. And 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.