The Anchor For Your Soul

Open your Bibles to Psalm chapter 13 and meet me at verse 1 through 2.

Psalms 13 · chapter mention

We'll read in the Passion Translation, Psalm chapter 13, verse 1 and 2.

Psalms 13:1

I want to ask you this question this morning, if you're honest with yourself.

Do you feel hopeless, insignificant, invisible, or forgotten today?

Do you feel hopeless, insignificant, invisible, or forgotten today?

The psalmist cries out, I'm hurting, Lord.

Will you forget me forever?

How much longer, Lord?

Will you look the other way when I'm in need?

How much longer must I cling to this constant grief?

I've endured this shaking of my soul. So how much longer will my enemy have the upper hand?

It's been long enough.

How much longer? If you're honest with yourself, I believe you've asked the Lord that question.

How much longer?

I've been dealing with this pain. How much longer? I've been dealing with this lack.

How much longer? This relationship that I'm in, how much longer will it take

for things to get better?

There's some dreams, there's some goals that you've placed, and it feels like

it's taken forever. How much longer?

Have you forgotten about me? It looks like you remember other people,

but you don't remember me. Have you forgotten about the promises that you've

shared with me when I was a little kid?

How much longer is this going to take?

And a lot of times in this existence that we have, especially this earthly existence,

life is hard on the heart.

Life is hard on our heart. Our heart consists of our soul, which consists of

our mind, our will, and our emotions.

Life is hard on our heart.

And more often than not, we're in a society that is, we want to move very, very fast.

I mean, the microwave is too slow, right?

Food tastes better than the crock pot, but we don't have time to put it in the

crock pot. We got to put it in the, you know, in the toaster oven, right? In the air fryer.

We don't have time because everything seems to happen so fast.

But when you want something done right and when God's involved,

it normally takes a little longer than you anticipate because God is teaching

you some things in the process.

It is the process of believing God that gives you the foundation to know more about yourself.

You learn a lot about yourself in the times of waiting, and you learn a lot

about God in times of waiting.

I mean, we don't like to wait. I don't like to go to Walmart and stand in that long line.

I'm glad they have self-checkout. Now, I don't want to wait.

We don't like to wait, but it's in the process that we learn and we get foundation.

We become stable in the process of feeling like we're insignificant,

invisible, feeling stuck, forgotten, or even hopeless.

It's the place when you feel this way that you have to run forward.

To the Lord. There was a particular time I was an interim youth pastor at a fairly large church.

We had about 80 to 100 junior hires.

And so I was the junior high youth leader. I was interim. The youth leader had left.

Abruptly, they asked me to step in and to cover. I had great relationships with

the children because I was already serving that youth pastor anyway.

Had great relationships with the parents, had great relationship with the staff.

Everything was going smooth. I had a team. I mean, that's a lot of seventh and eighth graders.

And I had a team that was around me that was great, greatly supportive of what

we were doing and what we were accomplishing together.

And then they decided, this massive ministry decided to, let's interview for

a youth pastor position. And obviously I'm in the running, right?

I mean, you are going to get it. Everybody felt that way. Everybody knew it. I felt that way.

I knew it. I even felt like the Lord told me that I was going to get it. I felt strong about it.

So we went for this interview process and I'm sitting around in a panel of senior

pastors here and staff pastors and they're asking questions that I'm already doing,

you know, and then they bring in a couple other people and And lo and behold,

they do not hire me for the youth pastor position.

I'm already doing the job. I'm already there. They don't give it to me.

And I am hurt, devastated.

I feel like the Lord forgot about me. Didn't you tell me this was what I was supposed to be doing?

And I feel misused and abused.

And I'm like, what's going on? I didn't even want to do ministry anymore.

I was done. I mean, if I'm already doing it and they hire someone that had less

experience than me, I don't want to do this anymore.

There's something else going on. And I'm done with ministry.

I'll just work my nine to five and y'all won't ever see me again.

And no other ministry would ever see me again. So I felt insignificant.

I was hurt. I was brokenhearted. I went through seasons really of depression.

I was really, I would just wake up early and just sit on the couch and just

stare at the ball because I really thought that was where I was supposed to be.

And that was what I was supposed to be doing with my life.

Now, consequently, I look back at it and I'm excited that I didn't get the job

because I moved to Charlotte and met my wife. And now here you are.

We started church and I'm glad I'm not a youth pastor anymore. Praise God.

Let somebody else handle them youth. Glory to God.

No, I love the youth. But it turned out to be better.

Then I thought, but in the moment, it didn't feel that way.

And we find out here in Hebrews chapter 6, verse 19, Hebrews chapter 6,

Hebrews 6:19 Hebrews 6:19

verse 19, it says, this hope we have as an anchor of the soul,

both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil.

We have been talking about hope, and this is our year of hopes fulfilled.

Hope is an intense, earnest expectation of something good happening rooted in

the promises of God. And this hope is an anchor for our soul.

Our soul is our mind, our will, and our emotions.

Our soul consists of our heart. And so hope, an intense, earnest expectation,

is an anchor for our soul.

Our soul has the ability to be very fickle. Our emotions can be very funny.

But hope and an earnest expectation in God can anchor our emotions,

can anchor our will, can anchor our mindset.

And I did some study on this word anchor. I actually watched a video the other

day of a massive ship dropping a gigantic anchor full of thick chains into the water.

And the purpose of this anchor, they dropped it down and they saw it go down.

And at some point it became invisible. They don't see it anymore.

And it's steadily going down and it hits the bottom of the water.

Once the anchor hits the bottom of the water, the boat begins to drift a bit.

And as the boat drifts a bit, the anchor then grabs a hold of the soft ground

and hooks in, and now the boat can't move.

Whether there's troubled water, whether there's turbulence, whether there's

massive wind, even in the midst of a raging storm, The boat is anchored,

secure, right there on the bottom of the sea, not allowing it to move.

And so when we understand what an anchor is, we understand that our hope is in God.

And God is invisible. None of you have ever seen God.

But our hope, our intense, earnest expectation is in Him. Like when the anchor

hits the ground, they don't see the anchor, but the hope is that the anchor

is going to grab a hold of that soft ground.

They know it will and cause that massive boat not to be moved in the raging storm.

That's the same anchor we have in God.

Our hope is in him. And because our hope is in him, we shall not be moved.

Come on, somebody say amen.

An anchor is a stabilizing force.

It's a stabilizing force, and when you put your hope in him,

you are being stabilized even through the ups and downs of life.

Biblical hope is not a feeling.

Biblical hope carries no doubt. Biblical hope believes that God will always keep his promises.

This is where our anchor lies, in that God will always keep his promises.

Throughout the ups and downs of life, my anchor is in him.

It's in his word. It's in what he has said.

And because there may be chaos and turbulence and wind storms and raging seas,

I am anchored in him. If you agree, say amen.

I can't promise that everything in life will go smoothly. But I can promise

that Jesus will always be with you and will never leave you or abandon you.

Let me say it again. I can't promise that everything in life is going to be smooth.

But I can promise that Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you.

Our anchor is in the promise that Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you.

In my story, in the youth pastor position, when I didn't get the job,

I somehow felt that the Lord had abandoned me, but it wasn't the perfect plan for my life.

Even though I was feeling a certain way, I had to keep my anchor in him that,

you know what? The Lord has not left me.

He's not forsaken me. We see what's going on in California right now with devastation

of homes and property being damaged.

And I'm getting texts from people like, how would you feel if that was you?

Man, I would feel very bad. But there's one thing that I would have to remember.

The Lord has never left me.

Property may have left me. but the Lord never left me.

People may abandon you. Stacey and I have had hundreds of people leave us,

but guess what? The Lord has never left us.

Health may leave you, but the Lord never left you.

Money may leave you, but the Lord is always with you.

Your spouse may abandon you, but God is still with you.

Your children may leave you, but the Lord is still with you.

Your parents may abandon you, but the Lord is still with you.

Your mind may leave you, but the Lord is still with you.

God will never leave you, and that is your anchor.

Your anchor is in he will never leave you nor forsake you. Say this after me.

My anchor is in God who will never leave me nor forsake me.

Deuteronomy 31.6, Deuteronomy 31.6, be strong and of good courage.

Do not fear nor be afraid of them for the Lord, your God, he is the one who goes with you.

He will not leave you nor forsake you.

God promises his presence in moments of fear and uncertainty.

You are never alone.

That's your anchor. You're never alone. You always have hope.

Your situation is never hopeless.

You are never, you are significant. You are never forgotten. You're remembered.

You're never stuck. You're moving forward because God's promise to never leave

you is an anchor for your soul.

Hebrews 13, 5 in the New Living Translation. Hebrews 13, 5, New Living. Don't love money.

Be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, I will never fail you.

I will never abandon you.

God's presence is more valuable than money.

Listen, you might think you need money. What you need is his presence.

You need his presence you can Isaiah 55 talks about you can buy things without

money hallelujah when God is for you nobody can be against you.

Even in seasons of lack, you have access to excess because the Lord has never abandoned you.

He is with you and your anchor is in. He will never leave me nor forsake me.

Psalms 139, 7 through 10.

Psalms 139, 7 through 10 in the Passion Translation.

Where could I go from your spirit?

Where could I run and hide from your face? If I go up to heaven, you're there.

If I go down to the realm of the dead, you're there too.

If I fly with wings into the shining dawn, you're there.

If I fly into the radiant sunset, you're there raiding.

Wherever I go, somebody say, wherever I go, your hand will guide me.

Your strength will empower me. There is nowhere you can go that God isn't with you.

This is your anchor. This is your hope.

Anywhere I go, God is with me.

Anywhere I step, I could go. You can go into a dangerous neighborhood and the Lord be with you.

I remember this particular time I was 13 years old and my dad is from Detroit

and we were going to Detroit to finish, to finish, to visit his family.

And he turned to me, we were going into a rough part of Detroit.

And I'm 13. And he turns to me and he says, because he had taken me to the gun

range when I was young to shoot some handguns and that sort of thing.

And he says to me, I'm going to give you this handgun.

And he put it and he said, and he put it right here on my thing.

He goes, if anything happens, you know how to use it, pull it out.

I'm sitting there like, I don't want anything to happen.

Like, why are we going if you feel like you need to give a 13-year-old a handgun?

We may not need to be going.

He's like, I'm just going to be prepared. It's a rough area, rough side of town.

We're going to go ahead. We weren't there long, but I'm sitting there like,

Lord, please let nothing happen.

I'm praying. Don't nothing happen. I got tears in my eyes. Nothing, please happen.

Nothing happened. Glory to God. But it was one of those things that I thought about.

You can go anywhere and the Lord is with you.

Our military is in bad parts of in middle of wars.

And if they believe in Jesus, the Lord is with them.

You can go to Walmart and the Lord be with you. Come on, somebody.

Our children can go to school and the Lord is with them.

How do you feel when someone says, I am with you?

How do you feel when someone says, I am with you?

I know how I feel, especially if it's someone that has a lot of wisdom and they

have a lot of experience and say, go ahead and do that. I'm with you.

How would that make you feel?

You would feel very secure, would you not? Yeah. Or what if they had a whole

lot of money, a whole lot of provision, and they say, go ahead,

do that thing because I'm with you. You'll feel very confident in doing whatever

it is that God's called you to do.

You have the Lord who is the creator of heaven and earth, who is the famous

one, who is the one that knows everything about everything.

He has all of the riches in glory, and he's saying, I am with you.

Come on, somebody just thank the Lord right now. Say, thank you,

Lord, for being with me. never leaving me, never forsaken me,

being there with me all the time through the ups and downs of life.

You're with me. You're with me. You're with me.

Joshua 1.9. Joshua 1.9 says, have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage.

Do not be afraid nor be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Wherever you go, he's with you. This is where your anchor is.

This is where your hope lies.

Don't put your hope in temporary events. Put your hope in the Lord.

Don't put your hope, well, if this happens, it was the Lord.

If it don't happen, it wasn't the Lord. That ain't where your hope lies.

Your hope lies in the Lord.

And whether it happens or it doesn't happen, it don't make you none.

It is the Lord who is with you and never forsakes you. Come on, somebody say amen.

See, we believe for things to happen, and when they don't happen, now we have to trust God.

Are you with me? People, what's the difference between faith and trust?

Faith says, I believe God is able and he's willing to do it.

Trust says, if it don't happen, I still rely and depend on him.

Amen. I had to trust the Lord in that situation with the new job.

I thought that was my job.

I believed it. I thought it was it, but I had to trust God and depend on him

and say, he's never left me.

He's never forsaken me. And I have, with the Lord, been able to do a whole lot

more than I would have ever done in that position. Somebody say amen.

God will guide you every step of your journey. He's with you.

He told Joshua, wherever you go.

He's telling Devon, wherever you go, I'll be with you.

He's promised to support and protect me. Somebody say amen to that.

Isaiah 41.10. Isaiah 41.10, fear not, for I am with you.

Be not dismayed, for I am your God. Why should I not fear? Because the Lord is with me.

I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

He's saying, I'm with you. Don't be afraid. I am with you.

Don't be afraid.

I'm with you. Just like the anchor of a massive ship goes down to the bottom

of the water and they don't see it anymore,

but they know that anchor is going to hook in and grab a hold of that dirt and

sand so that it can provide stability.

We're going to have to not be afraid because invisible God and his angels are with us. Hallelujah.

Wherever I go he's there.

Wherever I step foot, he's there. When I need instruction, he's there.

When I need energy, he's there.

When I need wisdom, he's there. When I need provision, he's there.

When I need direction, he's there.

Wherever I go, he's there, and I don't have to be afraid.

Say this, I am not afraid. I am not afraid. Say, I ain't scared.

The Lord will strengthen you.

Yes, he will. He's going to help you. Say, he's going to help me.

The Lord, when you're feeling weak, remember God is your source of strength.

Stop saying, I'm so tired. And say, the Lord is my strength.

Let the weak say, I'm strong.

Instead, we're saying, I'm tired, I'm tired, I'm tired, I'm tired.

And the Lord's saying, I'm here to give you strength. I'm right here. I can strengthen you.

I can uphold you. I'm right here. I can give you what you need.

Just communicate with me. I'm right here.

No matter your opposition, God's right hand is mighty to sustain.

Even when you can't see him, he's still working. Amen.

Never assume that nothing is happening.

Never assume that nothing is happening.

Something is always happening because the Lord is working behind the scenes.

God will stay with you and he will strengthen you. Matthew 19, 26.

Matthew 19, 26.

But Jesus looked at them and said to them, with men, this is impossible,

but with God, all things are possible.

Say this after me. With men, it's impossible.

With God, all things are possible.

So the question is, who are you with?

If you're with men, then things are going to be impossible for you.

Talk to Pookie and Ray Ray about your situation. They're going to tell you that's impossible.

It ain't going to happen. If I were you, this is what I would do, and so on and so forth.

But when you're with God, all things are possible.

Everything's possible. It just matters who are you with.

I'm with God. Say that. I'm with God. I'm with God. If you're with God,

it's possible. Well, that looks really impossible.

I'm with God. That means all things are possible.

Well, I want to take care of this. Well, that seems impossible.

I'm with God. All things are possible.

With me and your situation is impossible.

But with God, all things. Say that, all things. All things. Everything is possible.

Everything is possible. So that word possible is also the word likely to happen. Glory to God.

With God, it's likely to happen.

Amen. Who are you with?

Who are you with? Bernie Mac used to say, who are you with?

Who are you with? I'm with God. And it matters who you're with,

and it matters if he's with you as well.

And you'll know he's with you when you begin to just heed his voice.

It matters. I'll say this. It matters you heeding his voice.

You can't just do whatever you want to do and say, God is with me.

That's called immaturity. You can't just, I'm going to do whatever I want,

and God is just with me. Not if he's not telling you to do that.

Say amen to that. You're going to have to hear his voice and heed his voice and obey his voice.

And he's going to be right there with you. You can't just quote Psalms 91 and

you out at the club bumping and shaking talking about the Lord is with me. No, he ain't.

You left him outside.

And conversely, on the other side, there was a situation that we were supposed

to go on this ministry trip.

This was during the COVID days, and we were supposed to go on this ministry

trip, and the Lord told me not to go.

He said, don't go. Now, a lot of people felt a certain way about COVID.

I wasn't ever scared, but a lot of people felt a certain way, but I'm very wise.

You listen, I'm very wise. And we were supposed to go, and we were going to

hop on this airplane and go, And the Lord said, I don't want you to go.

I thought, well, everybody else going?

And the Lord said, I don't want you to go. I said, well, I'm not scared.

He goes, ain't nothing about being scared. I just said, I don't want you to go.

So we decided not to go. And I told a couple people we weren't going. And they're like, okay.

And then come and find out, everybody in there got COVID that went on this trip.

All of them got COVID. Someone was in the hospital, all of them.

And the Lord was like, if you just heed my voice.

Now I could have said The devil is a lie, Psalms 91 I'm going anyway And then

would have been immature But.

You're going to have to hear a rhema word from God. What is God speaking to

your heart and then you obey? Somebody say amen to that.

Matthew 19.26, read it in the Wiest translation. Matthew 19.26,

Wiest translation. Watch this.

And Jesus, having turned his eyes upon them and having considered them,

said to them, in the presence of men, as men look at this, it is impossible.

But in the presence of God, as he looks at this, all things are possible.

Now, notice it's how you look at the situation.

If you and Pookie talk about how this situation looks, it's going to be impossible.

But if you get in the word of God or have some friends that are talking like

God talks and think like God thinks and hears like God hears and sees what God

sees, and you're talking to them,

they're going to point you to things that are possible.

Somebody say amen. You're going to be able to see things differently,

but it matters who you are with.

Your anchor has to lie, and your anchor is your hope.

Your intense, earnest expectation has to lie in God, that he's not going to

leave me stranded, that he's not forgotten about me.

That I'm not insignificant, that I'm not stuck, that I have access to excess.

That I have the wisdom I need even when I don't know what to do,

I actually know what to do because he's with me.

He's not going to leave me. Joseph in Genesis 39, they said that he was favored

and prosperous because the Lord was with him.

You are successful because the Lord is with you.

Right now, I'm trying to be successful. You are right now because the Lord is with you.

And when you understand that he's with you, that's where your intense,

earnest expectation will come from.

Whether I get out of debt, whether I never get out of debt, the Lord is with me.

Whether the healing comes to pass, whether it never comes to pass,

the Lord is with me. Whether I die or whether I live The Lord is with me Are you listening to me?

Whether I get that job, whether I don't get that job The Lord is with me See,

we've misplaced our hope And put it in temporary things.

And we've placed it, well, if it's God, then this will happen God ain't never

said that God said, put your hope and trust in me,

And I will fulfill every promise I said to you. Not what I said to Ray Ray, what I said to you.

I'm going to fulfill every promise.

And so I want us to place our anchor back, not in events, but in him.

In his presence, in his word, in his ability to get to us anything from anyone, anywhere, at any time.

This is where our hope has to lie, in him.

I have intense, earnest expectation, like a neck outstretched looking for God in every area of my life.

If we can put our hope back in him, we will receive our hopes fulfilled this year.

Don't put it in anything else but him. Make sure your anchor is locked into him.

And when life gets turbulent, my hope is in him.

When life punches you in the face, my hope is in him. When something happens

you didn't think was going to happen, my hope is in him. I'm anchored to him.

And the wind is blowing and the storms are raging and the devil is talking to

him. How many of you know the devil talks to you?

I went to bed last night. The devil was talking to me like, all this thing you

believe in, none of that going to happen. That's what the devil said.

None of it was going to happen. I said, if you're talking, you're lying.

Amen. If your mouth is moving, you are lying.

You basically told me it all is going to work out, and I believe it's going to happen this year.

Come on, say amen to that.

God's promise to never leave you is an anchor for your soul.

God's promise to never leave you is an anchor for your mind,

your will, and your emotions.

Say this after me. My God will never leave me nor forsake me.

This is where my anchor lies.

This is how you experience true life.