Anchored Hope / Week 2
Notes
Transcript
Anchored in HOPE
Anchored in HOPE
The anchor represents Hope, and our Hope comes from Jesus.
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
1. DROP ALL YOUR ANCHORS The more anchors you drop the more secure you become
Today we’re going to focus on dropping the anchor of family, and putting all our HOPE in Christ for the family we have or the family we want to have.
Families can be tricky to talk about right - because if you have a great family you don’t mind talking about this subject - if you don’t have a great family then you can feel defeated and hopeless about the topic before we even get started.
The family you came from / good or bad, does not have to define the family that God has for you…in fact, God might want you to GO in a different direction than your family to establish himself more fully in His family! More on that later...
It’s never to late to establish your family in CHRIST. it’s never to late to put your hopes and dreams for your family in CHRIST and WATCH HIM bring about change for your family!
Today we’re going to talk about Abraham / Father Abraham / old Sunday school song
Fun Facts About Abraham:
called the friend of God
God changed his name from Abram (exalted father) to Abraham (father of multitudes)
Sarai was unable to conceive children until she was 90years old…her barrenness provided the basis for great crises of faith, promise, and fulfillment in the lives of Abram and Sarai
What was the promise God made to Abraham regarding family?
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
This promise was made to Abram sometime between 1500 - 1800 BC (before Christ was living)
When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
In Hebrews - the writer is encouraging people to remember the promise that God made and kept with Abraham. The writer of Hebrews was writing almost 2,000 years later about the promise of God and encouraging the people that we can be secure in our HOPE of God’s promises - he did it for Abrahams family and he wants to do it for ours!
Let me explain what “waiting patiently” means....15 years!
If you’re praying for something and God says wait patiently…be prepared! This is why we need HOPE friends :) Because without it we can’t endure!
Hope For Your Family Requires Endurance
Hope For Your Family Requires Endurance
For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
You don’t endure for what you already have.
Labor & Delivery . I endured it because I was pretty sure at the end there would be a baby… my midwife kept promising …one more push…you’re going to see your baby
For those of you struggling with infertility - you’re enduring tests, drugs, doctors appointments, and all kinds of emotional ups and downs because there’s a HOPE that at the end of all that you’re going to have a baby
Those 1 hour presentations for Vacation Clubs - you endure because you’re promised a trip of a lifetime at the end
when you’re hoping for your daughter to have a breakthrough emotionally
when you’re hoping for your husband to have a breakthrough in his career
when you’re hoping for your son to have a breakthrough with his relationships and for God to bring godly relationships into his life.
when you’re hoping for your sister to experience healing
when you’re hoping for your wife to experience JOY, true JOY…
then you endure the pain that comes with the process of patiently waiting
What did Abraham endure?
A famine, family drama with his wife who he had pretend to be his sister, rescuing his nephew from a group of kings (more family drama)
Guys - you have got to read this story of Abraham in Genesis …it’s like a christian drama…you will learn things!
What are you enduring?
What kind of heartache are you enduring? What kind of disputes are you encountering. What kind of setbacks is your family experiencing?
Are you hoping for peace in your family drama? Wait for it - patiently.
Are you hoping for a child? Wait for it - patiently.
Are you hoping for your kids to know and serve Christ? Wait for it patiently.
When our HOPE is anchored in Christ, our endurance is fueled with FAITH in the promise, not fear of the unknown.
This happens when we surrender!
Hope For Your Family Requires Surrender
Hope For Your Family Requires Surrender
Sometimes the word surrender can have a negative connotation. Surrender - by definition - is to cease resistance to an opponent or enemy. but think of it this way...
when I’m fighting with my husband…I’m viewing him as my opponent. I don’t want to agree with his way of thinking, I don’t want to “give in” to his side of the argument (even if he’s right) because then it feels like I lost and he won. BUT THE TRUTH is Chris & I aren’t opponents. we want the same thing in our life and for our marriage. We want unity…so in a disagreement, when I cease resisting we start reconciling
Reconciliation is the restoration of friendly relations! Sounds fun right?! Christ followers have been reconciled to God through Christ. If you’re not following Christ - you may be resisting his efforts to love you. You may feel like God is against you and out to get you....the truth is that God is for you - He sent His Son Jesus to reconcile the broken relationship you have with God so that you can be IN THE FAMILY OF GOD
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
When we surrender our families to God, then we stop resisting His authority for our families and we begin assisting in His plan for our families life.
STOP RESISTING / START ASSISTING....last year Stella wanting to put up Christmas lights....when I surrendered to her desire, we had fun, things looked great, and we all ended up happier
Putting our HOPE in Christ for our families requires us to continually surrender to him - don’t resist his heaven sent design for your life. don’t replace his instructions for your own ideas of what’s in the “right order” or what makes the most sense...
Abraham illustrates this for us when he surrendered his comfort and went from his country, his people and his father’s household
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
GO …the most secure place to be may be away from your regular comforts (your country, your people, your father’s household)
my mom’s family / small town in Missouri / everyone knows the Yarnall name. they own land, businesses, have
Chris & I felt stirred to GO from Minnesota in January of 2019 / left a lot of security, told our family and friends we were leaving
I WILL SHOW YOU…trust that if you step out in faith for greatness for your family, God will SHOW you the next steps
Chris & I didn’t know WHERE we were going until August of 2019 (7 months later)
I WILL MAKE YOU…let God do it for you.
Don’t force it. If God said he would do it, then let him do it! There were many times in the leading up to the launch that Chris & I could have made things happen sooner!
when your hope is anchored in Christ your heart doesn’t feel so rushed…ask yourself - WHAT IS THE RUSH? WHY AM I FORCING THIS?
I WILL BLESS YOU
YOU WILL BE A BLESSING
Surrender the hope you have for your family and let God lead you, show you, and make your family great. When we surrender our will for His way, He blesses that and then our family becomes a blessing
Hope For Your Family Requires Sacrifice
Hope For Your Family Requires Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the gift you bring to the authority you’re surrendered to
Sacrifice is something that Abraham is well acquainted with
Abrahams hope was tested…he waited 15 years for the promise of a descendant and then Isaac was born! But when Isaac was in his teenage years, God asked Abraham to sacrifice His son, His only son...
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time
are we willing to sacrifice the things most precious to us -is our hope secure that even in our sacrifice God will provide his promise?
Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Abraham’s Character and Significance
But the supreme challenge to his faith, surpassing the call to leave his homeland and even the promise of a son so late in life, was the command some years later to sacrifice that son, Isaac, to God (Gn 22). In a chapter written with great literary skill, the narrator describes a scene of pathos, terror, and the specter of savagery. Abraham was not only about to slaughter his son (Gn 22:2), but also about to destroy the promise of heirs that God had given him. The test was passed: Abraham believed God even at the point of despair and destruction. He believed that if Isaac died God would bring him back to life again; and “figuratively speaking, he did receive him back”
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
Hope For Your Family Requires Faith
Hope For Your Family Requires Faith
Prayer for: Endurance, Surrender, Sacrifice, Faith
Prayer for: Endurance, Surrender, Sacrifice, Faith
