Chris Hodges - The Anchored Life
Come on. Give God praise, everybody! And it's so good to have all of you here to celebrate our 23rd anniversary. And let me look straight in the camera and say hello to not only all of our campuses and our locations but also to the amazing men and women in the Alabama Department of Corrections. We have the honor of being in about 22 of those facilities across our state, and to everybody that's watching online or maybe on-demand later, we're so glad you're along for the ride as well. And I want to say a special hello and honor our military men and women who are deployed. Every week, we hear from our servicemen and women who are watching, and they're defending our freedoms around the world. But they're going to church online today. Come on, put your hands together and say a big hello, everybody! God bless you. God bless you guys so much.
And today, we're beginning a brand-new series that we're calling "Life Money Hope," and I'll tell you kind of the story of where this originated in my heart about, I would say, three or four months ago. It was just before Thanksgiving, and Tammy and I had gotten away to just to get a little rest. It was during "At the Movies," and I always pre-record all of those so it gives me a week off. And I was studying for, you know, Christmas and the New Year, and I like to get alone and pray to God. And I'm telling you, as loud as I'm speaking to you right now, I felt like I heard the Spirit of God say, "Prepare people for 2024," that it will be a year of miracles.
We're going to see God move in ways that we've never seen God move before. But then we're going to see some storms like we've never seen before, and we kind of already kind of know that. I mean, it's one of those wonderful election years. Come on, somebody. Help us, Lord Jesus, right? Those are always a lot of fun, but then, just the economy and just life. And, you know, when you see God moving a great way you can always know too that the enemy is going to try to do everything he can to discourage at the same time. Jesus taught that: that there would be days where great move of God but, kind of, all of hell would break lose as well. And I felt like I heard God say, "Prepare people. Prepare people for storms. Help them in the middle of them".
And that's why we've called this series, "Life Money Hope". We're actually going to do an entire message on, you know, how do we get our lives in order financially so that we can survive things? And we're gonna talk about even how to get out of debt and what the Word of God says about being healthy in those areas, finding financial freedom. And we're gonna talk about our thinking. We're gonna talk about marriage in this series. We're gonna talk about relationships, how we navigate. Because all of us, doesn't matter who you're married to, you're going to have some rough times in the home. How do we navigate all of that?
And today, I wanted to begin with the last word in the series, and that is "hope". I only have a few minutes because of all the time we took to celebrate our anniversary. But I just wanted to teach you just for a few minutes on the subject of hope. I was reading this story. And again, shout out to our servicemen and women. I honor you guys. And I honestly, I don't think you guys even know this that if I would have done another profession it probably would have been in the military. I actually taught a religion class at the Air Force Academy back in the day in the late '80s, early '90s, and I'm just, I've always had a deep affection and love for our service academies and militaries.
In fact, we're modeling a lot of what I learned at the Air Force Academy at Highlands College. But I was reading recently about this military flight surgeon named Major Harold Kushner, who actually did some of his training right here in Alabama. But he was captured during the Vietnam War in Cambodia and was in a prison camp. And of course, there were other servicemen there. And he tells this story because he does speeches now about hope and about just our emotions and psychology and things that go on when we're going through rough days. And he tells this story about this 24-year-old Marine who was also a prisoner of war. And this Marine thought he could garner favor with the Viet Cong captors, and so, he told them, "If you promise to let me go, I'll do whatever you guys tell me to do".
And he became this model prisoner. He just obeyed every command that they had, but one day, it dawned on him that they said, "Oh yeah, we'll let you go if you'll do all this," but then he realized they're not letting him go. And when that reality hit him, here's what Major Kushner said about him. He said, "He became a zombie and he refused to do any work and he rejected all offers for food. He couldn't even be encouraged. He simply laid in his cot, sucking his thumb, and in a matter of weeks he was dead". And he talks about the devastating effects of hopelessness. And I know there's none of us here today that are in that kind of a condition where we're a prisoner of war, but some of you feel that way in your marriage, in your emotions, or just in your life, and you're starting to lose hope. The human spirit needs hope to survive.
Let me say it that way. And so I want to talk to you for a few moments of how to navigate that. And I want to give you a foundational message, so before we get into finances and marriage and our thinking and all these areas, so that we can navigate storms of life. I want to give you the most foundational truth of hope. And it's what the Bible says about hope, and it's found in Hebrews chapter 6, and I want every person at every campus to read it out loud together. Here we go. "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm, and secure," so the Bible says that you can have hope, and if you have hope, hope anchors your soul.
So the soul is the part of you that's not the part that's like God. We are a body, we're a soul, and we're a spirit. So the spirit is the part of you that's perfect. It's clean. It's holy. It's the part of you that when you go to heaven or stand before God one day, he's gonna look at you and it's perfect. But it's the body and the soul that we have to live with here on planet Earth. And your soul, it's your mind, your will, and your emotions. And the Bible says that you can have some hope that will anchor your soul. You guys know what an anchor is. I brought me an anchor here. I don't know if this will help you at all, but y'all know what this does, right, everybody?
So, you got the the boats going a little crazy and the winds blowing you around, and if you find that honey hole of fishing, you know, and you want to stay there, you don't want the circumstances of the environment around you to blow you around. You anchor yourself. And so, it keeps you steady when everything else was moving. The question is: do you have one of these in your soul? And if you don't, here's what it looks like. Every time something comes up, it kind of does a number on you, and you're kind of blowing with whatever happens in your home, whatever happens at work, whatever happens in the news, whatever happens in America. You move with what moves around you, and God would love for you to be anchored.
So here's the point, and that is you can't stop the wind, the waves, the blowing, the trials. You can't stop any of that, but you can find an anchor that keeps you steady in the middle of that. Look at me. I'm not blowing smoke here. I'm telling you what I really felt like I heard from God. And that is: there gonna be some blowing in 2024. And there's gonna be some storms going on, and I heard God say, "Prepare the people for it, that they can be anchored in the middle of it".
So here's what I did. I actually spent quite a number of hours. I love doing this. I actually love, I tell people I actually love my study days, I think more than even the days I deliver it. There's just something, I just enjoy studying the Bible. I spent several hours, several days just studying the word "hope". Old Testament and New. I think I read every passage in the entire Bible on where hope is found and how hope can anchor your soul. I found five things that I want to give you today, and I got to give them to you quick because I only have about ten minutes to give you these, all right? And you can follow these along in the app. You can write these in your notes so you can have them yourself.
But there are five things that I'm promising you that if you can get these going in your life, what it's going to do it's going to feel like an anchor in your soul. It's going to give you some hope in the middle of what I believe is going to be, again, great year of miracles but a challenging year at the same time. Here's the first one, and that is you get hope and you get anchored when you know how to cultivate God's presence. And what I mean by that is that, in any moment, you can take whatever you're facing, pardon yourself out of that situation for a second, and go get alone with God. And you're gonna think, "No, no, no. In the middle of my bad days, that's where God feels so far away".
Look at me, everybody. He's not as far as you think he is. And you can have access to him quicker than you think you can. Like, you can cultivate the presence of God, and God, the Bible says, is this source of hope. This is Romans 15: "May God," look at it, "the source of hope, fill you with joy and peace," so that can actually happen in the middle of any circumstance, "through your faith in Him, and then you'll overflow with hope". The Psalmist, David, said it this way, "Find rest," meaning, I'm not at rest right now, but I can find rest, "O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him".
What are you saying? I'm saying that you need to know how, when something bad happens, to get yourself out of that situation for a few minutes and get in the presence of God. And he's closer than you think. I'll tell you a quick little story. It was actually here at Grantsville. We used to office here. I had my office here. Now it's over at the Grandview location. But years ago, I guess this was back in 2009, and I was just coming in from a lunch appointment, and I was parked up over there where the playground area is. I parked right there. I was walking in those double doors and headed upstairs to my office. I had a 1 o'clock appointment that was already waiting on me I found out.
And I'll never forget. I just shut the door to my car, getting ready to run up there, and I got a text from my sister, who at the time was also my personal assistant, and she was upstairs with this person who was waiting for me. And the text said, "I just got back from the doctor's office with dad". Mom and dad moved to Birmingham with us to help us start the church. And they said, "Dad's got terminal cancer and only a few months to live". And I literally, it felt like a mule kicked me in my gut, and I doubled over the car hood. I just, I was, I put my hands on my head and just sobbed on my car. I don't know why I did that. I just, I needed something to fall onto. It literally felt like something kicked me in the gut, and I kind of had to get it together.
Got this appointment waiting for me upstairs and went upstairs, and I walked in. My face was a little red from just getting this news. And I said, "Hey, good to see you. Hey, I'm gonna need a few minutes. I'm so sorry, but I need a few minutes". And I think Carol told them what was going on, and so I stepped into my office. And back in 2009, I didn't have a playlist from Apple. I had a boombox. Come on, somebody. Where y'all at, right? I got my little CD, and I put on some worship. And the reason I did that is what I'm teaching you right now. Because I knew, in the middle of what felt like my worst day, I knew how near God's presence was.
And I'm telling you it's the honest to God truth. In about two or three minutes, I was just worshiping, not even singing, I was just listening to worship and just worshiping, and I felt this peace of God come over my life. And it's something that's available to you too. That won't change what happened. In fact, if you know the story, my dad actually got healed of cancer. The Brookwood Medical Center declared my dad to be a medical miracle. They took this cancer out of his face. The cancer had gone into his jaw and eaten up a bunch of the muscles in his face, and they removed all that muscle and nerve out of his face, took fat from his side, to put it back in his face just so he'd look somewhat normal.
I go into the hospital room the next morning and dad's in bed eating scrambled eggs and smiling. And I said, "Dad, they told me you weren't going to be able to eat or smile". And he goes, "Well, I can't," and he went. I said, "Hold that pose". I took a picture and sent to the surgeon who actually was a member of our church. I said, "Dad's smiling and eating eggs". He said, "No, he's not". I said, "I'm looking at him," and I sent him the picture. And it got completely healed. Like, God put nerves and muscles back in his face. Are y'all listening to me, church? And then a year later, cancer came back and dad went to heaven.
And I saw God be faithful. I actually, I saw the reality of a verse out of 2 Timothy that says that "God will rescue me from every evil attack and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom," like he does both. My dad was in a win-win situation. God healed him, and he went to heaven. He was a winner on both sides. Are y'all listening to me, everybody? And in the middle of all that, I just worshiped. And I want you to know how to do that. In fact, I told the team this week. We're going to put on some worship songs on our app that you can go to whenever you're facing something difficult. I told them, "Put a playlist. Get people started". You find your own songs, but I I want you to have the ability in the middle of whatever happens, whatever storm you face, I want you to be able to cultivate God's presence.
And here's what will happen. "Those who find hope in the Lord, their strength gets renewed," so, no more mule kick in the stomach. You've got your energy back. "They will soar on wings like eagles," y'all know how eagles fly? Have y'all ever seen an eagle fly? They don't flap. They just... Birds do this... And some of y'all look like this... Y'all just, "Mmm". You're flying, but you're flapping. But God wants to put a thermal current of the Holy Spirit under your wings so that in the middle of your situation, you're flying but you're not losing energy in the middle of it. "They will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint".
Cultivate the presence of God. Here's the second one. He's getting ready to start playing and I got four more points to go, all right? Go ahead, Tyler. That's all right. I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. We won't leave one minute late. Y'all hang in there. You'll want to hear all five of these. Because anchored people stand on God's promise. Now, they all gonna start with the letter P. It's a preacher disease. I'm so sorry, okay? But I'm talking about the Word of God. "My soul faints," some of y'all have a fainting soul today. David said, "My soul faints, but I have put my hope in your word".
Jesus said it this way in Matthew 7: "Everyone who hears my word, puts it into practice, is like someone who built their house on the rock. The rain," I'm so sorry to tell you all this, it's coming. "The winds are blowing. The stream's gonna rise, but it doesn't have to make you fall if you're anchored". Conversely, there are some who don't take the Word of God seriously. They hear it, but they don't put it into practice. And "they're like a foolish person whose house," your emotional house, "is on sand". Can't stop it. "Rains are coming, winds are blowing, streams are rising. But they fell with a great crash," and I heard God say, "Help people not crash this year". And if you'll come back every installment of this series, we'll give you the tools so you can be successful in 2024, regardless of what 2024 brings. I'm gonna get in the Word of God. I have God's presence, God's promise, the Word of God.
The third one is you need to understand God's process. And this one's the most surprising. It was the most surprising source of hope in the Bible to me. I was shocked when I found it. Because the Bible says this: "rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings," and nobody does that. I don't do that. I don't like, "Whoa! What's going on? Going through a trial"! You know, nobody does that, all right? But the Bible says you should, that there's even hope on the bad day because the suffering is producing something. "Perseverance, character, and hope". Meaning, If you understand what God is doing in the middle the bad day, you begin to actually appreciate it.
James says it this way in chapter 1, verse 2: "Consider it joy when you face trials of many kinds when," well, nobody does that. He says, "because the testing of your faith is developing something". I wish I had time to teach it. I was almost going to do the whole message on this story. But there was this story where Jesus and disciples were in a boat, and Jesus said, "We go into the other side". Can I stop right here and say when Jesus says you go into the other side, you go on to the other side? Okay? But watch what happens. "A furious squall came," a storm, lightning, thunder, "and it broke over the boat".
And Jesus is sleeping. And that's how some of you feel about your Jesus today. By the way, this is bad theology. Because the disciples were over there like, "You don't care". Yes, he does. And they spent time with Jesus, and they thought he didn't care. And you pick up the rest of the story out of Mark into Matthew because Matthew adds a detail I want you to see, same story. And Jesus woke up and, before he talked to the storm, he talked to the disciples. Let me say it this way. In the middle of your storm, we're all going, "God, get rid of it. Help me in the middle of this," and before he deals with the storm, he's probably gonna deal with you.
And he says, "'You got little faith.' And then he got up and rebuked the winds and waves, and they were still," and look what disciples who knew Jesus said. This is fascinating to me. "What kinda man is this"? In other words, they still didn't know all that he was. It took the storm for them to see an aspect of Jesus that they didn't even know existed. And there are aspects of Jesus like you're never going to realize until you go through something, and he starts to develop maturity only inside of you. And he shows himself faithful in the days you think he's asleep and doesn't care. And now your faith grows.
You're like, like, if you've ever been through something, you now have the luxury of looking back and saying, "God was right there in the middle of that the whole time," and you mature. And anchored people appreciate that process. It's like a steak on a grill. You pull it out. It looks great until you cut it. Now it's bleeding all over the place because you didn't leave it on there long enough. But you put it back on, heat it up, and it gets cooked right. You can never know sometimes what's inside of a person until they're cut. And then you never mature them until you heat it up some more. But when you do, I'm ready to go home and eat one right now. Come on, somebody, right? I got another service. Y'all get to, but I don't. All right. So God has a process that he wants to do.
Here's the fourth one. I'm gonna get it done. I promise you. Anchored people know God's purpose for their life. Now, I teach this a lot, so I won't teach it a lot. I won't teach along today. "But I know the plans God says for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future". Notice with me, your hope and your future are connected. Let me say it this way. You can never have full hope without knowing why God's put you on this planet. And that's why I want you to go to the growth track. I saw some Dream Teamers yesterday, I was doing a tour of Highlands College yesterday. I have a guest in town. And they had this whole group of people after prayer that were putting cards in the back of the chairs, and they were, "Oh, Pastor Chris. So good to see you".
I said, "Thank y'all for doing this". He goes, "Oh, we're having the time of our life". Why? 'Cause they found their purpose. You need God's presence, God's promise, God's process, God's purpose. And here's the last one. Anchored people look forward to God's place, and I'm talking about heaven. So, I want to say something to you, and it's going to be a little strong. Okay? Some of us are way too enamored with planet Earth. In fact, let me say it this way. You're expecting too much of Earth. Even on your worst day, you're experiencing the best version of Earth that exists on planet Earth. Go on a mission's trip and see how people live. Go see what the rest of the world lives like everyday.
And we're expecting way too much of Earth. And you know what the Bible says? It's the only place in the whole Bible where it adds this word before hope, where it says, "Now this is the blessed hope," in other words, this is the ultimate hope. Let me show it to you. Only one place in the whole Bible. Titus: "While we wait for the blessed hope," what is that? "The appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ," the day you actually meet him, you go to heaven. And the Bible says that people who are anchored, not with Earth expectations but with the reality that some glad morning when this life is over, I'll fly away. I'm gonna be with Jesus.
Our grandparents understood this. We have forgotten it. That we don't expect... do I pray? Yeah, I want Earth to work out, but if it doesn't, I get to be with Jesus one day. I'm going to heaven, and I'm going to sing and shout the victory. "And people who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their," say it out loud, "for their true home". Yeah, a far better country. Heaven. Heaven. I watched my father-in-law pass away the year after dad died. Billy. He had a little melanoma tumor on the bottom of his foot. Four doctors said it wasn't nothing. It was already stage 5. Got off in his body. In nine months he was with the Lord, at my age. I'll be 61 this year. He was 61.
And I watched hundreds of pastors come into town because he was a legend, man. He had served so many pastors over his lifetime. And everyone that came, he looked at 'em. It was the most amazing thing. He had one eye going in another direction because of the cancer in his brain. And he'd smile and hug them and they came to pray for him. He'd pray for them. And he'd tell everybody, "There's no fear in death. There's no fear. I'm getting ready to meet Jesus, and I have no fear. I want you to hear this. There's no fear in death". How can he say this? Anchored soul. An anchored soul. He said, "Chris, if I'd of known dying was this much fun, I'd have done it a long time ago". Anchored.
Father, I'm praying for these amazing people, that you anchor their soul. I don't know what's coming in 2024, but God, let them know your presence, your promises, your process. Lord, let them find their purpose that you've given them. And Lord, we thank you for the place, heaven.
If you're here today and you don't know for sure that you'd go to heaven, like if you dropped dead this very second, do you know where you'd spend eternity? Did you know that your one faith-filled prayer away from knowing for sure? And I'll help you with the words right there where you are. Just whisper these. Say:
Jesus, I surrender my life to you. I receive what you did for me on the cross. I repent of my sin. I turn my life to you. Be my Lord. I believe you're the Son of God, who rose from the dead. And today, I put my faith in you. Thank you for saving me. In your name I pray. Amen.