I Found My Anchor // Grace Like A Flood (Part 3) – Pastor Michael Todd – Transformation Church

Introduction

• Immutability: The inability to change, unchanging over time. Unable to be changed.
  • This word is used in the Bible to describe God and His unchangeable nature. This is what makes Him a good anchor, that in the midst of life and its constant changes, He does not change
  • Most of us are tied to the wrong thing to be our anchor (e.g. jobs, spouse, etc.)
• Grace is the unmerited, undeserved, unearned kindness and favor of God
  • God sent His grace to become the anchor that we can drop our faith on, that no matter what good or bad things happen, we have been extended the grace of God
  • Because God is immutable, His grace is steady. God is always going to be good, even when you’re not. He still loves you now as much as He did before you did whatever you did. He wants you in His presence.

God’s Immutable Nature

• Numbers 23:19 (NKJV): “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
• Malachi 3:6 (NKJV): “For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
  • God doesn’t need to turn away from anything because He is always right. God always does things the right way, therefore He doesn’t change
• Everyone has sinned, which is to “miss the mark”
  • You cannot hide it from God; He knows you have sinned, you’re still sinning, and that you’re going to sin
  • God was there when you sinned, He just wants you to come to Him to admit it and let Him fix you with His grace
• Hebrews 6:13-19 (NKJV): For when God made a promise to Abraham because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,
  • God wants to multiply and bless us, we just need to patiently endure. Waiting on God’s promise will not be in vain, it will be fulfilled
  • God is saying that when you get the message of Hid grace, that message drops an anchor on your soul, mind, will, which is where the battles happen
    • No matter what kind of battle it is, external or internal, God is an anchor that will not capsize, turn over, drown, be overwhelmed and instead keep us steady
    • Once God is our anchor, we will stop going to other things as temporary fulfillments

Misconceptions About God’s Immutable Nature

• When God pours His grace on us, most of us ask, “Why?” God wants us to know that His grace got nothing to do with us; His actions should be about Him and His character
• When we accept any gift, especially God’s gifts, we act like we can repay it back. We put ourselves in debt for something that was given freely – we do NOT have to pay back our salvation
• Until we firmly grasp and understand God’s grace, we can never be His hands and feet. If we don’t know His grace, we’ll be judging people you’re supposed to be helping
• John 3:16 (NKJV): For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
  • God sent His Son to die for the WORLD, not just for the Church
  • The “that whoever” is for everyone and anyone who believes, even the people you don’t like
  • Abraham in Genesis 12 believed and that made him righteous to God, even though God knew he would make mistakes all throughout his life after that moment
• Just because the Church leaves you does not mean that God will leave you when you sin
  • When you sin, you will have to face its consequences, but God is still with you through it all. He will be your anchor

The Security of God as Our Anchor

• Hebrews 6:13 (NKJV): For when God made a promise to Abraham because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself
  • This oath shows that God’s promises (like His character) are unchanging. In the end, God did fulfill His promises and that’s why there’s no better anchor than Him
  • Abraham’s trust in God’s oath was the gateway to the fulfillment of the promise
  • Once you hold this truth of God, the Good Anchor, in your life, you’ll live and talk differently

The Heirs of Promise

• Hebrews 6:17 (NASB): In the same way God, desiring even more to demonstrate to the heirs of the promise the fact that His purpose is unchangeable, confirmed it with an oath
• Romans 4:13-14 (NKJV): For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect
  • God desired to show us Christians, the Heirs of the Promise, the unchangeableness of who He is and His purpose
  • God is wanting all of us to get His message of grace because He can’t change, He can’t lie, and as Heirs of the Promise, if we put our faith in Him, we’ll get the inheritance of His kingdom
• All God wants is your heart for you to become His heir. Once He has your heart, He can change your habits
  • The Church is supposed to be a hospital for humanity, not a club for Christians. We’re supposed to accept those with broken hearts so that by God’s grace, He can fix them
  • God’s not mad at you when you mess up; He is always going to be madly in love with you
• Until you receive the grace of God, you’ll never be able to anchor your soul, and when you mess up, you’ll know that you’re still not going to move because you’re tied down to a God greater than yourself. Knowing the God you’re tied to will change you

Two Points to Drop Your Anchor On

• Jesus is Our High Priest Forever
  • Hebrews 6:20 (NKJV): Where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek
  • Hebrews 7:17 (NKJV): For He testifies: “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
  • Hebrews 7:23-25 (NKJV): Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them
    • In the Old Testament, you did not have a direct connection with God, you need a high priest to act as the perfect intercession for you and your sin. Yet, even the high priests were not perfect and some of them died in the presence of God too. When Jesus entered the scene, He ended this practice by living a perfect life and then being the perfect sacrifice so that all may believe in Him and have eternal life
  • Because Jesus became our High Priest forever, we will always have a direct connection and access to God. This connection is our inheritance from God.
  • Hebrews 10:11-12 (NKJV): And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God
    • The only reason Jesus could sit at the right hand of God is due to His death on the Cross, and at that moment, it was finished and His grace was sufficient!
  • Jesus is the High Priest in the good and bad times, and in those bad times, when we face the consequences of our sins, He wants to discipline us not punish us

• Jesus is the Mediator of the New Covenant Forever
  • Hebrews 8:6 (NKJV): But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises
    • The New Covenant is established on better promises. God upgraded His covenant from the Old to the New so that our sins aren’t only covered (as it was done in the Old Covenant) but also cleansed and forgotten by God
  • God wants us to stop serving Him out of dead works – works not initiated by God to earn His favor – but out of belief and faith so that He can transform you
  • Once we believe, the rest of our Christian life is not perfection but a transformation
  • To transform, we have to stop focusing on our failures and start focusing on His victory and grace