Anchored In Jesus

Anchored in Jesus

Hebrews 6:13-7:10

One of the greatest problems we face today is a lost of trust. It used to be that in the past a man’s word was a man’s word. Contracts would be signed with a simple handshake and a promise or pledge. There was little need for lawyers or documents in triplicate. If a person promised to do something, their honor and their family name depended upon them following through with their pledge or vow.

Not so today. Today we are cynical and question everyone’s motives. You can’t trust the clergy. The scandals of televangelists and catholic priests have destroyed that sense of trust. You can’t trust doctors. They may be pressured to prescribe treatments in order to fulfill insurance obligations or contracts they have made with pharmaceutical companies. You can’t trust corporate America. They discard you like an old dishrag. You can’t trust educators; not when teachers are sleeping with students and administrators bow down to school board demands. You can’t trust what you read in print; not when the New York Times reports falsified stories, or Dan Rather gets caught with a bogus document.

It becomes a struggle to live in such a world. Who do I get to watch my kids when I am away in a world where babysitters have been known to rape, steal, and murder children? Who do I get to do a repair on my home when contractors have been known to rip off people and do shoddy and sometimes dangerous work? What church do I get involved in when so many churches have had cases of abuse or immoral behavior?

I guess the only one I can really trust is me! And so we live in a world of suspicion and shattered community. But in the fog of all this deception and doubt rises scripture where we read:

“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:3-4)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

But can I trust God? If I can’t trust my neighbor who I can see, how do I trust a God that is invisible? How do I know for sure that He can be trusted?

Jesus had said that it is not the amount of trust we have, after-all he said only a mustard seed of faith was enough, but it was the object of our trust that really mattered. I need only a little faith in a very big God.

That is the focus of today’s sermon which is titled: Anchored in Jesus!

Many years ago, a captain of an English ship sailing near Turkey was caught in a storm. He was too far from any harbor, so he let down the ship’s anchor, but the storm was too fierce and wind blew so strongly that the anchor did not hold.

Refusing to give up, he dropped a second anchor, but this one also did not take hold and the ship was coming dangerously close to the rocky shoreline.

There was only one little anchor left. Surely if the two larger anchors had failed, this one would do no good. But the captain had no other choice, and so he threw the final little anchor overboard. To his surprise, the little anchor held and the ship was able to ride out the storm.

After the storm had passed the captain ordered that the anchors be raised. The first and second large anchors both came up easily because they had not stuck in the seabed. But the little anchor refused to let go of its grip. Finally after a great deal of battling with this little stubborn anchor it was brought to the surface and when it came out of the water they discovered that this anchor had snagged on to the ring of an enormous anchor that had probably belonged to a large battleship lost years before.

You see, the little anchor had no strength within its self, but when hooked on to the large anchor – all the strength of that anchor was transferred to the little anchor, enough to ride out the roughest of storms.

Jesus is the anchor of every believer’s life. Though our faith is small, his strength is enough to sustain us, to carry us through, to finish the race, and to win the prize of eternal life.

The writer of Hebrews has been warning his readers to not give up. They were in danger of letting go of Christ. Some he feared never really knew Christ. They weren’t truly saved people, and they needed to have a conversion experience. They needed to become born again.