Anchors Away!

First Baptist Church

February 3, 2002

"Anchors Away!"

Colossians 3:12-17

It is rare that Debbie and I get to watch a movie or a program that we like. Our time to watch something on television occurs at about 10:30. There are not many spiritual things you can take out of some of the movies Joshua and Zachary watch. I mean Robin Hood is about making the ends justify the means — stealing from the rich to give to the poor is noble, but honestly, it is not very ethical.

Of course, watching construction movies is not overly spiritual either. Yet, as I was watching "There Goes a Bulldozer" movie, something in that movie made me think of something spiritual. I want to show you a very short clip and you tell me what you get out of it.

Shows a very large drill extended from a crane digging into the ground in order to give a 26 story bulding a foundation.

You know what I got out of that little clip — something that has restarted or revitalized my spiritual life — something I have forgotten. It was a reminder that my foundation must be dug deep into the rock, into the foundation of my faith. If I don’t, then everything I do will eventually fall apart.

If I build my foundation with the assumption that my possessions will get me through tough times, they won’t. Maybe my money will, but that will collapse. Or maybe my book collection, or my job status, or my . . . You see, whatever I am counting on to get me through tough times, which I took to symbolize earthquakes in the movie clip, must be grounded in Christ.

Let me tell you about the first three days of my week —

On Monday morning I came to church ready to get a start on the week, I walked to the kitchen and saw two bags of garbage which had been ripped open by animals. Garbage was all over the street and church property. I was not happy. That is not the way I anticipate starting my week.

On Tuesday morning after Joshua went to school, Debbie wanted to shake off our comforter. So, Debbie and I went outside and Zachary stood at the screen door to watch. What we didn’t know is that Zachary can lock the screen door — and he did. We didn’t know it until we tried to open the door. Can you imagine what we looked like to him as he stared at us trying to get him to unlock the door that he didn’t understand he had locked in the first place. We didn’t have the garage door opener in the car, and that wouldn’t have worked because we lock the basement door so Zachary won’t go down on his own. I thought I would have to break the screen door, however, the window in the kitchen was not locked, and I climbed on a chair, stood on the railing to the deck and jimmied open the window and crawled through. We have now resolved that situation.

Early Wednesday morning, Zachary woke up at 2:49, but who’s counting. I rocked him for 7 minutes, laid him down and he woke up. He laid in bed and fell asleep, when I adjusted his blanket, because I am such a caring dad, he woke up. He fell asleep again, and I peeked at him to make sure and the floor creaked, he woke up. I sat on the floor again, he fell asleep, and finally I left, but in leaving the door handle made a noise, and he woke up. Finally, I got into bed and he woke up again. I grabbed my pillow and just camped out on the floor and finally got to bed at 4:15 AM. He was up and ready for a day of fun at 6:58.

It seemed that each morning was getting off to a lousy start. Of course, what I do about it, is all up to me. I could allow each of those instances to get me really growling and have a terrible week, or I could have known that I was anchored in Jesus. Now those aren’t catastrophic events. But those are enough little things, that when added up seem to throw a collective knock out punch.

So what are we to do in life? You know, we had Alex and Cale baptized this morning. It was an exciting time, I know there were tears of joy at two new members of the church and more importantly, two people who are excited about Jesus. And maybe that helped you to become a little more tearful and excited about God. But the question that confronts us and bombards us, is what happens tomorrow when Alex and Cale are at school and someone is bugging them. How will they react? How will you react when someone cuts you off, or steals your idea for a job and they get all the credit? How will you react when someone does not give you what you want? You see, today we are in church and that is good, but tomorrow, we won’t be in this building, we’ll be in a different world, so how will you react when life gets thrown at you?