Well, good morning, everyone.
It's glad to see everyone here.
I want to thank all of our new guests.
I'm Pastor Jesse.
Thank you very much for coming and joining us this morning.
I'd also like to welcome all of our guests that are watching online.
Thank you so much for watching.
And happy Mother's Day to everybody here.
Happy Mother's Day to everyone online.
And especially happy Mother's Day to my mom, who is 2,000 miles away.
I miss you, Mom.
So I'm really glad you're here.
I think we just have one announcement.
Next week, we have our church barbecue meat chapel, is what we all call it, M-E-A-T chapel.
And we're going to have hamburgers, hot dogs.
Just bring your favorite dish to pass.
And we're going to have a great time.
Our missionary, Sharon, which is back there, she's running graphics today,
she's going to be sharing about her trip to Cambodia
and going to be talking about her upcoming trip.
So next week's going to be fun.
We tend to have a lot of people show up on barbecue day.
So I just love breaking bread with you guys.
It's going to be amazing.
And so we'll really enjoy that.
So today's going to be really special.
I have one of my friends come, who's somebody I've known for a couple years now.
And a wonderful mom.
One of your kids is getting married soon.
And so I'm excited to introduce Tina Schuller.
And she is the women's director at the Arizona Community Church.
So give her a big round of applause.
Thank you.
Take your shoe with you.
Good to see everybody.
Thank you, Jessie.
Appreciate that.
Yes, my husband here is Jeff.
And my parents are visiting, too.
It's a happy Mother's Day to my mom.
She's about 20 feet away from me.
So very sweet.
Glad to be here.
We do have two kids.
Our daughter gets married June 1st.
So just a couple of weeks.
And then our son is getting married October 24th.
So we are entering the empty nest phase.
And I couldn't be more thrilled.
So we love our kids.
We have a great relationship with them.
But always, always raised our kids with the intention to get out.
Like, that was always a thing.
Fly.
Fly, birdies.
Go.
So, because I love him.
And I'm really looking forward to the house with the him and I and all that.
So I'm really excited about that.
And I'm proud of our kids and excited for their new journey and their life of marriage as well.
But enough about me.
I have a question for you guys.
How many of you enjoy boating or cruising?
Enjoy the ocean?
Do we have a few people here?
Has anybody been on rough waters before?
Open rough waters?
Yeah.
It's a little uneasy, isn't it?
I've been on cruises and boats that take you out.
And not that long ago, I was on a cruise ship on the top level.
And it was expected.
They had said, you don't really have any rough waters.
We go along the sea well.
Surprise.
Crazy rough waters.
I thought we were going to capsize.
I mean, we were in the same bunk together.
My mom and I thought I was going to roll out of the bed.
And any time that happens, what you really hope for is some kind of security.
And so we're going to be talking about what it means to love our anchor as the vessel.
We're going to be considering ourselves as the ships on the open sea.
We are the vessels carrying the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And God is going to be our anchor.
And when we encounter rough waters, what we want more than anything is a strong anchor.
So before I get in and read this quote, let me just offer a word of prayer to the Lord as well.
God, this message is for you.
Holy Spirit, come and impact each and every heart here according to the way you know them.
You are omniscient.
You know and you search our hearts.
So we go, come here before you, palms up.
We say, search our hearts, Lord, and know us.
Know every way within us.
We ask that you encourage us.
We ask that you strengthen us.
We ask that you prick us where we need to be pricked.
Inspire us where we need inspiration.
So we can walk out these doors today changed for the better for your kingdom and your glory.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
So Corrie ten Boom has this quote that says, in order to realize the worth of the anchor, we need to feel the stress of the storm.
So if you just take out a boat into a lake, we have friends.
We don't have a boat.
You don't need a boat in life.
You need friends with a boat.
Okay?
So that's what we have.
We have friends with a boat.
And they take us out to Canyon Lake, and they have an anchor on their boat, and it drops down, and we just jump off the back for fun.
And that anchor just kind of helps to make sure we don't drift into the weeds or the rocky areas.
And that's really fun.
But anchors to a sailor on a ship in the open seas, in the open waters of life, are so much more necessary.
It becomes your absolute lifeline.
It can keep a boat from crashing or capsizing or drifting into more dangerous waters, which could potentially result in drowning.
And so today, we will look at God as our anchor and the concept of the anchor's value in the midst of a storm.
So the question I want you to keep in the forefront of your mind today is,
Are you prepared with the proper anchor when the storms and the waves of life come?
Am I clicking through?
Yes.
Okay.
Perfect.
All right.
We have one verse in the Bible out of Hebrews.
It says this,
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
This is the only verse in scripture that uses the metaphor of hope being an anchor.
This is the only one.
And the hope that it's referring to is the truth of Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead to offer us eternal life.
In this passage, it goes on to say that God cannot lie and he doesn't change his mind.
He made this promise.
He gave us an oath that he would bring eternity and eternal life through his son, Jesus Christ.
And he's not going to renege on that.
He's not going to pull out on that.
So this is a firm and it's a secure promise.
But this promise isn't something that we just wait around until the day we die.
Well, I'm just going to not have hope until I die and then I'll go to eternity.
Know that hope can live within us now during our storms and during our challenges of life and death.
Because if the power of Christ can overcome death to offer us the hope of eternal life,
then that same spirit lives in us.
So we have hope and we have strength for today and for eternity.
It is the truth of God's word that actually offers us hope.
And it's his promises that anchor us.
So we're going to focus on those truths and those promises.
However, before we get there, I'm going to take a little detour.
And if you guys wouldn't mind, I'd like to teach you a little bit about what I learned about anchors.
Because the Bible is full of metaphors.
Jesus used metaphors and parables.
He used the things that he saw to teach people, to help them understand.
So why an anchor?
Why would the author of Hebrews compare the hope that God gives us in Jesus Christ to an anchor for our soul?
Here's what we learn about anchors.
Number one, every ship has one.
And more importantly, it's connected to the ship.
You can't just have an anchor without a rope connected to the ship.
It does no good.
So you think, what does Jesus say?
Abide in me.
We need to also be connected to the anchor.
Another one, it's important to find out how your anchor ranks in the world of best-selling anchors for the seabed in which you will anchor.
So that's important.
You've got to actually look it up.
You can't just go and buy any anchor.
A sailor will know, this is the one that I'm going to need because this is what's going to help me feel the most secure.
So if you think of yourself as a vessel, what of all the anchors that are out there, what is the best-selling anchor for you?
There's an art to anchoring.
It's been said that many people actually fail to understand the art of anchoring.
They think it's easy and it's just going to come naturally.
I would be guilty of that.
I don't know anything about anchoring.
To me, you either just crank it down or you throw it over.
But apparently, there's a greater art to that, to know and understand.
There are step-by-step learning process.
And in the same way, isn't it a learning process to look more and more like Jesus?
Nobody says that when you become a Christian, you're going to have this easy, natural life living like him.
No.
There are process.
It's the sanctification process.
There are alarms.
Anchors have alarms.
And they set the radius in which you're safe to swing within.
And if the boat goes outside that circumference, the alarm goes off.
Do you know what that is?
That's the Holy Spirit in me and you.
That's when we try to say, well, I love the Word of God, but I'm going to go test over here.
I'm going to get outside in this section over here.
And the Holy Spirit, if you have him in you, living in you, he goes, beep, beep, beep.
And he sets off an alarm that says, get in alignment here.
Get within the circle.
This is where you're safe.
This is where you're secure.
The anchor that's not adequate will just drag through the sea, leaving the sailor with sleepless nights.
We'll talk about inadequate anchors in a little bit.
And anchors are necessary.
Out of the millions of things a sailor could have on his boat or a boat owner.
We have, I told you, we have friends who have a boat.
You know what?
They have really cool speakers.
It's not going to help in a storm.
They got a really cool radio system.
They got really cool wakeboards and places to put on the rack.
They got rafts to drag kids behind.
None of those things.
I don't care how cool and fancy and pretty your boat looks.
If you don't have an anchor, it's not going to hold you in a storm.
They won't ground us.
We need an anchor.
We absolutely need an anchor.
Every ship has one and every ship needs one.
And that's the first thing that you and I as vessels for the Lord Jesus Christ, the first thing we must understand is we cannot go out into the open waters of life without an anchor.
We can't, we can go without a church service even though we're supposed to come together, but if you're sick, you can go without that for a minute.
You can go without a lot of things, but you cannot go without your anchor into the open seas of life.
Can you see why the Bible refers to the hope we have as God as our anchor?
An anchor is actually a symbol of security and stability.
The Holy Spirit is really kind of like our guide and our wind telling us the direction and where we should go, what we should be doing.
If I could just point out Michelle, right?
Holy Spirit's working on your heart, guiding you in your direction.
You're like, why are you blowing me that way, Lord?
This is what he does.
But we say, I got the Spirit in me.
I've got an anchor with me, and I'm going to go with my anchor.
But sometimes the waters of life are rough.
Anybody have rough life waters before?
Have you experienced that in your life?
Rough life waters?
Never.
Hallelujah.
Repent of your lying later today.
Okay.
Sometimes we can see when the waves in life come, and sometimes they hit us unexpectedly, don't they?
They came out of the blue.
They could be health challenges or diagnoses.
Could be financial challenges.
Broken relationships.
Difficulty in parenting.
Anybody have that rough water?
And sometimes that doesn't change, even as you have adult kids.
We have a ministry at our church called Praying for Our Adult Children.
Difficulty in marriage.
Loss of loved ones.
Grief.
Grief can be a big, heavy wave that seems like you can never come up for air.
Overwhelming temptations.
Family disputes.
Unexpected changes.
And to rest easy in any of the storms of life, we need an anchor.
Because there's nothing more uncomfortable than feeling unsteady and tossed and turned.
And worse, it can make you seasick, nauseous, don't even feel like you want to eat.
So we need something that will hold us.
I love this quote from Charles Stanley.
He says this,
The storms of life are inevitable, but our anchor is immovable.
Amen.
When we need to be grounded, steady, held, secure during the storms of life, what anchors us?
What anchors you?
And if we look to any other sources outside the word of God, we're going to be moved, tossed, shaken, drifted, pushed, and oftentimes in the wrong direction.
I mean, let's think about some of the things that we can choose to anchor ourselves in other than the word of God.
And sometimes it can get a little comical.
You guys remember the pandemic in 2020?
Anybody remember that?
Right?
Okay.
This was a stormy time.
People were panicking.
Things got unsteady.
Life got a little bit rocky.
And what did people toss over their lifeboat to steady them and anchor them?
Anybody remember?
Toilet paper.
It was toilet paper.
It was cleared off the shelves.
That's what we thought.
It didn't matter one-ply, two-ply, didn't matter.
We took it.
Some of you may still have them left over because you went and hoarded it from the rest of us.
We're stuck without it.
This is what we thought was going to hold us?
During the pandemic was toilet paper, paper towels, Kleenex.
All of the paper products were gone.
Do you remember the shelves empty?
It sounds so silly.
That was on a nationwide level.
That's what our human nature said.
That's what our human nature said.
We might run out of toilet paper.
On a more individual level, we can toss over other anchors, like the anchor of self-help books, like the anchor of crystals, which, by the way, that's the created.
We begin to trust the created rather than the creator.
And so we toss over crystals as if some energy they have is going to affect our aura or our mind or our body or our heart or our soul.
And that's a created object.
We toss over the anchor of vacations.
I've been guilty of this.
Just get me on a vacation and I'll feel steady.
Just don't get me there on a boat.
We toss over the anchor of other people.
It's just as long as this person does this for me, I'll feel anchored.
Or if this person would say this or do this or react this way towards me, then I'll feel steady and secure and I'll feel better.
And so we toss over the anchor of people.
We toss over the anchor of money.
If I just had this much money, I'll feel secure in my life.
If I have this much in my retirement, I'll feel better about how things are going.
We toss over the anchor of work.
If I just do this and have this identity and get this promotion, whatever it is, whatever I do, that's when I'll feel secure.
And if you're anything like me, you toss over the anchor that you actually think is the strongest, best anchor out there.
It's the anchor of self.
I'll anchor myself.
Here I go, head first down in to be both the vessel and the anchor.
Friends, you can't be both.
God is the anchor.
And he's really good at his job.
Just be the vessel.
Be a proud, honored vessel to say, Lord, what a privilege it is to be your vessel.
And pull yourself up and get yourself out of the anchor position and let him do that.
Now, some of these things I understand could add a little bit of support.
We'll talk about that.
But none of them are strong and secure anchors.
The only anchor that is strong enough, adequate enough, and hopeful enough is the word of God and the truth of his promises.
Second Peter says this, above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation.
For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man.
But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Peter is desperate to remind his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that the word of God is from God.
I hear this all the time.
This book is old.
It's outdated.
It doesn't live up to the time.
You realize that God is omniscient, right?
He knows everything.
He lives outside of time.
He exists outside of time.
So he understands past, present, and future.
Who wants to stand before God on judgment and say and tell him, this was outdated.
You didn't get it in 2026, right?
It's not.
It was created by his spirit knowing challenges in 2026.
Knowing challenges from the 1800s in the first century.
Knowing challenges coming in the future that we don't even know yet.
This is our security.
It isn't made up.
It isn't from man.
God used man to write it down, but it is his word.
He revealed himself through the spoken word in creation.
We see it there.
Through historical events and in his son, Jesus Christ.
He is the word.
And the word was with God.
And the word was God.
That's why we can be confident that his truth and his promises, they will anchor us.
Not might anchor us.
Not hope they might.
Not they could.
No, they will.
They will anchor us.
They will hold us.
God says, turn to me.
Find me in my word.
And you'll be able to trust me.
And I will hold you steady.
He didn't give us a faulty anchor.
His word comes with a hundred percent guarantee.
It needs no warranty.
It will never go bad.
And it does not need to be replaced.
And it is still considered the best selling anchor out there.
And it will hold in any storm and in any sea.
And if you're not convinced of it, try it.
Do it.
Try it.
You know how I know this is true?
Because there is testimony after testimony after testimony professing that to be true.
When we dig into God's word, we have this incredible privilege then to actually get to know him better.
Who are you, God?
How do I know that you're going to anchor me well?
First, we learn that God is strong.
This is what he tells us.
1 Chronicles 29.12.
In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength.
Psalm 62.11.
One thing God has spoken.
Two things I have heard.
What has he heard?
That you, O God, are what?
Strong.
And that you, O Lord, are loving.
I want to read from Job just so we all understand just how strong God is.
Because even though that's a truth that we hear and we say, I know that, that seems obvious.
Listen to what Job 26.7-14 says.
He, meaning God, God spreads out the northern skies over the empty space.
He suspends the earth over nothing.
He wraps up the waters in clouds.
Yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.
He covers the face of the full moon, spreading his clouds over it.
He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters for a boundary line between light and darkness.
The pillars of the heavens quake, aghast at his rebuke.
By his power, he churned up the sea.
By his wisdom, he cut Rahab to pieces.
Now, just a quick little side note.
That's not literal.
He didn't cut Rahab up.
He cut to her heart.
She was the one who hid the spies because she began to trust.
As a Gentile, she trusted in the God of Israel.
And who did that?
He had the strength and the power to cut to her heart.
He says, by his breath, the skies became fair.
His hand pierced the gliding serpent.
And these are but the outer fringe of his works.
Listen to this.
How faint the whisper we hear of them.
And then Job asks, who then can understand the thunder of his power?
Who can understand the thunders?
These are whispers.
Creation is a whisper of the strength that God has.
Who understands the thunder?
I think sometimes we can know God is strong.
We're like, well, Tina, come on.
We know God is strong.
But you know, I think sometimes we minimize it.
I can do that.
If I think in my humanity about strength,
I think, well, maybe I'm this strong and God is this strong.
No, you guys, I'm this strong and I don't even have the length to go.
God is this strong.
Don't minimize God's strength.
He is strong.
So I want you to know today that if you have no strength left in your tank for whatever storm you are going through,
let God be your strength, he says, I am strong.
When you talk to him, when you pray to him, read this scripture.
Pray it over yourself, claiming who he is and his truth and what he's capable of.
We pray this because he is able.
He's not just strong.
He's able.
I want to take you back around 500 B.C.
The word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah.
Okay, Zechariah was a prophet who spoke for the word of God after exile.
So the Israelites, the nation, the people of God had disobeyed God tremendously,
idols after idols after idols.
And God had warned them through several prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
all these people saying, hey, you need to repent, repent.
But they did not.
And so the Lord says, exile is coming.
And I like to kind of phrase it up saying you're going to sit in the corner for a while.
But a while turned out to be 70 years.
So they were spent 70 years in exile as the Assyrians and the Babylonians captured the north and the southern kingdom.
The 70 years is now over.
They go back to Jerusalem.
The Lord is allowing them to go back to rebuild the temple because when they got captured, the temple got destroyed.
So now the temple has been commanded to be rebuilt.
And Zechariah is now speaking on behalf of God.
He's the prophet.
There's another man I want to introduce you to.
His name is Zerubbabel.
If anybody here is thinking of having children, it's a nice name.
You could call him Zerubb for short.
Zerubbabel.
He was the civic leader of Jerusalem at the time.
And it was his responsibility to finish the work of rebuilding the temple.
The work had stalled.
Storm in life.
The work had stalled.
And Zerubbabel was feeling it.
And he needed encouragement to carry on the work.
And this is the word that the Lord gave him.
He said in Zechariah 4.
So he said to me, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but by my what?
Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.
God says, I'm going to do it.
It's not getting finished because you think it's all about you and your effort and your strength and your ability.
He's like, no, that's not how the temple is going to be rebuilt.
It's going to be my ability.
There is no human strength or power or might or weapons that will accomplish what needs to be done.
He says, but my spirit is able.
God is strong and God is able.
And I wonder, do we anchor in that?
Do we anchor in that when we are faced with what just seems impossible?
Or do we reach for toilet paper?
God is strong and able.
And when we believe this, we can then hold on to the fact that God is our hope.
He is actually the definition of hope.
This quote says, a human without hope is like a ship without an anchor.
Have you ever seen anybody who feels hopeless?
They drift.
They're tossed.
They're meandering.
They're wandering.
Because God is hope, then we could read this quote to say, a human without God is like a ship without an anchor.
Exactly.
The vessel and the anchor go together.
God and hope go together.
When people feel hopeless and they don't know the Lord, they've got to anchor in him to feel steady.
When a ship is out at sea and has to anchor in a storm, when it's equipped with a proper anchor,
they really actually begin to feel hopeful that they are going to make it through the storm and continue sailing when the storm passes.
We kind of use that phrase, this two shall pass, right?
But we actually want to feel secure as we're passing through.
So when you and I are feeling maybe a little bit of hopelessness in our storm,
I want you to know there is a promise of hope in the word of God for any storm you are going through.
And I want us to look at just a handful of them this morning.
Where are you here?
If you are in a storm of broken promises,
then God brought you here today for you to know that your anchor is faithful.
The Bible says,
let us hold unswervingly,
unswervingly to the hope we profess.
For he who promised is faithful.
He won't cross his fingers.
He won't renege.
He's not disloyal.
He is faithful.
If you are in the storm of exhaustion,
you are overwhelmed.
For whatever is going on in your life,
God brought you here today for you to hear that your anchor is your battery recharger.
Isaiah 40 says,
for those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not be faint.
I know sometimes as mamas, we need to hear this.
In parenting, we get exhausted.
We get overwhelmed.
Hope in the Lord.
Even if it's like,
Lord, I just need your strength for the next hour.
Please, for the next hour, get me through.
If you are in the storm of obstacles that are getting in the way of your faith,
you need to know today that your anchor is your finisher.
Being confident of this,
that he who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
You know, this is speaking about your eternity.
That if Jesus called you,
if the Holy Spirit got a hold of your heart
and took out that heart of stone
and replaced it with a heart of flesh,
I don't care what you've done,
from that moment till now,
your anchor is going to finish it.
And he will bring you into eternity.
And he will carry you into his home in eternity with you.
Because he doesn't start something he doesn't finish.
So we can hold on to that hope in our challenges and struggles here.
When something's getting in the way of our faith,
we said, Lord, I know you're going to finish the work you started in me of salvation.
Please, finish the work you have in me on mission here as well.
Where do you need me?
Where have I ignored you?
Where have I walked away?
Where have I not finished?
You're a finisher.
So finish in and through me.
I'm here for you, Lord.
If you are in the storm of insecurity or doubt,
you need to know that your anchor is your unfailing love.
Psalm 33 says,
May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord,
even when we put our hope in you.
Do you need to know that God loves you today?
Have you forgotten that?
I have moments where I forget that.
The Lord, 18 years ago,
had to take me on a mission trip to Thailand
just so I could hear that he loved me.
I couldn't hear it.
I was too distracted here.
If you're in a storm of need,
you need to know that your anchor is your provision.
He is your provider.
And my God will meet all your needs according to what?
His glorious riches in Jesus Christ.
Not according to whatever you think you can rub the genie and ask for.
We're not talking prosperity here.
What do you need?
God will give it to you.
If you need endurance,
he's going to give you endurance.
If you need patience,
he's going to give you patience.
If you need a deeper faith and a stronger trust in him,
he's going to give you that.
If you need some kind of financial provision,
trust him.
See what he does.
He has every resource he can have.
Trust him in that.
If you're in the storm of confusion,
you need to know your anchor is your direction.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
I had someone tell me once,
the Bible says thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
not a floodlight.
I prefer a floodlight.
Light up the whole path,
God.
I want to see every single step.
But no,
sometimes he just gives us the direction right here.
He just lights the lamp and he says,
do you see that step?
Take that one.
It might be dim.
It might be barely there.
Sometimes you take that step by faith,
just knowing that there's a step there.
But his word is going to light that up.
If you are in the storm of loss,
crushed dreams,
maybe a major life change,
you need to know that your anchor is your comforter.
He heals the brokenhearted,
the Bible says,
and he binds up their wounds.
That's who he is.
Have you allowed him to do it?
Or are you reaching and searching for other anchors
to try and bind up your wounds for you?
Let God bind you.
Let God heal you.
Let him comfort you.
And today,
if you're in the storm of addiction,
you need to know
that your anchor is an overcomer.
He's an overcomer.
He says,
I've told you these things that in this world,
he says,
so that in me,
you may have peace.
And he said,
Jesus says this,
in this world,
you will have trouble.
It's not a suggestion.
He says,
you're going to have it.
You will feel rough waters on this life.
You will be in the open seas.
Waves will come crashing over you.
He says,
but take heart.
And this is one area
where there's an exclamation point in the Bible.
Take heart.
He says,
I have overcome the world.
You have an overcomer.
This is our anchor.
And this is just a bit of it.
It's just a tapping into what he offers
and the hope that he brings.
This is what holds us.
This is what steadies us.
And this is what allows us to say,
I'm a secure vessel.
There's a quote by a sailor,
George Day,
that says,
no one anchored in high winds
sleeps well.
But if you have equipped your boat
with suitable anchors
and have set them with care,
you will rest a lot easier.
When out sailing on the seas
and a storm is coming,
it's incredibly windy.
The number one thing
the ship desires is security.
I just want this ship to be secure.
While the waves are crashing
and coming through.
And I learned in my study
and research of anchors as well
that the heaviest,
most sturdy,
and most secure anchor
needs to be placed
directly into the wind.
Into what's coming at you.
This way,
if the wind changes direction,
your strongest
and your safest gear
is out in front of you.
That's where you place the anchor.
Friends,
this,
get it out in front of you.
You know,
I have been guilty of,
like I said,
throwing myself out in front.
I'm like,
this isn't working too well.
And then all of a sudden
I reach over here.
Oh,
let me go get God's word now.
No,
no,
this isn't the support anchor.
This is your heaviest,
sturdiest,
most secure anchor
to hold you.
Put it out in front.
He has already
declared himself
strong enough
and able enough.
Why would we toss over
into the wind
anything else
other than this
first?
He wants us
to put him
where he is best positioned.
And that is out in front.
If we want to rest
in the storms of life,
we need to equip ourselves
with this suitable anchor.
You notice this quote
actually has plural.
It says suitable anchors.
It's plural.
These other anchors,
the Lord does provide
what are called
support anchors.
So on a ship
you have a main,
sturdy,
strong,
heavy anchor
and then you have
smaller support anchors.
That in our storms of life
or in our journey of life,
those are your Christian friends,
your prayer warriors,
professionals
that are going to give you
guidance in alignment
with this
who is in alignment here.
And it says,
you know what,
you may not get
the best sleep
when you're going
through a really hard
time in life.
You may not,
but there is a way
to sleep easier.
I don't know how many
of you have ever been
through something
very difficult
and maybe you haven't
slept at all
but then all of a sudden
you'll get a really
good night's sleep.
And you ever wake up
and you're like,
the Lord just gave that to me.
He anchored you
in that there is a way
to rest easier.
God wants us to know
that with him
and his word
as our anchor,
we are secure.
We can rest easier.
We don't have to stress.
He's in control.
He is able
and he is our hope.
I love what Proverbs 3 says,
have no fear
of sudden disaster
or of the ruin
that overtakes the wicked
for the Lord
is your security.
And Psalm 57,
have mercy on me,
O God,
have mercy on me,
for in you
my soul takes refuge
until the disaster
has passed.
The Lord is our security
in the storm.
We are not promised
a smooth sailing life.
They are inevitable.
Rough waters,
storms of life
are inevitable.
And some people might ask,
where do they come from?
Why?
Why can't we just have
this wonderful,
easy,
smooth sailing life?
Well,
the storms of life,
some of them
can be self-created.
Has anybody made decisions
that you're like,
oops,
that wasn't the best choice.
Created a little rough waters
in your life.
Some can be brought on
by others.
People kind of stir up
the waters
in your own life.
Some can be the devil
at work.
We see that happening
in the life of Job.
And some could be from God.
But all are allowed
by God.
All are allowed.
Nothing happens
in your life,
in my life,
that isn't allowed
or ordained by God.
Why?
Because he is sovereign.
So why?
Why not just say,
God,
give me a smooth sailing life?
Oftentimes,
it's the storms of life
that will get our attention
because we live
in a broken
and sin-filled world
right now.
The prince of this air,
Satan himself,
is the leader
of the rebellion
in this world.
And he still has permission
to roam
and run
and rule
the leading
of the rebellion.
And so we are going to live
in some brokenness still.
And so what some
of the storms
in life do
is they point us
and give us attention
that maybe shed light
onto a sin
that needs to be dealt with.
Or maybe something
we have to surrender
that we're trying
to control.
Sometimes the Lord
takes us through storms.
He strengthens our faith.
And then have you ever come
on the other side
of a storm
and been a support anchor
for someone else?
This is how the body
of Christ works
together.
In the end,
what did the Corrie Ten Boom
say?
Every storm
helps us realize
the value
of the anchor.
You know,
if we never had a storm
in life,
we would be our own God.
Even when we're in a storm,
we think we are our own
God sometimes.
But they get us
dependent on our anchor.
Those storms in life
say,
oh my gosh,
I need you.
We feel our need
for the anchor
and our relationship
with God,
it grows stronger.
It grows deeper.
Allowing us to love him
and trust him even more.
So you might be wondering,
like,
where do you begin?
Well,
if you're new to scripture,
I don't know any of you
and I don't know
your personal lives.
If you're new to scripture,
I would encourage you
to start in the Psalms.
They can be a great place
to anchor yourself,
to find good anchoring promises
from the word of God.
Oftentimes,
when someone calls
and says,
I need a Bible verse
of encouragement
in the midst of this storm,
I can never fail
to find it in the Psalms.
And I want to encourage you today,
if you're not
in the midst of a storm,
you may not be.
Then you know
and understand and ask,
Lord,
is there someone in my circle?
Is there someone I know?
Is it a stranger
or a divine appointment
that you have for me today
to be a support anchor
for that other person?
I want to be a vessel.
I want to be your vessel.
And then you know
you can live and believe
and feel secure as well.
If we do not have
the word of God
written in our hearts
and hidden in our hearts
with the desire of our hearts,
we're going to be tossed
by the waves.
We just are.
As God's vessel,
whom he loves,
whom he protects,
and whom he keeps secure,
I want all of us
to challenge us then
to be a confident vessel.
I believe
one of the best witnesses
for Christ
is to live
as a secure vessel.
It's very contradictory
to say how much
you love God,
trust God,
and believe in God,
but live in hopelessness
and live drifting
and live insecure.
One of your strongest witnesses
to say,
God, I know you're strong.
I know you're able.
We sang it.
You've been good.
I'm going to live
in the goodness of God
every day,
even when it's hard,
even when it's stormy,
and even when it's rough.
If we truly believe
that God is our anchor,
then we must live like it
as well.
Let me pray.
God, thank you for your word.
Thank you for anchoring us.
Thank you for your faithfulness
that even sometimes
when we're reaching
for other anchors,
you're holding us.
You're holding us secure.
You're keeping your promise.
So, Lord,
won't we hold on to you today?
Won't we put you out in front?
I don't know what everybody
came in here with
and where they're at individually,
but I know your spirit
has the power
to meet them
exactly where they are.
So won't you strengthen them?
Remind them that you're able.
Remind them how much
you love them,
how much you're there
to comfort them,
to provide for them,
to hold them steady
and secure,
to finish what you started,
Lord.
You are so good.
Thank you for being
our hope,
our anchor
that we can claim
is firm
and secure.
May we live
according to that.
In the name of Jesus,
amen.
Amen.
Thank you so much, Tina.
What a great word.
I think it was very timely.
So if you'd like some prayer,
we can have our prayer teams
come up after service here.
But otherwise,
have a great Mother's Day
for the moms.
Husbands,
treat your wives out
today, please.
And have a great week.
Love you guys.
We'll see you later.
