Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!
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Anchor down (the storm is coming)
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Community, today it is good for all of us to pause, do a little foundation assessment … and ask ourselves, “when the flood comes, am I anchored down in my Christian faith to withstand an onslaught; do I have enough concrete in my life, so that when the worse of the worst, a flood comes will I be washed away?”
Ask ourselves now, while the sun is shining and there’s a calmness around us; ask now while the health is pretty good; ask now while the diagnosis is pretty good; ask ourselves if a storm comes “am I anchored?” or will I fall apart or come to pieces? If I lost everything I have, like Job (Job 1:13-22), would I be able to keep it together? If not, now is the time to dig deep and lay a solid foundation.
In the natural we all know that when there is a storm on the horizon we look to the meteorologists to keep us informed and to warn us when there is danger; and when they do we prepare ourselves; we get batteries for flashlights; we buy bottled water; we buy non-perishable items; we get plenty of gas for our cars; we get first-aid kits; those that have boats and ships they tie it down; some people and businesses board up their doors and windows; they do all that they can to secure their worldly possessions and then they anchor down so that when the gusty winds blow, the torrential rain falls, that they will have a solid foundation.
Wise is the person who takes the storm serious and make preparation; those who do not want to be caught in a storm with nowhere to go; those who because they are prepared don’t suffer loss or lose their lives; unwise is the person who does nothing; who don’t take the warning serious; their mindset is “nothing bad will happen to me, it will always happen to somebody else!” then when the worst happens they lose everything and sometimes they lose their lives; we hear all the time about casualties in the aftermath of a storm; friends, Jesus did not say the words that He said for nothing; think about it.
He himself, the Savior is telling us to prepare now for the worst; and He tells us how do it, because when, not if, floods come, only those who have anchored down will not be washed away; those who are playing church; those who have drifted away from the fellowship of Christ; those who are not taking their spiritual life serious; those who very seldom spend quality time in the word and seldom pray need to hear this.
This is not the time to relax or be at a distance from God; no time is a good time but certainly we don’t need to be out of fellowship with God!
I was talking with my niece last week, who is really going through a trying time with her husband who is battling cancer. When I talked with her, she said, “Unc, the thing that keeps me going in this most difficult time is staying close to the WORD!” She said, “I keep the word near me and I keep it in the ear of my husband who is in the hospital. I let him hear your sermons because he like to hear you preach.” She said, “I listen to different sermons from pastors that encourages me ”.… I encouraged her to stay close to the word.
Community, it is the WORD and the WORD only and doing what the word says that will anchor you in the time of a spiritual flood. Some folk anchor around their family; not good; family can die; some anchor around their money, their possessions, their houses, their social status; not good; you can lose it all in a moment’s time, and then lose your mind too! Nothing but the WORD and doing what it says can “anchor you.”
There’s a song that we sang in church sometimes that says, “There’s a storm out on the ocean, and it’s moving this a way; if your soul is not anchored in Jesus, you will surely drift away!”
I feel sorry for the unchurched, those who are living aimlessly as sheep without a shepherd; those who don’t seem to have a care in the world; those who are alienated from God by wicked works, who are spiritually blind (Col. 1:21); those who don’t have an anchor at all, and who live only for this world; my heart go out to those who when the floods come have nowhere that they can go.
Jesus talks about this very thing. Talking to his disciples he said, “Whosoever comes to me and hears my word, and do it…is like a man that digs deep and lays the foundation on a rock: and the flood waters came and beat forcefully against it, and could not shake it: for it was built upon a rock. But he that hears, and do not what the word says, is like a man without a foundation who built his house upon the sand; and when the flood waters beat forcefully against it, immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great (Luke 6:47-49).”
To “build on the rock” simply means to obey what God commands in His Word. To “build on the sand” means to give Christ lip service, but not obey His will. Community, let us take an assessment now, look at our foundation … what are we building on? Make sure your soul is anchored in the Lord.
The Rev. George Ellis is the pastor for Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church.
William James Roop, M.A.B.S.
Roop-Crappell Ministries
Hospice Care and Dying
The Trucking Tango
Apostolic Theological Seminary
