TITLE: THE ANCHOR OF OUR SOULS
BIBLE REFERENCES: (ESV & NKJV)
Hebrews 6:19, Mark 6:53, Acts 27:29-30,40, Psalm 1:4-5, Psalm 1:1-3, Matthew 7:15-20
Hebrews 12:1-2, Romans 15:13, 2 Corinthians 5:20-21, John 3:18-21
Opening prayer: heavenly father, we thank and worship your righteous and holy name for your supremacy and everlasting love for us; we thank you for the everlasting hope and grace your word has given to us. Father, be exalted forever in Jesus’ name. We pray as we read and listen to your word the zeal to continue to love and do you will continue to abide in us in Jesus’ name, amen!
The title of my message again is “The Anchor of our souls” Let us look at Hebrews 6:19 (ESV)
“We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,
Hebrews 6:19 ESV”
ANCHOR—a heavy object on a ship cast overboard to hold the vessel in a particular place (Mark 6:53; (NKJV) Acts 27:29–30, 40). The writer of the Book of Hebrews had the holding power of an anchor in mind when he wrote, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast” (Heb. 6:19). The strong and trustworthy promises of God serve as an anchor to calm our fears in the storms of life.
Have you any anchors on board your spiritual ship?
And are they strong
enough for the day of storm?
Are they fit for the strain of life and death, and joy and terror, and everything that may happen on life’s seas?
Some people’s faith is purely based on good weather, they have no answers for the storms of life. Some have constructed their religion on the assumption that they are going to meet calm seas and favourable breezes all their voyage through. Some have never taken time or trouble to sit down in the cabin or private closet for half an hour with the great Captain, and consider on the possibilities of floods, hurricanes and rocks and angry, mean waves.
It may be, of course, that they say I have luck on my side, that even so they will get through without trouble. But It may also be that they will never be awake at night with the winds shrieking outside and the wild sea showing its teeth.
But what a dreadful risk! In a world like this, where the wisest cannot tell what a day may bring forth, where tomorrow is not guaranteed. We need a better anchor than that friends.
In Psalms we read of someone, the person who lacks wisdom, who has no anchor for their soul, that they are:
“The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.”
Psalms 1:4-5 NKJV
The ungodly will not be able to stand, and will be blown all over the place because their faith is misplaced. And what about the Godly then? Well let us read it:
Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.
Psalms 1:1-3 NKJV
Let’s take a closer look at what we just read, there is a tree, and what is a tree doing in
Israel? One of the hottest and dryest on earth, but also has many dry trees, that produce no fruits because they are dead. Their leaves are blown away. But the tree that does produce fruit, is alive! Why is it alive? Because it has a life source. It has water. God says, so it is with spiritual fruit, if your heart is hardened, it might be because it is spiritually dry, or worse, it might be dead, and even if you go to church, and do church things, you will stand out, because the verse says: “No sinners in the congregation of the righteous.”
Jesus warns us many times in His sermon on the mount:
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” Matthew 7:15-20 NKJV
The only thing that is weighing them down is sin. Sin is the anchor of the ungodly. Hebrews says:
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 NKJV
It is Jesus that is our anchor for our souls! It is Him and Him alone who will bring satisfaction, victory, and everlasting peace into your heart.
You might feel like you can escape sin, but all that makes you into a false prophet, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. You might think you can pretend to be a beautiful apple tree, when in fact you are rotten banana sitting on an apple tree. Your sins will find you out, they are just obvious as a Banana on that apple tree!
You might be in this church today, and you know you are a sinner, and you know that God is just, and that like any good judge must punish sin, and an eternal God punishes eternally. There is a place called hell, and you think you are going there because of all the evil, perverse, and secret things you did. And you are afraid.
Well friend, let me tell you that there is good news, there is hope. You need not be standing on sinking sand, but you can stand amongst all the other Christians on the solid rock that is Jesus Christ. A solid rock, there is no better spiritual anchor than that.
In the early church, there was much suffering and discouragement in the young Christian community. And people were losing hope, therefore the author of the book of Hebrews wrote to convince these followers of Christ not to throw away their confidence in their future hope:
“Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.”
Hebrews 2:1 NKJV
And drifting away is what our hearts tend to do. Have you noticed that righteousness is hard, and sin is easy? Well the consequences for sin are hard too, and the blessings for righteousness are easy.
The hope of the early church was in Jesus Christ to hold them tight, and trusting that even when waves of demonic persecution comes at them, their faith would lead them to salvation—a faith in God for salvation and entrance into heaven—was found in the person and sacrifice of Christ. When Jesus entered heaven after His resurrection, He secured our hope for the future, go back to Hebrews 6:19 again where it says:
“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 6:19-20 NKJV
Like an anchor dropped at sea, preventing a ship from drifting away, Jesus’ death, resurrection, and return to heaven brought assurance and stability to the believers’ lives. This hope for the future cannot and will not be shaken loose.
Jesus anchors our souls, so that we will not drift away from our hope in God.
God’s promise and God’s oath assure us that we are His, and God’s character backs up His words. After all that God has done for you, you can trust Him. Instead of drifting (2:1), you will be anchored to heaven where Jesus ministers in the very presence of God, and that anchor will not fail.
We see in Acts 27:29 the “four anchors” that sustain the believer in the storms of life: hope, duty, prayer, and the cross of Christ. Let read what it says:
“Now when the fourteenth night had come, as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors sensed that they were drawing near some land. Then, fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern, and prayed for day to come. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they had let down the skiff into the sea, under pretense of putting out anchors from the prow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off.”
Acts 27:27, 29-32 NKJV
Anchor 1: Hope
Any person who has hope in their heart, life cannot destroy them. It may hurt them, but it will not break them. As long as hope holds out, they will weather the
roughest storm. It is when hope goes-it is when things are going wrong, and the heart grows heavy as lead, and life looks pointless and hopeless-it is then the ship goes under.
Our first anchor is Hope! but it must be Christian hope not just a simple optimism, a party or Disney feel good, living happily forever after, That is no anchor for the soul’s time of need. That snaps at the first real strain. It is Christian hope we are needing. And what is Christian hope? It is the attitude towards life of a man who has gazed upon the face of God the Father.
Apostle Paul once said this fine thing : Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13 NKJV
The God of hope- that is, the God who creates hope, the God whose revealed character is the basis of all hope. That is the first anchor.
“Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.” Psalms 42:5 NKJV
But one anchor is not enough, we need another:
Anchor 2: Duty
We have a duty as a Christian, God commands us to be good citizens, working not as onto men, but as if God is watching our every move!
Our duty is for our family, loving our spouse after God, loving our family members, loving our parents, loving our brethren. Our duty is to love out neighbors, love our enemies.
Our duty is to make disciples of all nations, planting, and watering so that in due time God might give us growth and we will reap what we sowed!
Anchor 3: Prayer
Without prayer nothing spiritual happens, any church that is fruitful, that is being blessed by God you can be sure is trusting God to answer their prayers! It is through prayer that the poorest, most physically weak churches are able to do some much with so little. Our churches have forgotten how to pray, you can tell exactly what our Sunday morning zombies truly believe when they ignore and don’t show up for prayer meetings! Oh if only the church would remember that much prayer much power, and something amazing always happens when many Christians come together for prayer.
Anchor 4: The cross of Jesus Christ
Our final Anchor, the strongest one of them all, because it is the cross that gives us assurance of everlasting life. It was on the cross that Jesus took all of our sins upon Himself, that as 2 Corinthians 5 says:
“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
II Corinthians 5:20-21 NKJV
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
John 3:18-21 NKJV
Are you confident that you are saved and are going to heaven? Then hold on to that hope! For many do not, and if someone today does not have the hope of forgiveness of sins, if you don’t know if you are going to heaven or hell, then it is time to know:
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 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. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
John 3:14-18 NKJV
Closing Prayer
Our father and our lord, we thank you for your word and your love for us, be thou magnified in the name of Jesus!! Lord, we pray that we will not just be the hearer of your word alone but the doer as well, and we pray that your word will always reign in our lives, for in Jesus’ name we have prayed. AMEN!!!!!
REV (PROF) JULIA FORTUNE
(Bishop-Elect); General Overseer & Founder;
Julia Fortune Global Outreach Ministry. (For Prayers & Counseling: WhatsApp +234-8106690241(Nigeria) & +1-360-819-9779 (USA)
http://www.juliafortune.org