The Anchor For The Storms Of Life - The Cross
The Cros
Acts 27 tells the story of Paul on board a ship that is destined to crash. He has warned the Captain about the troubles that lay ahead if they sail out to sea. But the men aboard would not listen. Sounds like a lot of us that won't take Godly Advise knowing full well that we are headed for a crash. Now the storm has come. It looked like they were going to sink and everyone would perish.
Paul slipped away and began to talk to the Lord. The Bible says in Acts 27:20, "And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away."
It's important to get away from the noise of storms and talk to the Lord. In verse 27-29, Paul tells them, we're all going to be saved, "and sounded, and found it twenty fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms. Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day."
I'm going to tell you today how to get anchored. Everybody faces sterns in life. These men were in one of the worst storms ever. They had not seen the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars for about two weeks. Do you ever feel like the light of day will never come? A place where all hope seems to be gone? Have you ever had a midnight hour?
There's something about the midnight hour that makes you long for the day; to see the sun again. It's a bad situation and many times in your storms the devil will tell you that all hope is gone. You may be facing some dark situations, but if you'll put your trust in Jesus, you can make it through the storms of life.
I like that statement, they sounded the water, and they realized they were getting close to land. There were a lot of rocks out there, and the Bible says, "they cast out four anchors." Those four anchors were to hold that ship steady, lest it should be wrecked upon the rocks.
Do you have some anchors to throw out when storms come at you? We all need anchors when life's storms come at us. Look at our nation today. It looks like we have cut all the anchors loose that once made this nation great. We have cut the anchors and our nation is adrift on the sea of life.
We have cut the anchor of morality and kicked the Ten Commandments out the back door of our schools. We have kicked the anchor of the Bible and Prayer out the back door of our schools. When we did that, we opened the front door to knives, guns, bombs, drugs and lack of respect for authority. We have sown to the wind, and we have reaped a whirlwind. We have a crime epidemic because we have cut our nation's anchors loose.
I want you to make sure today that your anchor holds and grips the solid rock. His name is Christ Jesus. We need the Anchor of the Cross. The story of the cross is the story of Jesus, and the story of the cross is deliverance.
Life has its storms. The Bible says, man that is born of woman is few days, full of troubles. When you are born again, God delivers you out of all your troubles. The original wooden cross that hung on Calvary is no longer there. Our Lord that hung on that cross has ascended. He reigns as Lord and High Priest. He gave us a new and better covenant that he cut with his own precious blood.
The blood still has power and the cross lives on. In the reality of the cross, the lost, the suffering, and the broken hearted of every generation can find perfect deliverance. The cross is just as real today as it was when the multitudes saw it with their physical eye. The cross is a spiritual reality, and the plan of human redemption.
We live in a society today where the masses want a Savior. No one wants to die and go to hell. People want a Savior. but very few want to serve and give all of their life to the Lord. When Jesus becomes Lord of your life then you have to take up your cross and follow him.
The Bible tells us that the preaching of the cross is the power of God unto salvation. Because of the cross you can be saved, and you can be anchored to the rock that is Jesus Christ.
The storms of life will come, because the devil your adversary, he walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He is watching to see who straddles the fence and who cuts their anchors loose. You can't half way serve God and have the fullness of his blessings.
You can't be a Laodicean Christian where you're neither hot nor cold. Jesus tells us he will spew you out of his mouth. You can't have one foot in the church and one foot in the world and make it through the storms. There are storms ahead, and we need the anchor of the cross to make it to heaven's shore.
Most people see the cross of Jesus, but they fail to see their own cross. Your cross is a place of separation. Your cross is a place of pain. Your cross is a place of suffering. Your cross is a place of death. We must all come to Calvary and die.
No one wants to die, yet the only way you can truly be born-again is to die. You've got to die to sin. You've to die to self. You've got to die so that you can be born-again.
Part Two of this series of eight articles in the anchor of the cross is what happens after we've been born again and how salvation raises us in the newness of life with Chri
Acts 27 tells the story of Paul on board a ship that is destined to crash. He has warned the Captain about the troubles that lay ahead if they sail out to sea. But the men aboard would not listen. Sounds like a lot of us that won't take Godly Advise knowing full well that we are headed for a crash. Now the storm has come. It looked like they were going to sink and everyone would perish.
Paul slipped away and began to talk to the Lord. The Bible says in Acts 27:20, "And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away."
It's important to get away from the noise of storms and talk to the Lord. In verse 27-29, Paul tells them, we're all going to be saved, "and sounded, and found it twenty fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms. Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day."
I'm going to tell you today how to get anchored. Everybody faces sterns in life. These men were in one of the worst storms ever. They had not seen the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars for about two weeks. Do you ever feel like the light of day will never come? A place where all hope seems to be gone? Have you ever had a midnight hour?
There's something about the midnight hour that makes you long for the day; to see the sun again. It's a bad situation and many times in your storms the devil will tell you that all hope is gone. You may be facing some dark situations, but if you'll put your trust in Jesus, you can make it through the storms of life.
I like that statement, they sounded the water, and they realized they were getting close to land. There were a lot of rocks out there, and the Bible says, "they cast out four anchors." Those four anchors were to hold that ship steady, lest it should be wrecked upon the rocks.
Do you have some anchors to throw out when storms come at you? We all need anchors when life's storms come at us. Look at our nation today. It looks like we have cut all the anchors loose that once made this nation great. We have cut the anchors and our nation is adrift on the sea of life.
We have cut the anchor of morality and kicked the Ten Commandments out the back door of our schools. We have kicked the anchor of the Bible and Prayer out the back door of our schools. When we did that, we opened the front door to knives, guns, bombs, drugs and lack of respect for authority. We have sown to the wind, and we have reaped a whirlwind. We have a crime epidemic because we have cut our nation's anchors loose.
I want you to make sure today that your anchor holds and grips the solid rock. His name is Christ Jesus. We need the Anchor of the Cross. The story of the cross is the story of Jesus, and the story of the cross is deliverance.
Life has its storms. The Bible says, man that is born of woman is few days, full of troubles. When you are born again, God delivers you out of all your troubles. The original wooden cross that hung on Calvary is no longer there. Our Lord that hung on that cross has ascended. He reigns as Lord and High Priest. He gave us a new and better covenant that he cut with his own precious blood.
The blood still has power and the cross lives on. In the reality of the cross, the lost, the suffering, and the broken hearted of every generation can find perfect deliverance. The cross is just as real today as it was when the multitudes saw it with their physical eye. The cross is a spiritual reality, and the plan of human redemption.
We live in a society today where the masses want a Savior. No one wants to die and go to hell. People want a Savior. but very few want to serve and give all of their life to the Lord. When Jesus becomes Lord of your life then you have to take up your cross and follow him.
The Bible tells us that the preaching of the cross is the power of God unto salvation. Because of the cross you can be saved, and you can be anchored to the rock that is Jesus Christ.
The storms of life will come, because the devil your adversary, he walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He is watching to see who straddles the fence and who cuts their anchors loose. You can't half way serve God and have the fullness of his blessings.
You can't be a Laodicean Christian where you're neither hot nor cold. Jesus tells us he will spew you out of his mouth. You can't have one foot in the church and one foot in the world and make it through the storms. There are storms ahead, and we need the anchor of the cross to make it to heaven's shore.
Most people see the cross of Jesus, but they fail to see their own cross. Your cross is a place of separation. Your cross is a place of pain. Your cross is a place of suffering. Your cross is a place of death. We must all come to Calvary and die.
No one wants to die, yet the only way you can truly be born-again is to die. You've got to die to sin. You've to die to self. You've got to die so that you can be born-again.
Part Two of this series of eight articles in the anchor of the cross is what happens after we've been born again and how salvation raises us in the newness of life with Chri
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