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The Climb Part Five: Climbing with Faith in Your Anchor
The next few messages in the series will be in
relation to climbing with faith (part 4) because climbing with
faith requires trust and confidence that comes from our safety
chain.
The
Top Rope Safety Chain
For our illustrations we are basically speaking of "Top
Rope Climbing" The climbing safety chain consists of 4
crucial components in a closed system. On "The Live End" of
the rope you have a climber wearing a harness that ties him to the
rope. The rope runs from the climber up to an anchor and
back down to a belayer who also connects to "The Sharp End" of the
rope. That is your closed system safety chain. Over
the next several weeks we will talk about this safety chain and
how it illustrates our own Christian Climb and how it can give us
faith to climb safely.
Today we are talking about the Anchor! If you are going to
climb you must have faith in your anchor because it is the key
factor in your safety chain. Without a solid anchor the rest
of the safety gear is useless.
The Anchor point is crucial to climbing and
you need to believe in your Anchor if you are going to set out
climbing with faith!
Remember, Hebrews 11 teaches that
faith is being sure of what you hope for and
certain of what you do not see, and without faith it is impossible
to please God, but we must believe that he exists and rewards
those who earnestly seek him!
The Christians
Anchor is God the Father. He is the Holy One, the
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. He is the Creator and
Source of all life. In Him we can have faith and climb
boldly.
But inevitably in life you will face
challenges and sometimes you will lose your grip. It’s in those
moments that you need to be anchored safely to God and lean on
HIM!
PR 3:5
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own
understanding;
THE FIRST FALL IS THE HARDEST
When you lose your grip and fall you will
find God a secure anchor and your faith will be strengthened, but
you will need enough faith to climb up in the first place and face
that first fall!
Sometimes just starting out off the ground
can be scary and fear is the enemy of any good climber. You
must control your fears to climb well.
JAS 1:2
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of
many kinds, [3] because you know that the testing of your faith
develops perseverance. [4] Perseverance must finish its work so
that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Sometimes our faith is tested and we struggle
and maybe even fall, or maybe we need a rest on the rope.
It's in those moments that we discover that our ANCHOR is
SECURE!!!
You need to have faith in your anchor!
In the Christian climb, God the Father is our Anchor!
DT 32:4
He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.
YOUR ANCHOR MUST BE BOMBPROOF!
(faithful, trustworthy, solid)
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The anchor in climbing is of the utmost importance. If
your anchor isn’t “bombproof” than it isn’t safe to climb!
Bombproof is a term climbers use to denote a anchor that can hold
anything!
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Also an anchor must be balanced and not shift. An anchor
that moves too much can fail!
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God is a solid firm foundation we can anchor to and
count on. He is bombproof!
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God created this world, created you, he planned for your
salvation and wants you to succeed! God is not out to get you
and he doesn’t want you to fall!
NEVER ANCHOR TO A MAN MADE OBJECT
ISA 2:22 Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his
nostrils. Of what account is he?
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Some people try to use other anchors and get into trouble!
But God is the only bombproof anchor that exists. Man made
anchors, like; money, sex; alcohol, drugs, work, relationship, can
and will fail if put under too much strain. God never fails!
MT 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one
and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise
the other.
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Some people try to use God as a back up anchor and use
other things as anchors. But God doesn’t want to be your back
up!
THE ANCHOR IS YOUR DIRECTION (It tells you
where to go)
PR 3 Trust in the LORD with all
your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your
ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
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Your anchor is also what guides you! When you climb you
climb towards your anchor. If your anchor isn’t God than you are
climbing in the wrong direction! If you try to climb away
from an anchor your rope will say "uh uh" that's not the right
way.
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The further you move away from your Anchor the more serious
a fall becomes! STAY CLOSE TO GOD
Matt 6[33] But
seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things
will be given to you as well. [34] Therefore do not worry about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has
enough trouble of its own.
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Some try to use a whole bunch of small anchors instead of
God and find they are climbing without direction!
Allow me to clarify in conclusion that in our
climb series there are two types of falls! Falls that lead to
death, and falls that are stopped by the safety chain system you
have in place.
Solo climbers climb without a safety chain.
They have nothing to save them if they lose their grip but we all
inevitably fall sometime. The bible says "for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That means reaching
your anchor is not done on your skill but on the grace of Jesus
Christ (the rope, part 6)
The point of this message is that we must not
be solo climbers living for ourselves but we choose to connect to
God our Anchor through Jesus Christ our Rope.
As long as you remain connected to God as
your anchor YOU WILL NEVER FALL TO YOUR DEATH! You may fall but
you will be secured by your Anchor and forgiven by your rope and
stay alive in Christ to keep climbing in faith!
If you don’t have faith in your
anchor you can’t climb with Confidence! Anchor To God and Climb
ON in Faith! |
Part 1:
