Surge Lesson Notes

The Climb Part Six: Climbing with Faith in Your Rope!

The next few messages in the series will be in relation to climbing with faith (part 4) a because climbing with faith requires trust and confidence that comes from our safety chain.  We first discussed The Anchor as God the Father in part 5 and today discuss Jesus Christ as our Rope.

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.

The subject is climbing with faith.  In order to reach the highest goal in life you need to have faith!  You need to trust in your safety system to climb higher and avoid the pitfall of fear!

Fear will send you sprawling, tire you out, and cause you to quit without ever reaching your true potential!  Remember there are no limits to the heights you can reach with Christ!  With a good safety system! 

We weren’t meant to climb solo, we were meant to climb with God as our anchor, Jesus as our rope and the Holy Spirit as our harness.  Today we are talking about the rope!

 In our climbing system Jesus is represented by the rope we use to climb!  

 Ephesians 2 [4] But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, [5] made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. [6] And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, [7] in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. [8] For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- [9] not by works, so that no one can boast. [10] For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

 THE ROPE IS YOUR LIFELINE!

–      Remember that for our illustration purposes we talk about 2 types of falls.  There is a fall to your death when climbing solo and falls that land on the safety chain when climbing properly.  In that safety chain the rope is the lifeline that ties it all together.

–     Jesus Christ is our lifeline and He ties it all together for those who know and trust in Him.  We are saved from that fall to death by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  The bible spells it out clearly.   Eph 2[4] But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, [5] made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.  

–     A climbing rope can be very expensive but the gift of grace from Christ is exactly that.  It's free.  But you have to tie in!

THE ROPE CONNECTS US TO THE ANCHOR
[8] For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- [9] not by works, so that no one can boast.

–      Jesus is our rope, he is our link to our anchor and he bridges the gap.

–       It is the grace (undeserved favor) of Christ that gives us the opportunity to be in a relationship with God our anchor!

–       We need the blood of Jesus Christ to be the sacrifice for our sins. In order to be acceptable to God!

–       Without the rope there is no relationship to the anchor and the anchor won’t hold you. 

–       The same was true of us before Jesus offered to be our lifeline to Jesus.  He connected us to God and gave us the opportunity to have a relationship with Him!

–      We are Saved by grace THROUGH FAITH: That means you believe and trust!  A rope by itself is useless, but Jesus is connected to The Anchor, God the Father and will connect you to Him if you believe.  All you have to do is tie into the rope.  But tying in is a choice, no one else does it for you.

 THE ROPE CAN GIVE YOU REST
    MT 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

–       Sometimes you need to rest on the rope!

–       Maybe you’ve had a big fall and your faith is week.

–       Maybe your tired from the difficulties you’ve faced recently in life.

–       Jesus promises to be there always!

 THE ROPE IS FORGIVING
Romans 3[22] This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

–       If you tie in the rope will catch you in case you fall and you will not fall to your death but you will land on the rope.  Climbing ropes are made to be forgiving.  They stretch significantly when weighted to put less strain on the safety system and reduce the chance of injury. 

–       You can trust Jesus Christ to catch you!  He doesn’t climb for you but He supports your climb and forgives you when you fall short.  We simply need to accept His grace.  (tie in to the rope)

–       In life sometimes we fall and have setbacks in our faith, but the cool thing about climbing rope is that it stretches and holds us.  We fall but we don’t fall far!  You just have to get back on the face and keep climbing in faith!

–       If we stay connected to Jesus he will keep us from falling to our death and will keep us on the right path towards the Anchor!  Jesus always leads to the Anchor!

–       Assurance of salvation is being covered by the blood of Christ.  He is our righteousness.

 THROPES FAIL JESUS DOESN'T
Romans 6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? [2] By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? [3] Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

–       CHECK THE KNOT AND DON'T ABUSE THE ROPE: knots can come untied.  And just because you tied into Christ doesn't mean that you are tied in for life.  A rope requires constant attention and so does your relationship with Christ.  A worn rope can snap but let me say, it has to be worn BAD!  Ropes don't just break easy and neither will your relationship with Christ.  In fact we don't really know that breaking point, but do we dare test it?  The bible says No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. 1 John 3:9-10

–       Jesus’ forgiveness never wears out even though ropes do.  Our  illustration falls apart when we talk about ropes because they aren't as strong as Jesus.  There is no limit to the amount of falls Jesus will catch you from.  The key point is that you stay tied in.  Just don't untie the rope and start climbing in your own direction.  The rope is only there when you are in relationship with it.  Don't turn your back on Jesus! 

–       Jesus never fails.  His grace is unimaginable, yet some people treat that grace like trash and abuse it over and over.  They launch off cliffs counting on that rope to hold while never checking the knot or wear and tear on the relationship.  I'm not suggesting that Jesus will ever fail you, but do we dare push the limitations of his forgiveness.  Paul says it this way in the Bible.  Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? [2] By no means!

You can have faith in your rope when you have tied in to it!

You can have faith in your rope for rest when you are weary!

You can have faith in your rope when you make mistakes!

You can have faith in your rope because Jesus never fails!

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