Be Anchored to God

Well, thank you, Mr. Oliver. Good afternoon, everyone. Happy Sabbath! It's wonderful to be here with you all. I jokingly, at home, tend to often say that it's a challenge to follow Jamie. She's in our home area, my sister-in-law. In fact, when they announced Jamie as the special music, I turned around for a split second real quick, like, they're here, too! Like, that's crazy! But it is really nice to be here with all of you guys, as Mr. Oliver mentioned. My wife and I are celebrating our 20th anniversary this year.

So, next week, we're going to be over in Sandpoint, Idaho, with all of our closest friends and all the smoke. But we're excited to go over and enjoy the lake a little bit. Go over and enjoy the mountain some. Go do some hiking. Well, we have had a very, very busy summer. My wife and I, as was mentioned, we were down at Camp Womata Chick. I told you the wrong pronunciation. I apologize. We mispronounced it for the first, I don't know, three days of camp, until we realized what it was actually pronounced as. And I still mispronounce it constantly. But we were down at Camp Womata Chick at the end of June. We were there at Northwest Camp here just a couple of weeks ago. Northwest Camp just wrapped up, and it's been an incredibly busy summer. By all accounts, the summer camp season was a success. You know, we're very pleased with the opportunity that we had to get the kids together. I think due to the COVID cancellations last year at a lot of the camps that we rent, it was just really, really nice to be able to get together. And to be able to worship our God and to learn more about our God together. So this year was quite special. And our camp programs, they're a lot of fun. Those of you that have had opportunity to be a part of camp, they are fun. They're exhausting, but they are fun. We have a wonderful, wonderful time. It's a place for friends to gather. Our campers have opportunity to do some really fun activities, to gain some new experiences, and try some different things. But at the end of the day, the camps that we operate, they are not our camps. You know, we're not a Boy Scout camp. We're not a, you know, standard day camp. These camps are God's camps. These kids are God's kids. And so, yes, we have a wonderful time. I mean, that is the goal of our camp, is to have fun. But our number one goal of our camp is to point our youth to their Creator. And quite frankly, if we miss that goal, we have failed.

We have failed in our camp if we miss that goal. And so, as such, you know, in an inner sprinkled into all the fun that we have, all the fun opportunities that we have for the different activities and the different things that we do, we have a system of education classes that we use each year. And we call it Christian living. And essentially, it's built around a central theme. And each day has a different sub-theme that relates to that main theme. And we revisit that each day. We go in in the morning, we do a short class, about 25-30 minutes in the morning, with the kids in their dorms. And then we come back to that as the day goes on, and we reference back to that throughout the week. And each year, the theme differs, but the system, by and large, stays the same. We have a primary theme, and then we have a sub-theme. And this year, for the theme that we used for our United Youth Camp program, the theme was, Be Anchored to God. And it's an nautical theme, which works out really well on the Oregon coast. Maybe not so much in the middle of the mountains of Arizona, but apparently, I learned this from the folks that are in Arizona, something I didn't realize, that Arizona actually has the highest number of boats owned by people in the U.S. per capita. Apparently, it's really hot in Arizona, and it's nice to go to the lake. So, folks have got boats out there, so the concept of boating and anchoring was very familiar, even to the kids down in the middle of Arizona. But the nautical theme that we built off of this year was built off of the passage in Hebrews 6. Let's go ahead and turn over there to start today. Hebrews 6. And I want to take an opportunity to provide you with just a quick survey course, so to speak, of the theme this year and what we looked at at camp. One of the things that I've told my folks locally is that if it's good enough for the Goslings, it's good enough for the Geese. And so, it's a little bit of a reverse of that old adage.

But our youth have opportunity to learn some pretty amazing things in a very incredible environment. And I want to try to bring as much as possible the opportunity to share that, because I know many of you don't necessarily have the ability to go to camp at this time in your life and serve. And it's hard to describe, I think, the camp setting and the environment of camp, if people aren't there. But I want to try to do what I can to bring this Christian living theme here today to you. Hebrews 6, we'll go ahead and begin in verse 13. Again, the theme this year, and the title for the message today, is be anchored to God. Be anchored to God. Hebrews 6 and verse 13 is, verse 17, in verse 18, it says that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope that is set before us. He goes on in verse 19. It says, in the book of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews is telling those to whom this epistle is written that it came to the promises that God provided Abraham. When it came to the promises that God provided Abraham to provide confirmation, God swore an oath by himself. And this writer stakes the claim on the immutability of that promise. He stakes the claim on the immutability of that promise that it is impossible for God to lie, and that the oath which he provided, that these promises to Abraham, and not just Abraham, but those who would then come down the road, says that these promises will be fulfilled, and that they would be fulfilled. And he goes on further and says, it's this hope in these promises, and in what God is doing in this world, and what God is doing as a part of his plan for mankind, it's those promises and that hope that anchor the soul, that provide an anchor to our life. Right? We recognize the meaning of that word. He says it's sure and it's steadfast, and it enables those who fled for refuge to lay hold upon that hope and on those promises. What does he mean by fled for refuge? Well, it's theorized the book of Hebrews was written between two persecutions. The timing of the book itself, most folks place it somewhere between the persecutions of Nero in the 60s AD, and then the persecutions of Domitian in the mid-80s. So somewhere in that window. Again, authorship's disputed. It's impossible to prove, and some theorizes Paul, some theorizes Barnabas. I've even heard some say it maybe was Aquila. You know, there's really no way to know for certain. But whomever it was, it was someone who was intimate with Italy, it was someone who was intimate with Timothy, and someone who knew that the people that he was writing to knew Timothy as well. If it was Paul, which some have theorized, then the persecutions that the individual was hoping to provide consolation for were likely the persecutions of Nero in the 60s AD. Now, regardless, and what we know about Nero and what Nero did, regardless, the author emphasizes the role that Jesus Christ would play in this hope, emphasizes that it is he who anchors our life, he who prevents us from drifting, keeps us from shipwreck, and goes on basically to say that without him, without the promises that have been provided through him, that we would end up dashed to pieces on the rocks in the storms of this life. And so when things get difficult and when things become challenging, the author is telling us to anchor ourselves in that promise, to anchor ourselves in that hope.

And so I'd like to briefly cover the daily themes, just to kind of build this concept today. And so the five points we're going to take a look at are, first, that we need to find our anchor. We need to find our anchor. Secondly, we need to set our anchor. Thirdly, we need to weather the storm. Fourthly, we need to set sail in service for God. And lastly, we need to finish the voyage. So we need to find our anchor. We need to set our anchor. We need to weather the storm. We need to set sail in service for God. And we need to finish the voyage. So we'll start with the concept of finding our anchor. And when you consider the hope and the expectation, that eager anticipation of the promises of God that anchors our life, what is it? What is it? What is it that anchors you when times get difficult and when we have the challenges that the special music talked about over the last couple of years? When we deal with these things, what is it that anchors us? What is it that strengthens us in the promises and the hope of what God has provided? I'd venture a guess that most of you have probably spent some time around boats. Some of you might have spent quite a bit of time around boats over the years.

I've told you before, and I've mentioned before, my dad at one point in time, when I was young, built an arc in our driveway, and I'm only mildly using hyperbole. He bought two pontoons from a guy over in Idaho, just on a lark, and brought them home on a trailer and put them in a driveway, and then proceeded to build a 26-foot by 14-foot pontoon boat on top of them. He then put another pontoon down the middle of it because it didn't float, because it was a little heavy under its two pontoons, so we had this giant barge that we used to go out and put out on Ponderay Lake of all places. We'd go out to Ponderay, we'd put in a bay view and spend some time in that area. But an anchor, dad had fabricated these two massive anchors out of tube steel, these big old things that weighed probably, I don't know, 50-60 pounds, that he would have hold this thing down like it was going to, you know, snap off and be taken into the maelstrom. But we had these big old anchors that we used for this thing, and those anchors are designed to keep a vessel in place. They're designed to keep a vessel in one spot. They're designed to keep a vessel where you want it to stay. It's designed to combat wind. It's designed to combat the kind of currents and wind that try to pull a vessel off course. And so in that sense, an anchor keeps a vessel from drifting into danger. It keeps a vessel in its proper place when it's not under direct control, which enables it to moor safely. Let's go to Romans 8. Romans 8.

You know, we know as a result of Paul's experiences here on this earth, we know that Paul was no stranger to challenges. We know that Paul was no stranger to suffering. In fact, in verse 11 of Romans 8, verse 11 of Romans 8, he brings up this idea of the promises that God has provided to us and the recognition of these things. He says, verse 8, sorry, verse 11 of Romans 8, he says, But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. He goes on to say, Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. He goes on to say, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. And so he lays out a massive aspect of God's plan, that God is bringing people into his family, that God is adopting sons and daughters, godly offspring as we see in Malachi 2, he's bringing in sons and daughters to his family through the adoption process to become heirs, and not just heirs, joint heirs with our elder brother Jesus Christ.

Verse 18, he goes on to say, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not even worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

He says, For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in what? In hope. Him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

You know, we've never experienced a creation that was without corruption.

You can imagine what that's like.

Says, The creation itself again will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Verse 22, For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. Verse 24, For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen as not hope, for why does one still hope for what he sees? Verse 25, but if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

Now Paul makes the point that we were saved in the hope of the resurrection. That as we experience the challenges of this world, as we experience the challenges of this physical life that we've been called to in our living, that when it comes down to it, it is the promise of that resurrection. It is the hope of that resurrection that helps us get through the challenges that we face, that helps us get through the wind and the waves that batter us, that threaten to pull us off course, that threaten to dash our ship against the rocks. But he goes on to say that the challenges of this life, they're not worthy of the glory that will be revealed in us through the deliverance of that creation, the redemption of our body to Spirit. And yet so frequently, even though we know that, even though we understand that implicitly, it is so easy to focus on the here and the now.

It is so easy for us to pull that focus away sometimes from that eternal focus to what we are dealing with at this time and put our eyes on the storm itself and to be concerned about the storm itself. There's a story of a gentleman, his name is Friedrich Buechner, who lost his father as a child. Now, those of you that have experienced the loss of a parent, you understand it is an exceptionally challenging loss. And this young man lost his father while he was very young. And that loss really loomed over him for the rest of his life. And he was very young when he when his father died. And so for the rest of his life, he had that loss that loomed over him. And he was at a conference once, this writer, and he shared the story of his loss to those that were at the conference and how it affected his life. And he wrote once that he said there was a person who came up to him afterwards and said, you know, you've had a lot of suffering in your life.

He said, you've had a lot of suffering in your life. And then he said to him, it seems to me that you've been a good steward of it. He said, it seems to me that you've been a good steward of it. He said, you've turned it into something more. You've turned it into something more, not more suffering, not more pain. That's not good stewardship when a life is spiraling out of control.

That's not good stewardship. Stewardship is taking something that we've been given and managing it appropriately for godly gain. Paul understood challenge and suffering. You know, Paul understood challenge and suffering. He understood that at times we can gravitate between two extremes with regards to pain. We can ignore it. We can bottle it up. We can shove it down deep, pretend it never happened, and go on smiling like everything's okay. And we've all, I'm sure, been there. Pretend it's not a problem at all. But the other side of that extreme, probably more debilitating, is that we can become trapped by it. We can become trapped by the pain and the suffering and the challenges that we experience. And sometimes that pain can become like an old friend. It can become like a pet in some ways. And every now and again we take it out, we pet it, we talk to it, and then we put it back away. If we're not careful, the pain and the suffering and the challenges that we experience can become an idol in our lives. It can become something that we pay more attention to than the focus that God wants us to have with the suffering and the challenge that we experience. It's very important that we keep the proper perspective on the challenges and the suffering that we face. You know, Paul in his writings, when you look through them, his life is a study in the good stewardship of pain and suffering. You know, he takes a moment to lay out the things that he went through and the challenges that he experienced.

And why does he do that? Because he's outlining the reason that he did all the things that he did.

The pain and the suffering weren't the focus. The focus was the service of those congregations throughout Asia Minor, throughout Rome, and the suffering just kind of came along with the process.

But Paul didn't fall into these extremes. You know, Paul recognized, like Christ said in John 16, verse 33, and we won't turn there, but if you'd like to jot it down, you can.

He recognized that in this life we'll have trouble. We'll have challenges. We'll have difficulty.

But like Christ says in John 16, he says, I've overcome the world. He says, take heart, for I've overcome the world. If we maintain that focus in the right place, if we maintain that hope in the right location, not earthly solutions that fade, but eternal solutions, God promises us that when we do, that we will find him in the midst of those challenges. Let's turn over to Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah 29.

Jeremiah 29 contains a section of a letter that is just beautiful.

Despite the challenges that they were facing at the time the letter was written, it is an absolutely beautiful thought process that's here. Jeremiah 29, we'll go ahead and break into the letter itself. It's a letter that was written by Jeremiah. It was inspired by God and written by Jeremiah to the captives in Babylon. And so these were individuals that had been taken captive. They had been taken in the waves of captivity that were happening at that point in time as Judah was in the process of falling. Kind of seems like it was written after the second wave before the destruction of the city, but the third wave would be not long after that as there was continued rebellion that was happening in the spite of Babylon's siege. Jeremiah 29 in verse 11, what do we see him write? Jeremiah 29 verse 11 says, For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. It says in verse 12, Then you will call upon me, and go and pray to me, and I will listen to you, and you will seek me, and you will find me when you search for me with all of your heart. You know, once again, this is a statement that was given to a group of people who were captive in a foreign land, a group of people who were hoping and were praying for deliverance, that God would return them to their homes, that he would provide a solution for this yoke of Babylonian captivity that was around their necks.

And instead of a deliverance at that point in time, there would be a deliverance, but it would come 70 years later. God says, I'm still here. I'm still here. I'm right here with you. I haven't gone anywhere. He says, I have plans for you beyond this temporary storm. He says, I have plans for you beyond this challenge, beyond this trial. I haven't given up on you. And he says, if you seek me in the midst of it, if you search for me with all of your heart, not half-heartedly or not at all, he tells Judah, if you do these things, you will find me.

He says, I will be there right alongside you in the midst of this storm. Verse 14, he goes on and says, I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. Verse 15, because you've said the Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon.

Therefore, thus says the Lord, concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, concerning all the people who dwell in this city and concerning your brethren, who have not gone out with you into captivity. Thus says the Lord of hosts, behold I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten, for they are so bad. In spite of all of this, God was with his people.

He tells them that he will deliver them. He says, I will restore you. We might say he'd maintain them, he'd hold them as they're battered by the wind and the waves. And we see in the story of Daniel and his friends, we see in the story of, of, you know, those that experienced this and lived through it, that he absolutely was there with them when they turned to him. But it means we have to find our anchor.

It means we have to know where that anchor is. We have to seek him with all of our heart. We have to hold on tight and allow him to give us rest and shelter in the storm. So the first thing we have to do is we have to find our anchor. The second thing we have to do, though, is we have to set our anchor. We have to set it. Turns out you don't want to wait until you're moored in the middle of a hurricane to find out if your anchor holds, right? You want to ensure that anchor works well before you find yourself in the midst of a life-changing trial and storm.

As I mentioned, you know, Dad's Ark and my subsequent life in Oregon, I do a lot of time in the outdoors, spend a lot of time salmon and steelhead fishing and have been around a lot of boats in the years since I moved away from Spokane. And, you know, setting an anchor is not just as easy as throwing it overboard. You know, the movies make it seem that way.

All you have to do is throw it overboard and then tie it off to the cleat and you're golden. Well, when you're in a river or you're in some place that's got current or a significant amount of waves, if you don't set your anchor appropriately and you don't get it set right, it just drags along the bottom and the boat goes anyway.

And so you want to make sure that you get the anchor set. Especially in the Columbia, we use what's called a Danforth anchor. It's got a big old pointy spade on the end of it. You toss it out there, that thing grabs right in like a hook on the bottom of the Columbia because it's all rocks and sand and gravel and stuff, and you get it down in there and pull back on it a little bit, make sure it gets good and set, and then if you don't want it to move, you hook the cleat and you put the boat in reverse, really, really get it down in there, and then you're not going anywhere.

Then you just spend the whole day on hog line fishing for salmon. So you don't want it to move, you got to set it under power. You got to make sure that thing's not going anywhere. And so you use the engine of the boat to set the anchor more firmly, so it's not going to slip. So, for example, if you're going to be mooring overnight or you want to make sure that you stay exactly where you want to stay, you know, you set the boat in that way or set the anchor in that way.

But the point is you don't just throw it overboard and tie it off without first making sure that it's got a hold of the ground. Trust, faith, it's a process. Trust in faith is a process. It often doesn't happen immediately. Sometimes it takes time to develop a faith and a trust in something or someone.

Typically, don't immediately trust people that you meet for the very first time.

You base that trust, you base that faith off of little proofs over time of their goodness, of their kindness, of their trustworthiness, of their care for you. So then when it comes time to trust them with something really important, you feel comfortable doing so. Now, of course, God is someone that we can implicitly trust on the first time, but we as humans sometimes require proof. We sometimes require proof. Let's go to Psalm 34. Psalm 34. We talked to Sermonette today a little bit about David and some of the situations that David found himself in as he fled away from Saul. Psalm 34. And this is a psalm that deals with some of the different thoughts that were going through his head at times as he was dealing with these things. Psalm 34, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 4. Psalm 34 and verse 4. I went to Proverbs. Don't do that. Psalm 34 and verse 4. So this is coming out of the time which when David fled and when he took off and he headed over to Abimelech and pretended madness before him. It says in verse 4 of Psalm 34, he says, I sought the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me from all of my fears. He said, they looked to him and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed. Says, this poor man cries out and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around all of those who fear him and delivers him. Notice what he says in verse 8. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. O fear the Lord, you his saints. There is no want to those who fear him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing. David writes, he said, he sought the Lord. He found his anchor. You know, God delivered him from his fears. The angel of the Lord, he says, camps around those who fear him and deliver him. And then he says, taste and see. Taste and see. Take a bite. Savor it. Perceive that God is good. And blessed is the man who trusts or blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. The only way that we can know if the anchor is going to hold is to give it a tug now and again. As we deal with smaller things in life, as we deal with the smaller challenges, each of those little tugs helps us know that that anchor is going to hold in increasingly difficult circumstances. You know, you don't want to be testing the anchor or the rope that connects that anchor to the boat in the midst of a hurricane. Because it is God, that anchor is going to hold, but it's a challenging time to wonder or to doubt or to be uncertain of whether it will or not.

You know, these small tests, these small things, each of them strengthening your trust and faith in him, are critical. Hebrews 10 verse 23 says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. We have to reach a point in our lives where we trust our God without wavering, without wondering whether that anchor is going to hold or not. And one of the ways that we can do that is as we go through our lives with the smaller things, recognizing that it held in these smaller issues, it held in these smaller challenges, and because God is faithful, he who is faithful and little is faithful and much, that rope is going to hold. That anchor is going to hold. And so once we know what our anchor is and where our anchor is, once we know that that anchor is going to hold, now we have to weather the storms. We have to be prepared for the storms that come. And we talked a little bit already about the challenges that we face, the storms of life, the challenges that we face. Let's go over to the book of Philippians. I almost said the book of Philippians.

That's definitely a different book, the book of Philippians. And we'll pick it up in Philippians 1 verse 27. Philippians 1 verse 27. And Paul, again, writes about the suffering that we face, the sufferings that we experience. Philippians 1 verse 27 says, only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you, or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you may stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. We might say, pull in in the same direction, right? Yoked in the same direction, pull in the same way. Verse 28, not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation and that from God. Verse 29, for to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. Having the same conflict which you saw in me, and now here, is in me. The word that's used there for granted in Greek is the Greek word krezimai.

It's krezimai, and it means to give freely as a favor or to give graciously. And so, in some ways, you look the way Paul's writing this, he's implying that we have graciously been given the suffering that we experience and the challenges that we face. There's been a gracious gift to receive. You know, we often look at our challenges and we know where to find joy in our in our trials and joy in our difficulties. If we can shift our perspective in how we look at these things as they come up and recognize the gracious gift that they are and the opportunity they provide us to grow in our relationship with God, it can really help us at times to to shift that perspective. N.T. Wright talks about how the disciples and much of Israel had thought that Jesus would come to redeem Israel from its suffering. They thought that the Messiah, the first time, had come to deliver them from the Romans, to deliver them from the persecution, but they didn't realize instead that God was redeeming Israel through its suffering. He was redeeming them through that process. And in some ways, brethren, we're being redeemed through our suffering and the challenges that we face as well. Because in doing so, we're learning where to place our trust. We're learning about the temporary nature of this life versus the permanence of the kingdom of God. We're learning about all of these things that are pointing us to the love of God, to the grace of God, in the recognition that He has permanent solutions to the temporary challenges that we face. That ultimately, He has the permanent solution to the temporary challenge that we face.

You know, a boat's anchor is designed to protect it from drifting, to protect it from being the vessel from being dashed on the rocks in a storm. Ultimately, it's designed to keep the wind and the currents that are vying for control of that vessel at bay by providing a single, unshakable, solid connection. That way, the wind and the waves cannot control the vessel. And every captain in the storm has two options. You can either hold anchor, you can maintain that connection, you can ride out that storm, or you can cut the anchor line, and you can let the storm take you, wherever it's going to take you. But that is an option. It's not a great option, but it is an option. You don't want that storm controlling your fate. Let's go over to Matthew 14.

Matthew 14. We see an account here in the book of Matthew in which the disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee by boat. It's late at night. We see that they were buffeted. In fact, the Greek word that's used really means tormented or tortured. It's a little more than buffeted. They were having a rough go of it trying to get across the Sea of Galilee. And for those that aren't aware, Sea of Galilee, even though it's an inland sea, because of the way that it's ringed by mountains and the way that the temperature comes, it's very, very windy on the Sea of Galilee, and it can stir up some significant waves. You know, six-foot swells are not uncommon in real windy conditions. And if you've got a six-foot swell, you have a six-foot trough on the other side of that, and it can get pretty bumpy pretty quick. So they were being tormented, it says, by waves. They were struggling against a headwind. They were really having a tough time. They saw Christ come walking out to them on the water. They were terrified, assuming that He was something He was not.

And in verse 27, we see Christ reassure them. It's Matthew 14, verse 27. We see Christ reassure the disciples. Immediately Jesus spoke to them, verse 27, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I, do not be afraid. Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it's you, Peter, typically, you know, being Peter, Lord, if it's you, command me to come out to you on the water. And so he said, Come.

And when Peter had come down off of the boat or out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. Don't read past that statement. It's easy to read past that statement, but don't read past that statement. Once again, verse 29, when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid. Beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said, Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? When they got into the boat, the wind ceased and those that were in the boat came and worshiped him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God. You know, Peter stepped out of the boat, and for a time, Peter walked on the water. For a time, he was successful. What happened? What happened? Put yourself in Peter's sandals for a minute. Didn't have shoes, I guess. Put him in sandals for a minute. Think about stepping out on that boisterous, possibly six-foot swells. Realizing that for a minute, you're standing on top of water, and you're actually walking on that water like it's solid ground. Then you got that little part of you in your humanity that starts saying, Wait a minute, I shouldn't be able to do this. These are some big waves. This is some pretty significant wind, and you start to get a little unsteady. Maybe you look down at the waves below you, get buffeted again by that wind. What happened to Peter? For a minute, Peter took his eyes off of God. Instead, he put his eyes on the storm that surrounded him. Verse 30, we see that he saw the wind was boisterous. Again, maybe he looked at the water. He questioned whether he could really do this. And as you then start to sink, those doubts begin to scream in your head. Cried out to God for his deliverance, and immediately Christ reached out, got him, lamented his doubt, and they climbed in the boat. All too often in life, I think we put our focus on the storms that we face, not always on the deliverer that will bring us through them.

You know, as humans, we tend to focus on the immediate. It's very human to do so. We focus on the here and now. We don't always see the experiences that we are experiencing through the lens of eternity. Think about all the great characters of Scripture that struggled with incredible challenges. Think of Daniel. Think of Hananiah, Mishael, Nazariah. Think of Esther, Ruth, the prophets, all these fathers of faith, folks that we read about in Hebrews 11, they experienced incredible challenges, and they weathered it. Why did they weathered it? They weathered it because they knew the promises that God had given them were greater than what they were experiencing in the here and the now. You know, that is the focus of Hebrews 11. That's the focus of these individuals, these stories of faith, these folks that came before us who experienced all these exceptionally difficult challenges, finish strong, and will rise in a resurrection to eternal life. But when these storms rise in our lives, and when these storms arrive in our lives, the wind and the waves gets a little high, we have to place our trust in what cannot and will not fail. We have to place our trust in what cannot and will not fail. And once we know where our anchor is, once we know that it's set, once we know how to set it, I should say, and once we know we can weather the storms, only then can we truly begin to serve God in the way that He has called us to serve Him without fear, going forward and serving Him as He has called us to serve.

This gentleman named John Shedd, who once wrote that a ship in harbor is safe, but he said that's not what ships are built for. That we're not built to sit and look pretty on the dock. We're built to be out there taking the wind, taking the waves, taking the rough ocean, and taking the light of God to the world around us. That's what ships are built for. They're built to explore the open water. They're built to deliver goods. They're built to go to war. They're not meant to sit in the harbor and be pretty. They are pretty, but they're not meant to sit in harbor and be pretty. They're built for the challenges of the open sea. And so once we've found that anchor, once we know we can trust it, once we've learned how to weather those storms, then we can truly set sail in the work that God has called us to do. And this life that we've been called to lead, this voyage that we've been called to, so to speak, is a life of service. It's a voyage of service. It's a course that has been plotted for us by God, and ultimately it's Him who is directing the ship. Let's go to Galatians 2.

Go over to Galatians 2.

In Galatians 2, the Apostle Paul makes the point that this life that we've been called to requires our death. It requires our death. Because at the end of the day, we can no longer live for ourselves. We can no longer live for our wants and our desires. Instead, we have to live for Him and what He wants of us, what He has called us to do. Verse 20 of Galatians 2. Verse 20 of Galatians 2. The Apostle Paul writes, it says, I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, he says, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. It says, if I set aside the grace of God, or I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. As a life which we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in Christ. We live according to His example. We don't live for ourselves. So ultimately, the calling from God that we've received is a calling to a lifetime or a voyage of service. In fact, the word that's used to describe this level of service to Christ in the New Testament is the Greek word doulos.

So you might be familiar with that word. It's used frequently by the Apostle Paul. And there's a really good reason for that, because in the Roman world, the concept of a doulos would have been very well understood. See, a doulos is a slave. Not a butler, not a maid, a slave. And it's an uncomfortable word today, given the connotations and cultural connotations that we have, but I think it's a word that's worthwhile to consider, because a slave is a person who is not free, but is bound to a master, who is bound to a life of servitude. Our calling, once we have accepted that calling and we have entered into covenant with him in baptism, we become a slave or a bond servant of Jesus Christ. That's the way that Paul uses the word frequently, is bondservant. And as such, it's his work, not our own work, that we are fulfilling. And so as such, our focus needs to be consistently outward and consistently upward. We need to be focused on the things that are outside of us and the things that are above us. How can we serve others? How can we provide for others' needs over our own needs? How can we continually reflect the nature of our master to the world around us?

You know, he's called a number of individuals to do this work together. He's called a number of folks to utilize their individual gifts and strengths to do the work that he's called us to. In fact, we mentioned it earlier, to be pulling in the same direction, so to speak, right? Well, it takes each and every person working in unison to achieve that which God has called us to.

You know, Paul's credited with an amazing amount of work in the New Testament account. You know, God, through Paul, raised up congregations throughout Asia Minor, throughout Europe. And I don't know if you've ever sat down and run the numbers, but the amount of distance that the Apostle Paul traveled in his journeys is unreal. And much of that was on foot. The first journey, if you run the numbers and you go place to place like Google Maps, approximately 1,350 miles on the first missionary journey, half of that on land. It's about 700 miles on land and about roughly 700 miles by sea in that first missionary journey. In his second journey, 2,850 miles, again, about roughly split 50-50, and on his third, 3,350 miles with a little more than 50% of that time spent walking. Paul had a lot of foot time, you know, as he walked these Roman roads from these different congregations. And there is no way that the Apostle Paul could be in every single place at the same time. And so he had a number of righteous individuals that served and slaved right alongside him to serve those congregations. Folks like Stefano and Fortunatus, Caius, Phoebe, you know, individuals' names that we see throughout Scripture, Barnabas, Timothy. You know, the list goes on. Paul wasn't a one-man band. You know, Paul had so many people that helped him out because the extent of the work that was done by the Apostle Paul with God's, you know, cultivation and the work that God was doing through him couldn't have been done without the rest of those people right alongside him. You know, sometimes I think we can tend to define ourselves by our limitations, tend to define ourselves by our weaknesses, and conclude, you know, I'm not terribly useful. Sometimes we can do that. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 12. 2 Corinthians 12.

I want us to see something here with regards to the Apostle Paul.

We're going to go to 2 Corinthians 12. We're going to pick it up in verse 7. We know that Paul was dealing with a specific issue in his life. We know that he had some, at least speculate, I should say. We don't know for sure. Some speculate he had his eyesight was maybe going, that he was really having some struggles with his eyes, that he was having a hard time being able to see and do the work that he was doing because of his eyesight. It's not enumerated specifically, but he prayed to God to remove this thorn in his flesh, this weakness that he had in his body. He prayed to God three separate times to have it removed. Okay? Three separate times to have it removed. 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 9. 2 Corinthians 12. Actually, let's pick it up in verse 7. It says, Unless I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me. A messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I be exalted above measure says, Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. He says, Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. Guys, this is the apostle Paul.

You know, this is a guy who cast out demons with a word, who put out handkerchiefs, you know, that had been prayed upon, and God delivered incredible miracles through those handkerchiefs. You know, we look at the story of the New Testament through his eyes simply because he was all over the place.

And yet, in this case, in this specific circumstance, God's answer to Paul was no. No.

And why? Because Paul recognized that it was the weakness within him that made him strong.

The challenges that he faced, the needs, the distresses, the persecutions that made him weak, God's strength was made perfect. God's strength was completed. It was finished. The Greek word is telios, completed and finished in weakness. You know, our strength is also made perfect in weakness.

In the things that we aren't sure we can do, in the challenges that we face, and the doubts that we might have in ourselves. God has called each and every one of us to service. God has called each and every one of us to leave that harbor and leave the jaws of that harbor and go out into the open ocean. To take the wind, to take the waves, and to fulfill the calling that he's provided us.

What is our part in it? How do we serve God in this way? What service does he desire through us?

Ultimately, God desires us to take his way to the world around us, to take his light into this ever-darkening world. The final thing, as we look at the final concept here, is that we have to finish the voyage. We have to finish the voyage. Once we've begun that life of service, there is an endpoint. There's a port of call, so to speak. The voyage has an end. A port of call in a voyage is where ships tend to stop along that voyage, where they pull in, resupply, and then head back out. But the most important port of call is the final one.

Where that voyage ends. We ask the question sometimes, what is God's will in our life? Mr. Nelson went to Ephesians 5 this morning, which is a great one this afternoon, I guess. Sorry, we have morning services in Salem. But he went to Ephesians 5, which is a great passage that deals with what God's will is for us. He wants us to walk circumspectly. He wants us to walk with wisdom. He wants us to redeem the time. Why? Why does he want us to do these things?

Let's turn over to John 6. John 6. We take a look at what God's will is in our lives and what God desires for us. We can see it enumerated in John 6. John 6, and we'll pick it up in verse 39 and 40.

We see it from the mouth of Christ as to what God's will is for us. And when we consider finishing the voyage and what that means, it is John 6, 39 to 40, which really gives us the picture of what God's desire is for us. John 6, and we'll pick it up in verse 39, says, This is the will of the Father who sent me, that if all he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. God's will is that you will be a part of the resurrection, that you will be a part of his family, and that he will fulfill the promise that he has given.

It is God's desire, it is God's will, that you finish the voyage, that we finish the voyage.

And as if we've explored, it's a journey that's wrought with danger, it's a journey that's wrought with challenges, but it's a journey with which God has promised he will see us through, that he will be right there alongside us and will bring us to port despite all of those challenges, despite all those things that we face. You can jot it in your notes if you'd like. Philippians 1 in verse 6, God says he's begun a good work in us and that he will see it through to completion, that that which he has begun in you he will see through to completion.

1 Corinthians 10 verse 13, Paul says that no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man. And then he goes on, he says God is faithful and he gives us a way to escape, that God provides us with an out. But it's up to us to take it. It's up to us to take it.

Now you go back in the lore of ancient history of the sea. In fact, one of the things that we know why this happened is you look at Revelation and you look at the description of the sea giving up her dead. A lot of guys lost in the open ocean over the years in ocean-going journeys. People who would fall overboard or they would be assisted in their fall overboard, perhaps, depending on how you want to look at it. But when that happened, there would be a call that went up. Somebody would yell, man overboard, man overboard! And the whole ship would start scrambling. You know, people would be grabbing these big long wooden poles and trying to get them down in the water to get them to the guy. Or they'd throw anything that would float. Empty barrels, you know, other sailors, whatever, just throw them off the side, try to provide them something they can hang on to, right?

But the goal was they would try to get that person to be able to float for a time so they could bring the ship back around and swing them back to a rope that they could lower down and get the guy back on board. But you know, in every circumstance, in all of these situations, if a person fell overboard, it was up to that person in the water to take the hand of the people who were trying to get them back on the boat. It's up to them. God has promised wholeheartedly, faithfully, that He will see us through this voyage, that He will bring this trip to completion, and that He will bring us to the point of the resurrection. But it is up to us to consciously make the choice to do that. It's up to us to take the hand that's being offered.

We don't want to choose to drown instead of being rescued.

God's will, His desire for us, is that we finish the voyage. It's His will that we complete the race. It's His will that we obtain the crown of righteousness. Let's go over to 2 Timothy. We're going to close here in 2 Timothy today. 2 Timothy 4.

2 Timothy 4. We see a letter that Paul wrote to Timothy.

2 Timothy 4. And we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 6. And this letter, the Apostle Paul knew that his death was imminent. He knew that his time was short. He knew, and you can read through this letter, and it is a beautiful letter because it's a letter that is written in love and a letter that is written in concern for a young man that would soon be on his own with a great deal of responsibility. And now suddenly, his mentor is not going to be there anymore to help him, to provide him with advice, to provide him with the things that he would need. It's a beautiful, beautiful letter. It really is. 2 Timothy is a beautiful letter. But in verse 6, okay, in verse 6 of 2 Timothy 4, the Apostle Paul writes the following. He says, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. Paul essentially says, I'm going to die. My life has reached the end. This is it. And so he's writing here to Timothy. He says, I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I have kept the faith. He says, despite all those things that happened, all those issues that I faced, all those lashings and shipwrecks and stonings and beatings, he says I finished the race.

He says, I've kept the faith. He says, finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day. But notice what he says, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Paul says it's almost over.

It's almost over. I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I've kept the faith.

Paul says, I have finished the voyage. I have finished the voyage. He didn't allow those challenges, the doubts that he faced. He didn't allow any of the issues, the weaknesses that he experienced. He didn't allow the literal shipwrecks to shipwreck him. He maintained his trust, or maintained his faith as well. He maintained his trust in his anchor. He weathered the storm. He served others exceedingly, leaning into the calling that God had given him.

And you know when it came time for him to yield his life? As far as we know from histories, Paul was executed at the hands of Nero. That's what we seem to know. When it came time for Paul to give up his life, it was easy. He'd already given it up a long time before that. It was Christ now who lived in him. Paul was dead. Nero didn't take his life in that way. Paul yielded it up. He gave it up a long time prior to that sword coming down on his neck. But Paul finished the voyage, and brethren, we're called to do the same. We are called to finish the voyage. You know, ships, once again, as John Shedd said, they're not made for harbor. They are made for the open ocean.

They are made for out there, so to speak. Not for in here, but for out there. We're meant to take the strong, you know, made to take the waves. We're meant to take the wind, you know, right up over the front of the bow. And sometimes we get into some sketchy water. We really do sometimes get into some sketchy water. But we need to find our anchor. We need to learn to set it. We need to weather the storms that come our way. We need to live that life of service, and we need to finish strong. Hope you all have a wonderful remainder of your Sabbath. I hope you can stay cool this weekend. I'm excited to have a chance to fellowship with you all here after services.