Anchored Against the Drift

Anchor Down

I want you to picture this scene. You’re on a boat. It’s not a yacht or anything, but it gets the job done. For whatever reason, you have to stay on the boat for a certain amount of time, but that hasn’t really been an issue for you so far. Now you’ve been floating around for a while and you know at some point you’re going to have to get off the boat. Then, one day, your boat floats into a beautiful bay. The water is clear and cool, the sand on the beach is clean and looks untouched, the trees in the distance are vibrant, and what’s more, there’s an incredible party happening on the shore. You look at the countdown and it says you still have to stay on the boat for a while. You can’t go ashore yet, but you want to make sure that when you do leave the boat that you get to go ashore here. But, if you know anything about how oceans work, there are currents and tides at play. If you just sit there and wait to go ashore, those currents and tides could move your boat somewhere you don’t want to be. So what do you do? You drop an anchor to keep your boat where you want it to be.

In our reading for this morning, we heard that “we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” We know the way to paradise. We know the way to an eternity with God in a perfect new creation where there is no suffering, no sickness, no death, no pain, no loss, and no sadness. We know the way to a place that even puts that perfect beach to shame. We know that the way is faith in Jesus, in His sacrifice and promises for us. We know the way, so we want to make sure that we don’t drift away. And just like a boat in the ocean, if we just sit and do nothing we will tend to drift, so we drop our anchor and make sure that we stay where we need to be.

Brother and High Priest

I want to give everyone one of these anchors to hold onto and I want to make it into a little bit of an image, a little bit of an object lesson for us this morning. If you hold the anchor by the bottom, focusing on everything but that bottom hook, there’s a recognizable shape there. It’s a cross and I love that as a reminder for what we’re connected to, what makes it possible for us to have a place in paradise in the first place.

In Hebrews 2, we read about a couple incredible things about Jesus. First, we read that His is not ashamed to call us brothers. Brothers take care of each other, brothers look out for one another, brothers challenge each other, brothers are there for you when no one else is, brothers have a connection that doesn’t go away - this is the kind of relationship that Christ calls us into. He defends us against the devil, He takes care of us, He looks out for us, He challenges us, He’s there for us when no one else is, and our connection to Him will never disappear.

But we also read that He is our merciful and faithful high priest. The high priest of Israel was tasked with going to God on behalf of the people and making sacrifices to atone for their sins. With Jesus as our high priest, He promises to go to the Father on our behalf and He made the sacrifice to atone for our sins.

That is what we are connected to, that is the relationship that we need to keep from drifting out of. When you look at this anchor and see the cross within it, I want you to remember that Jesus is our brother and our high priest. I want you to remember that He will always have your back and that He makes us right with God.

Everywhere We Go!

Another thing I want you to notice about this anchor is it’s size. It is small and you could easily carry it with you wherever you go. It could easily hang from a rear view mirror, be linked to a key chain, be worn as a bracelet or a necklace, or slip into your purse or wallet. In fact, I encourage you to do exactly that. On the back tables there are a variety of empty necklaces and cords to make the anchor in your hands into a bracelet or a necklace or a key chain.

I want that to be a reminder that this is good news that we carry with us wherever we go. You aren’t just saved when you’re sitting here on a Sunday morning. The cross goes with you. This good news goes with you. There is no place where it cannot reach, there is no darkness it cannot light up, because everything is in subjection under Christ. No matter where life takes you, the Gospel truth is still yours, salvation is still yours.

Anchored

But I gave you an anchor this morning, not just a cross, and I did that for a reason. Because our text did warn us this morning about paying attention so we don’t drift away from this truth. So I want to draw your attention to the rest of the anchor. If you drop an anchor, it isn’t just the weight of the anchor that keeps the boat from moving. If it was, it wouldn’t need to be shaped like this, you could just drop something really dense over the edge. But when you drop an anchor shaped like this over the edge, it drags along the sea bed until it catches on something. And the bigger and sturdier that thing is, the better off the boat is.

I mean, take the example from that initial image. If you knew that you could do something that would make your anchor 1% more secure - wouldn’t it be worth it to make sure you didn’t drift away from paradise? Wouldn’t it be better to do that thing than something that wouldn’t help you at all?

I want this anchor to be a reminder to make sure there are things in your life that protect you against the drift, protect you from the tides of life. Make sure to have things in life that the anchor catches on, things that protect your faith from the drift - and the bigger and sturdier those things are, the better off you are. Sunday mornings are a great place to start, building relationships with other Christians, with the people around you is too, being in Bible Class and small group Bible Study, being in prayer, spending time in the Word - these are all great things to have in our lives that can help anchor our faith. And if attending church on Sunday or going to Bible class or small group or spending 15 minutes in devotion can make your anchor 1% more secure - can strengthen your faith against the storms or life and the currents of the world - wouldn’t it be worth it to protect against the drift? Wouldn’t it be better to do those things rather than something that won’t strengthen your faith at all?

None of these different things save you, Christ as our high priest does that. But we anchor ourselves in His Word and in the community of His people to protect against drifting away from Him. I pray that each and every one of us would be anchored against the drift, today, tomorrow, and for the rest of our lives. Amen.