A Rope of 3 Cords
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Intro
Intro
Life is full of storms. Financial, relational, professional, sickness… the list goes on.
But in these storms we have been warned not to shipwreck our faith.
19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith,
God does not want us to shipwreck our faith so He has given us something which will prevent this from happening.
When a strong wind begins to blow the ships and they risk smashing into rocks, a good captan will drop something into the water. This thing will hold the boat steady, prevent it from blowing away and stop it from hitting the rocks.
Can anyone gues what that thing is?
An Anchor!
God has blessed us with an anchor too! Something strong and steady that will keep us from getting shipwrecked.
That Anchor is Jesus Christ.
19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,
Jesus is the anchor for our soul and what a blessed anchor He is. He never fails, He never gets dislodged. He is sure, He is stable, He is sufficient!
So trhe chrisrian who has Jesus as his anchor should never blow off course in the storms.
In biblical theory this is true, however I know of mant Christians who have blown off course, who have shipwrecked thie faith, who have sunk under the waves of lust, greed, addiction...
So what happened?
If the Anchor is good and cannot fail, how then did they fall away?
Well look at this picture:
You can have the best anchor in the world, but that anchor has to be atached to the boat by a rope, and THIS is where many people experience the point of failure.
You cannot expect the anchor to hold you secure when you have used a weak, frayed piece of rope to tie it on.
You want to use the strongest rope you can find.
Please read:
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.
10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!
11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?
12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
We must use a powerful 3 fold chord to tie ourselves to Jesus, our anchor. The anchor will not fail, but the rope just might.
The 3 fold chord teaching is used in many situations, from marriage to buisness, but today i want to show you the 3 kinds of rope, that we must weave together to make it strong enough to keep us attached to Jesus.
3 Fold Chord
3 Fold Chord
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
In this simple verse God shows us the 3 chords we must weave together and the first cord is:
THE CORD OF A CONVINCED FAITH
THE CORD OF A CONVINCED FAITH
Faith Defined:
Faith Defined:
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Faith is not a blind leap into the dark, but it is a confident leap into the arms of God.
Often the end is not in view when this leap is made, but the landing is never in doubt!
Faith has the capacity to behold what the eyes cannot see.
Faith is the knowledge that God is in absolute control of all the situations of life and that He is working in everything, all the time.
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Faith Demanded
Faith Demanded
There is only one life that pleases the Lord and it is the life lived in faith.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
The secret to experiencing and enjoying God's best is to let go of your life, place it in His hands and live it His way.
Faith Demonstrated
Faith Demonstrated
Genuine biblical faith can be seen in thousands of ways in the Bible and within your life and mine.
It takes faith to stand when others are falling!
It takes faith to serve God when those around you won't.
It takes faith to follow God into an unknown future, believing that He will work all things our for your good and His glory!
It takes faith to be a Daniel, to be a Shadrach, a Meshach and an Abednego. It takes faith to be an Abraham, a David, Peter, a blind man looking for a miracle.
But, it takes faith to be a parent, a partner in a marriage, a friend, deal with sickness, go to work, etc.
Life is all about faith!
When we learn that God is in absolute control of it all, then it will bind us more securely to Him and His will for us!
Are You Bound With The Strong Cord Of Faith?
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
II. THE CORD OF A CONFIDENT HOPE
II. THE CORD OF A CONFIDENT HOPE
Hope's Features
Hope's Features
What is hope?
The dictionary defines it as "to have a wish to get or do something or for something to happen or be true, especially something that seems possible or likely."
Biblical hope is something far different.
Biblical hope is, "A confident expectation which rests upon the promises of God."
In other words, Hope is believing that God's Word is true and can be believed.
Hope's Focus -
Hope's Focus -
Genuine hope is not wishful thinking, but a confident expectation that God will do as He has promised.
Hope takes the Word of God at face value!
89 Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Friends, we can believe the Bible!
Hope's Future -
Hope's Future -
Because hope is anchored in the Word of God, it will see all that it expects come to pass, if not in time, then surely in eternity.
Our hope will be finally realized in two splendid events:
1. His Return - Titus 2:13
2. Heaven's Reward - 1 Pet. 1:3-5; John 14:1-3
Are You Bound With The Strong Cord Of Hope?
III. THE CORD OF A CHRISTLIKE LOVE
III. THE CORD OF A CHRISTLIKE LOVE
Love's Nature -
Love's Nature -
Genuine biblical love is a rare commodity in this world.
There are plenty of manifestations of fleshly and worldly love, but genuine, biblical love is hard to find!
It is Constant - Jer. 31:3;
It is Impartial - John 3:16 and
it is Stable - Rom. 8:38-39.
Biblical love is described in 1 Cor. 13:4-8.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
Love's Necessity
Love's Necessity
Love is absolutly neccessry to the Christian.
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
If you do not possess the right kind of horizontal love, that is, love for your fellow man, you will fall out.
If you do not possess the right kind of vertical love, that is, love for the Lord, you will fall away!
Without genuine, biblical love, we are wasting our time trying to live for the Lord.
Why?
Because we will always be out of step on one level or the other!
When we love the Lord as we should, nothing will be allowed between us. When we love our brother as we should, nothing will be tolerated between us!
It is genuine love that keeps all the relationships in our life in perfect balance!
Are You Bound With The Strong Cord Of Love?
Conc:
Here is the invitation:
Are you bound to God, His work and His people with this three-fold cord?
If not, bring your sacrifice, you, Rom. 12:1, to this altar and bind it to the horns of the altar!
27 The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!
If you can see that you are bound with 1 cord, but not the other two; or with two of them, but one in missing, I want you to know that 1 or 2 of them is not going to be enough!
You need all three cords binding your life to the altar for the glory of God.
Friends, we are sailing stormy seas this evening!
We must be bound with a strong rope. Are you?