Weathering No.1 Weighing Anchor

This evening, we're starting a new series, focusing our attention on Sunday nights on a nautical metaphor. That is, the weather, the storm, ships, sailors, and so on. And the general idea is to examine how we weather the storms of life.

A lot is said in the Bible, as we'll discover later on, about coping with problems and difficulties, about God being in control of everything. If you've come here this evening and you're in difficulty in some area of your life, then it may well be that this service especially will speak to you. We want to keep it fast moving.

We want to move along in a connected fashion so that one bit fits into the other, but we're going to move rather quickly through. And I'd like you to come and join me this evening. We're very glad to have Anne Christian with us.

Some of you met up with her this morning. She's back from Bolivia on a very short visit here to the UK. Tomorrow, you fly to the United States, I understand.

Yes. I've got some friends who are paying for me to have a holiday in Florida with them. So I'm going to be Orlando and visiting Disney World and places like that.

It must be very difficult. It's really hard being a missionary. It's really suffering for Jesus.

I just wanted to... There was a tear forming in my eye. Anne, not everybody here knows that you're in Bolivia as... Well, just give them a cameo. OK.

I work with SIM International, which is a big international mission organization. So I'm a missionary, which I don't like the term, but I'm head of a mission school in Cochabamba, Bolivia, with 100 and well, nearly 200 students aged 4 to 18 years and also two, what we call satellite schools, which are little schools with one's got eight, one's got 10 students with one teacher teaching all the different levels. So it's quite a lot of responsibility.

And it's very scary because I wear the label saying the buck stops here. And nobody here with any maturity would believe that the Christian life is always an easy life. There are sometimes great periods of calm as we were praying and remembering with the elders this evening, just a few moments ago.

But then there are the very, very stormy passages when it's not easy to hang on to faith. Can you outline one of those? One out of many. One very, very difficult time was when the Lord first called me to be a missionary in 1979 and I said no.

And because I had this mental picture of missionaries as little old ladies with tweed skirts and their hair in a bun. And I just thought I don't fit that and I don't want to be a missionary and I want to earn lots of money and have a nice house and a nice car and all these things. I struggled.

It was probably the most miserable year of my life and it was very, very, very hard. Everything seemed to go wrong. And I just did not want to be a missionary because the cost I felt was too high.

And it's not easy. I mean, one of the biggest costs probably for me has been remaining single because I would have loved to got married, have children. But I've now got 192 children, some of whom are scared of me and some of whom I got the ultimate accolade two weeks ago from two girls in grade 11 who said, Miss Christian is awesome.

So, I mean, that's the ultimate accolade. So that's it. You know, I've made it.

We could have told you that without going to Bolivia. Anne, out there in Bolivia, what's been the biggest test? I think loneliness, because a lot of our staff are short termers. They come for 10 months, really.

They usually arrive the end of July, leave at the beginning of June and a constant change of staff, constantly new people every year and even more so because of my position, because I'm the boss and people automatically relate to me differently no matter how hard I try because I'm the boss. And it is difficult. I do feel lonely sometimes, but I'm so glad of the TAB because you're just wonderful people.

You support me. If it wasn't for you, I'd have crumpled up and died a long time ago, I think. But just knowing that you're praying for me, the emails, the letters, the cards that just I know you're there and I know I've just got to send an email.

Please pray. And I know you do. And that means so much because I feel those prayers in times when I just run out of my own wisdom, which are very frequent.

In one of the addresses in this series, I'm going to speak about the captain being on board our ship. What does the presence of Jesus mean to you? How do you how do you how do you feel that? It's hard to say, but I just know that God is there and that Jesus is at my side. The Bible says that if we lack wisdom in situations, we have to ask God and he will give it to us.

And so many times over this last since I took over as head in July, I've come to the end of myself in situations that are just too convoluted and too complicated. Parents in divorce and children about to commit suicide and and so many times when I'm completely at the end and I just do not know what to say, what do you say? And I just have to pray, Lord, give me something to say. And he always does.

I've been amazed, you know, because I think that is not for me because I wouldn't have ever thought of that as a solution or and God has always given me something to say to to parents to say whose child was about to commit suicide and parents who are divorcing and situations that you don't expect to have to face. But you do. And God's God's always been there and given that wisdom.

So you'll appreciate our next song, which is our confidences in the Lord. Lovely to have you with us. And we do continue to remember you in prayer.

And we'll be praying for you again before this evening is through. Two hundred and five. Our confidence is in the Lord, the source of our salvation.

Can I just say I'll be in the foyer after the service with my latest prayer letter. Thank you. Two or five.

Sing it through twice. Let's stand and enjoy it. Then we come around the word of the Lord together.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh Do you want to be seated? Well, let's have a look at this subject, that those who belong to Jesus Christ, they can know their captain coming on board the ship of their lives, they can weigh anchor, and they can set off and follow him, assured that despite what may come, one thing is a guarantee, and that is the words of Jesus who said, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you. Psalm 107 verse 23 and 24 says these words, Others went out on the sea in ships, they were merchants on the mighty waters, they saw the works of the Lord, his wonderful deeds in the deep. I remember some while ago reading about stained-glass windows in cathedral churches, and one of the things that you can find in some of our ancient cathedrals to this day are pictures of a handful of men, and they are drawn as though they were on the sea, in a boat, a somewhat frail boat, and the waves are very high, and there is panic on their faces.

And then depending which particular incident is being illustrated from Scripture in the stained-glass, either Jesus is there walking on the water towards those disciples, or actually he's in the ship, asleep. Now, some of you will know that there are two incidents in the Gospel, Mark's Gospel and the other synoptics which speak of the disciples in that condition. And according to early Christian history, the church is to see itself as a group of people who are placed in a boat, and they are going across the seas of life.

So, time and time again, in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, you find the rich imagery of the sea, and sailing, and the dangers of the sea. The Christian is to be a brave heart. The Christian is to be a man, a woman, who even with the graphic account of the Titanic, very much in the forefront of their mind, if they've seen that film, nonetheless is prepared to move out on the seas of life, and to believe that they will never drown, they will never finally face disaster.

Come singleness, come bereavement, come cancer eating away your body. There is something that is unbreakable, and that is the faithfulness of God. He is able and will keep you, whatever the difficulties are in your life.

You will be able to weather the storm of life. Now, there are a number of scriptures that actually give me every right to engage in this sort of study. There are scriptures that state the fact that I've just actually repeated from the Word of God, but we'll hear them again, that it is right for us to think in terms of serving God, as a sailor might sail in a boat and serve his human captain.

Listen to the fact once more. 107 verses 23 and 24. Others went out on the sea in ships.

They were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the Lord, his wonderful deeds in the deep. And when they saw those works, sometimes they came to a realization that despite the ferocity of the storm, and incredible though it may seem, this God who they are serving is actually in control and behind the tempestuous weather.

Psalm 83 verse 15. So persecute them with thy tempest and make them afraid with thy storm. Psalm 107 verse 29.

He maketh the storm a calm so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet. So he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

Isaiah 25 verse 4. For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. Nahum 1 verse 3 and 4. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

Did you hear that? The Lord has his way in the whirlwind. In other words, he does control not only naturally the climate, but also experientially everything that happens to you in your life. So here is our Lord Jesus and he's with the disciples and he illustrates the point both physically and spiritually as he invites the disciples to join him one day on the Lake of Galilee.

Luke chapter 8. One day Jesus said to his disciples, let's go over to the other side of the lake. So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep.

A squall came down on the lake so that the boat was being swamped and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him saying, Master, Master, we're going to drown. He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters.

The storm subsided and all was calm. Where is your faith? He asked his disciples. In fear and amazement, they asked one another, who is this? He commands even the winds and the water and they obey him.

When our Lord Jesus met up with his disciples, I hope if they could listen into this address, they wouldn't be insulted by my suggesting that they were actually messing about with boats. But they really were. In fact, it's a very honourable pursuit.

Some of you have been up to Chichester Yacht Harbour. Some of you down to the Brighton Marina. Messing around in boats is the pastime of quite a number of people in the United Kingdom.

Well, it certainly was the occupation of these men who at that particular moment had got no idea at all that they were going to go through a career change. Jesus came along. The seashore of Galilee, he was born in that area.

He knew it. I've just been in the north of England. I know the Pennines.

Middle flanks of the Pennines, almost like the back of my hand because as a lad I've often climbed the Pennines, often gone many a mile with my brother walking. Well, it was similar with our Lord Jesus as he came down the seashore of Galilee. There he saw a group of men messing around in boats.

And in effect, what he had to say to them was this. You fellows who are spending your time on this worthy occupation of being fishermen, come and follow me. If it's difficult, if it's dangerous on the Sea of Galilee, following me will even be more hazardous.

If sometimes you feel a sense of relief and a sense of success because your catch, your evening's work has been so beneficial, you will get an even greater degree of satisfaction when you go across the seas of life and you troll for men and not just for fish. You know, there are some of you who might say and in one sense you would be quite correct that the Jews had a very low estimate of the sea. You don't find too many Jews becoming sailors.

Indeed, one of the reasons probably why in the book of Revelation, the comment is made of heaven, there shall be no sea there, is because symbolically the sea was something the Jews were afraid of. They tended to live on the land. But it's not completely the total picture to think of Hebrew people as having no nautical experience whatsoever.

Let me give you a little bit of a biblical overview. Here is old Jacob and it really is old. He's talking about his sons and where they will go and the part of land that will be theirs as they enter into the promised land and the land is split up, divided up for them and for their descendants.

And he says in the 49th chapter of the book of Genesis in the 13th verse that the tribe of Zebulun will be interested in ships. And Moses, towards the end of his life, on one occasion he's speaking to the Israelites and he says if you don't obey the commands that I'm giving you, then you will be sold into Egypt as slaves and you will go or run the risk of going down on the slave ships that go down the south from the land of or the seashore of the Mediterranean to the port of Alexandria. There was an occasion in Judges when the Israel country, the Hebrew nation was in great threat and a woman sounded the distress signal and asked all the able-bodied men to come and to rally to her bugle call and to go and smite the enemies of the Hebrews.

But the people of the tribe of Dan were told in Judges five and verse 17, they too were messing about in boats. Job, well, when you read his story, you find that time and time again, as like myself, he's so taken up with the thought of the waves and the wind and the great forces of nature that they compel Job to believe that behind our world, there is a great God of tremendous power. Solomon, he was a king who actually caused a navy to be birthed and Jehoshaphat, he tried to do the same as Solomon but got into a mess and he lost all the Israeli fleet.

When you go into the book of Ezekiel, you find that sometimes the idea of a ship capsizing is used of a nation falling apart at the seams and the prediction is made that Tyre and Sidon, great cities represent great people in those days would come to nothing. And of course, when you move into the Gospels as has been demonstrated, there you find our Lord Jesus with the disciples and sometimes the greatest miracles that Jesus performs are actually in the course of him getting on board a boat. Remember how he stays the storm by speaking to the wind and the wind stops and as a result, the waves go down? One of the nature miracles.

Then you can recall the disciples as they're absolutely flabbergasted as in the middle of the night, walking towards them is none other than Jesus. How would you react if somebody was walking on the water from the end of the pier across to what used to be the swimming pool? Bad day in Worthing when they closed the open air swimming pool. Not actually swimming but walking on the water, you too would be very surprised.

And when you move into the Acts of the Apostles, you find that Paul, he has no option but to go by ship and occasionally, he's in difficulty. Three times he says when he's writing to the Corinthians, three times he was shipwrecked. And Paul thinks but how much more tragic would it be if at the end of being a minister, I'm a shipwreck, I'm a castaway.

So appalling is that thought for Paul that he dashes off a letter to Timothy, a young man, he says watch it, how you behave yourself. And watch it as far as other Christian people are concerned and always be warning them for what? Always be warning them to live a life of faith that honors the Lord Jesus Christ. When you move into the book of Revelation, as I've touched on in the book of Ezekiel, so many times or several times you find the idea of the sea and the ship and the capsizing of many ships as being a prediction of the collapse of the world economy just before our Lord returns.

See how the biblical overview justifies this address this evening. Weathering the storm of life, well that's what you and I are called to do and in life there are difficulties but in life we can always know the presence of our God. So let me give you, if you like, a New Testament way of expressing those Old Testament verses that were read to you earlier.

Here's the Old Testament again of Psalm 107, verse 23 and 24. Others went out on the sea in ships. They were merchants on the mighty waters.

They saw the works of the Lord, his wonderful deeds in the deep. Now let's take that statement and put it into the New Testament and write it in connection with the disciples. In fact, let's imagine that this statement is directed to us.

Let's just make it contemporary. This is not abusing the word of God. This is applying the word of God.

So how might Peter and James and Andrew and John, how might they be affected by this Old Testament prediction that they have to weigh up anchor and walk out onto the seas or go out onto the sea of life in ships? A handful of chosen men is my New Testament rendering of the Old Testament principle. A handful of chosen men went out on the sea in ships. They wished to be soul merchants.

They witnessed God at work, saw him subdue and control forces that threatened them. What do you have to do to be a Christian? You have to weigh anchor. You have to get on board.

You have to set sail. This is what Peter does, you see. Jesus says, come and follow me, and Peter follows the Lord Jesus.

He said that to you, didn't he? Or if you've never heard him, listen now, because our Lord is looking for sailors to come into the boat of salvation to go across the seas of life, and he's urging you. He's urging me. And as the disciples went on aboard, so you and I are to go aboard.

You see, there's nothing else in terms of an option to make sense of life. You know that God is. You really do.

The sea and sailors, they're not the stuff that atheists are made of. They that go down to the sea in ships, they know. You listen to the howling waves, to the howling wind.

You see those great waves. You know that behind Mother Earth, there is a great power who is to be recognized, and one might hold him indeed in awe. Have you ever gone down to the beach on a stormy day? My brother and I would often go to Scarborough when we were lads, and there's the Marine Walk in Scarborough.

It's just by a headland that juts out like a promontory into the sea, and we used to love it when the weather was bad, and we would goad one another to stand by the railings as late as one possibly could before the next wave came down, and when it hit the wall, the spray went up yards, and if you were quick, you got away dry shot. If you were slow, you got another baptism and another baptism, but it's the force of nature. It's the wonder behind creation that compels the mariner to appreciate that out there, there is a force, there is a power, and when Jesus came to the seashore of Galilee, and he sees these men on that particular day, he says, look, the shipping that you've been engaged in, the fishing that's been your occupation, hazardous and honorable though it be, here is something even more wonderful.

I am the master of this world. I am the captain of salvation. Come aboard my vessel.

Follow me. And they went, and not only did they go, but they worked hard. That's what the verse from the Old Testament says.

They were merchants on the mighty waters. These men who went aboard the ships, they went to work. They went eventually to engage in trade, and here are the disciples who follow our Lord Jesus.

They went along into the ship with him, and they went to work. Oh yes, they did. There was not one tinge of idleness amongst those early disciples.

See them as they go here, there, and everywhere, sailing in the good ship of the gospel, bringing the message of good news to people throughout the whole of the Roman world. They worked. And what a choice this thing is to do today is to work for Jesus Christ as a sailor in a ship on which he is the captain.

They went, they worked, and they wondered. Here's wonderful deeds in the deep they saw. They witnessed God at work, saw him subdue and control forces that threatened them to be a co-worker with God, to see the blind healed, to see the leper have his emaciated body restored.

This was the privilege of the early disciples, and they continue to witness the work and the wonder of God as they moved out into the Roman world and told men and women of the good news of the gospel of Christ. But they could have achieved nothing unless they had weighed anchor, unless they'd stepped on board, unless they had said to the Lord Jesus Christ, yes, we're going to follow you, and it's to follow him that I invite you this evening. To say, yes, I appreciate what the pastor is getting at.

I can see in the Old Testament and in the New Testament that this metaphor of being a sailor and moving out into life with the Lord Jesus as my controller is a valid one, and I want him to be the one who will direct me. I want him to be the one who will be the captain of my salvation and direct the course of my life so that eventually it takes me home. Jesus, we can lose the overheads now, Jesus did not promise an easy life to the sailors who followed him yesteryear, and I would be twisting the gospel if I was to suggest to you that things will be easy from that moment on.

As Anne has said, there are difficulties, there are storms that we have to weather, but the most wonderful thing, the only thing that makes sense of life is to commit yourself to the Lord Jesus, to go with him into the boat, to work alongside him, and to see how he can use you in the extension of his kingdom. How do you become a Christian? By saying to Jesus Christ, I can't cope on my own, but I believe that your life and your death and your resurrection make it possible for my sins to be forgiven. I wanna be like Peter, I wanna be like Paul, I wanna follow you all the days of my life, weathering the storms, knowing that you are in control until the moment comes when I gasp out my final breath and I'm taken from this world into the next.

Have you got that sort of attitude? Have you got that sort of framework in which you're living your life? If not, it's meaningless, but my good friends, as the Bible so clearly indicates, it is possible for you to become a sailor alongside Jesus Christ, to weigh anchor and to start to weather the storms of being a disciple for him in these days. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Will your anchor hold in the straits of fear when the breakers roar and the reef is near while the surges rage and the wild winds blow? Shall the angry waves then your barco flow? We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll.

Fastened to the rock, which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love. 770 will stand and sing from verse two. The Lord.

♪ Praise our Lord, our Savior Lord ♪ ♪ Praise our Lord, our Savior Lord ♪ I was talking to a little Roman Catholic choir boy yesterday, the men of a service. We started to sing what we're gonna sing now. He'd never sung it before.

As far as I know, it had never been sung before in that Roman Catholic church. But some of the people sang it with great sincerity. Speaks of the God of creation, stepping into this world through Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus dying for us.

Speaks of the awesomeness to which reference was made in a semi-humorous fashion before, but an awesomeness which should be our response to the grandeur of God, not only in the world that he has created, but in the way in which he's sent his Son to die for you and for me. 506, O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the works thy hand hath made. Amen.

♪ I see the stars, the hill of mighty thunder ♪ ♪ These lights of hope, my journey's not in vain ♪ ♪ It's sweetly in the trees, where I will jump ♪ ♪ A walking mountain friend, and in the woods ♪ and build a castle free. And sing, my throne, my cradle of dream. How great Thou art! And sing, my throne, my cradle of dream.

How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And sing, my throne, my cradle of dream. And sing, my throne, my cradle of dream. And sing, my throne, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And sing, my throne, my cradle of dream.

How great Thou art! And sing, my throne, my cradle of dream. Well, the Catholic church to which I made reference yesterday, where I happened to be the first time I've ever spoken at a Catholic church, was near Liverpool, a place called Chorley, and the priest with whom I shared the service offered me a stocking collar before I started. And I didn't take off his offer, because I thought that one of the people from the tab would take a picture and that would go all the way round.

But it was wonderful to hear people from the Catholic church out there singing something of the praises of God. In fact, all the hymns and songs were ones that we knew here. Little altar boy who I was with, he'd never sung those songs before, so I was explaining them to him behind the pulpit, or rather behind the altar, and then we sang them together.

It was the marriage of Anthony Adduhini and his wife Michelle. Many of you will remember Anthony. One of the most moving services I've been to, and certainly one of the most moving receptions, when Anthony gave testimony to the very difficult course that he'd had in life, and how the church fellowship here, and other groups that he'd associated with as a student, were a great blessing to him.

I don't recall a reception when so many people were in tears, literally, as we heard him make reference to his dependence on others who had become for him part of his family, because Anthony was more or less dumped here in England by his mum, who was in difficult circumstances, who came from Nigeria, and he was brought up here. I thought many of you who remember Anthony would like to know that. Let's just pray again.

Let's pray for one another, right now. Pray for your family, for your home, the struggles in your life. Thank God for blessings, for all his mercies to you, undeserved, rich, beyond description, his love.

Let's continue to pray for those who are sick. Especially we want to bring Gary, Goodall, and Chrissy once more to the Lord. Stephen Alfred out there in Bombay, who has come through such a rollercoaster these last few days, hear us for him.

Hear us for others who are sick. Hear us for these families. We thank you for them, the front of the Church.

Hear us for Anthony and Michelle. Be with them and bless their marriage. Hear us for this Church.

And hear us for this youth service in a little while. And hear us as we commit this coming week to you. In the name of Jesus, our beloved Lord.

Amen. Let's stand and sing Praise God from whom. Praise God! God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise him, O preacher, dearly known. Praise him above, dear heavenly host. Praise the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Thank you for joining us this evening. We're serving tea and coffee in the lounge at the back. If you'd like to stay, we'd be glad to have your fellowship.

You can be here on Wednesday evening to hear David Alton. And again, we'd be glad to have your company. Very remarkable man.

We're glad to have him here at the tab. And then during Holy Week, this coming week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday here, we have special services at 10.30 in the morning, to which you're invited. Thanks for coming this evening.

Good night and God bless you.