Anchored | Bend, Don't Break | September 6 2026

For the last couple weeks, we've been talking about this idea: bend, don't break.

One of my friends here at the church often says, uh, blessed are the flexible, uh, for they will not break.

It's it's uh it's it's an acknowledgement that life comes at us in ways that help us bend.

And sometimes, if we don't manage the bending, the problem with the tension of bending over time is that you might find yourself breaking.

So the idea is, hey, like let's do some things.

Yeah, bending is normal, breaking is not normal.

Breaking is not good.

That's not the kind of lives that we want to live.

So, in spite of the fact that life puts pressure on us, there are some things that we can learn to do that will relieve the pressure.

In week one, we talked about rest and the need to not just want to rest, but to actually plan your rest, to actually put times in the calendar.

And we talked about this idea that the scriptures talk about and have from their very outset, the Sabbath, a day of rest, you know, where we can actually focus on the things that matter most and recharge our batteries to be ready for what life is gonna throw at us.

But we acknowledged last week that just having a time isn't really enough.

You need to actually pay attention while you're in the midst of that time, right?

Because I don't know if you've ever been in a conversation with somebody before where uh they're present, but they're not present.

Right?

They're in the room with you, but their attention is on their phone.

I never do that to my family, ever.

We all do that to someone, right?

And so what we need to do when we set aside times for rest is to make sure that we actually pay attention to the things that will restore us, not pay attention to things that will just create more anxiety in us, right?

So we need to plan our rest and protect our attention.

Those are those are choices, those are things that we can decide to do, practices that we can put in place, things that we have at least some measure of control over.

But you don't have to live very long to realize that there is a whole bunch of life that you don't have any control over.

Right?

You can make all the wise choices, build all the healthy rhythms, protect your time, protect your marriage, parent your kids well, save money, exercise, pray, and follow Jesus.

And something can still happen that you never saw coming.

Some things bend us because of how we have arranged our lives, but other things bend us simply because they happened to us.

If I'm honest, I have to acknowledge that sometimes there isn't a habit you need to fix.

There isn't a boundary you can put in place, there isn't a Sabbath you can take that will make that disappear.

And the question that I want to ask this morning is what do we do then?

Right?

Because we what we're all carrying, we're all carrying a picture of how life is supposed to play out.

You may not have actually sat and written it down.

I mean, some of you are goal setters and you've done this, you know, you've sat down at the beginning of the year and you've set all your goals for the year and all that kind of stuff.

That's brilliant.

Uh but but even if you're not that kind of person, my hunch is that you you have an idea of how this is all supposed to play out, right?

You have plans to finish school, build a career, meet somebody, have kids, stay healthy, maybe retire, and enjoy your grandkids.

Maybe the details differ, but we all have some version of that plan, don't we?

And then and then life happens.

Right?

Somewhere on your perfectly linear chart, life hits you.

And your graph line starts looking like this.

Because the job disappears, the marriage changes, someone gets sick, somebody passes away, your kid makes a decision that you cannot control, someone you trust hurts you, the phone rings, the doctor has news, and that perfect line doesn't happen.

And you can sit there thinking to yourself, this is not my plan.

And this is where the title of the series gets complicated.

Right?

Bend, don't break sounds like a great refrain of resilience.

Hang in there.

Just keep going.

But sometimes what breaks you isn't up to you.

Sometimes something happens, and we're just not okay.

You don't just bounce back on the Tuesday after the long weekend.

Your faith is shaken.

You're angry with God, you're frustrated with life, you're scared.

And sometimes, sometimes when it comes to faith, we're just not even sure what we believe anymore.

And the hard part is, I would like, I wish I had better news.

But Christianity does not promise that following Jesus will make you unbreakable.

Jesus never promised that.

The question then isn't only how do I keep from breaking?

The question I think we need to ask ourselves is what's holding me together when life breaks me.

We use the word hope pretty casually, I think.

Right?

Like, I hope the weather is good today.

I was just talking to somebody out in the foyer.

I'm like, our family's gonna go do something outdoors today because the sun is out.

This is the only kind of weather uh prediction that I rely on.

The kind where I walk out my door in the morning and go, oh, it's sunny.

I'll plan to do something that requires a sunny day, because tomorrow, being lower mainlanders, is not guaranteed to be sunny.

I hope it is, but it's not guaranteed.

Right?

I often uh say to myself on Wednesdays and Saturdays, especially, I hope the leaves win.

That's what you call a fool's hope, by the way.

But I keep doing it.

I hope this works out.

And usually what we mean is, I want this outcome.

Right?

But Jesus and faith in Jesus calls us to a hope that's deeper than wishing for a certain outcome.

Right?

Christian hope, if we can use that term, is a confidence about the future.

And confidence is always attached to something.

Now, the question is when we say, I hope this happens, what are you attaching your confidence to?

Right?

You know, attaching your confidence to the Toronto Maple Leafs is not a wise decision.

Okay?

I'll keep doing it.

But it's not a wise decision, thank you.

Neither is attaching your hope to the Canucks, by the way.

Right?

Sometimes we ask our money to be our confidence, right?

The thing that we attach ourselves to, our career, our marriage, our health, our kids, retirement, our own ability or resiliency, even our faithfulness, right?

Sometimes we're attaching ourselves to those things to tell us that the future will be okay.

And as is usually the case, none of those things are actually bad, but none of those things are super reliable either.

And they certainly aren't strong enough to carry the full weight of your hope.

So when life is good, it's easy to say, my hope is in Jesus.

Then something threatens us, and we discover how much of our hope was actually attached to that thing that's threatened rather than to Jesus.

Difficulty, difficulty has a way of revealing what you have anchored yourself to.

And so the question that I want us to explore for the rest of the message is what is it that we've set our hope on?

In John chapter 14 through 16, there's a long conversation recorded between Jesus and his friends.

John 14 · chapter mention

As Jesus prepares to go to the cross, right?

This is where uh we have the story of the Last Supper.

Um, Jesus washing his disciples' feet.

Uh we talked about a few weeks ago the platinum rule, you know, which by the way is just something that's like captured my attention so much.

I think it, I think it's such a beautiful explanation of what we're trying to do.

You know, like what is the point of doing all this?

Well, we're supposed to learn to love like Jesus.

It's really that simple, really that profound.

And that's what Jesus called his followers to in that long conversation, right?

Remember, we talked about how Jesus reset the standard.

Once upon a time it was love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

And so the old way was to make how we feel about ourselves the standard of love.

And Jesus comes and says, No, no, no.

Love one another as I have loved you.

And he changed the standard in a moment.

So this is all that, John 14 through 16.

And in the midst of it, Jesus makes what I think is one of the worst sales pitches of all time.

Listen to what he says.

I've told you all these things, all these things that I'm revealing to you, so that in me you may have peace.

Because in this world you will have trouble.

Jesus, uh hang on.

I thought that if I follow you, you will take care of my trouble.

Right?

But Jesus says, nope, guess what?

Follow me, and in this life you will have trouble.

It's a terrible sales pitch, right?

It's one of the worst of all time.

Maybe, anyway, there's other ones we could talk about, but let's just stay here, okay?

I'll let my ADHD brain stay right in the middle.

Right?

There is, however, if you think about it, something reassuring about the amount of honesty that Jesus is giving us in that moment.

Right?

Because he's not selling us a fantasy life.

If Jesus said here in John 16 that, follow me and you will have no trouble, and you left here and got in a car accident, that would bring what Jesus said into sharp contrast, wouldn't it?

So he's being honest.

He doesn't promise our kids will turn out exactly the way that we hoped, or our marriages will always be what we wanted them to be the day that we got married.

Right?

He didn't promise that we'll remain healthy or that God will shield us from tragedy.

What he said was, in this world you will have trouble.

And the problem is that some people have been handed that version of Christianity that promises that everything will be okay if you just follow Jesus.

Right?

Maybe you've heard this before.

Maybe the growing sense that you're supposed to have as a person who's following Jesus is that everything will just turn out okay.

Following Jesus doesn't promise that.

Right?

The problem with those promises is that eventually everybody realizes that they're not true.

And then we wonder where God went, or we start asking questions like maybe I just didn't have enough faith.

Can I tell you something, friends?

Trouble is not evidence that God has abandoned you.

Trouble is not evidence that God has abandoned you.

Jesus told us trouble would come, but then he says something extraordinary.

In this world you will have trouble, but take heart.

I have overcome the world.

Why take heart if trouble is real?

Notice what Jesus says.

Notice what he doesn't say.

You will not overcome everything.

That isn't what he said.

Right?

Like he didn't say, but take heart, I'm going to show you how to overcome everything.

He said, I have overcome.

And that, friends, is where Christian hope begins.

Bend, don't break, could accidentally sound like become tougher, build better habits, learn to withstand more, all things that actually I would advise you to do.

Because those things will help to a certain degree, but not ultimately.

See, see, Christianity is not ultimately a strategy for becoming unbreakable.

The center of Christian hope is not our, your resilience.

It's Jesus.

Jesus does not say, believe in yourself.

Or what he says is take heart because of what he has done.

And he says, I have overcome the world before he went to the cross.

Before the resurrection.

And what's interesting about that is because if you read the rest of the story, everything goes wrong.

Jesus does not seem like an overcoming guy in the next chapter or two of John.

Right?

This is where he gets arrested, taken to Pilate, beaten, and murdered.

And his followers, maybe smartly, based on all the information they have, or all the experience they have anyway, they scatter.

And the movement of Jesus appears to be finished.

But if you keep reading, the story gets better.

Jesus died, but didn't stay dead.

And I just want to be really clear.

That's not a metaphor.

That's the claim that Christianity is built on.

Christianity is not built on anything else.

It's built on that one claim.

That Jesus died and rose again.

And if that's true, then maybe everything else he said was true.

The resurrection tells us that death itself does not get the last word in the human story.

And if death doesn't get the final word, neither does anything else, short of death.

Christian hope is not the claim that everything is okay.

Some things are not okay.

Cancer is not okay.

Death is not okay.

Betrayal, abuse, and loss are not okay.

We don't need to rename terrible things in order to be people of faith.

We believe terrible things don't get to write the last chapter in our story.

And that's different from saying that everything will work out in the end.

Or everything will work out the way I want.

It probably won't, unfortunately.

There may be things in your life that you would still wish for Jesus to change if he worked like a cosmic genie.

He doesn't, by the way.

You can't rub the lamp.

Get your wishes.

Right?

It's unfortunate that you can't just get things that you don't understand answered right away.

But it's important to know that the hope that we have isn't that everything that happens is somehow good.

Our hope is that nothing short of good gets the final word.

And I'm really glad for that.

Because there are things in my life that have felt insurmountable in terms of grief and loss.

We had and and and lost a son.

And those moments are terrible.

Absolutely terrible.

A couple of years ago, I there was a time when I'm like, am I do I am I gonna lose my wife?

She had this anemia that was overtaking her body and she was weak and it was it was awful.

I know that we all in our life will experience similar things.

And I want you to know that I wish those things hadn't happened.

I really do.

And and and my faith in Jesus has not made me understand how this world is broken.

Not not at a not at a gut level, not at a feeling level.

But that that claim that Jesus has overcome death, that gives me confidence.

That that none of those things that have happened to me, and none of the things that have happened to you can write the final chapter of your story.

None of those things, even though they can impose themselves on you, can impose themselves on the end of your story.

And if you want to zoom in for a quick second, you know, Peter, the rock who Jesus was gonna build his church on, is a is a great microcosm for how this works, right?

Because when Jesus is arrested, whatever boldness Peter had.

You know, in the garden, in the moment that Jesus is getting arrested, he pulls out his sword, lops off one of the high priest servants' ears.

Like he's a he's a man of action.

Right?

And then Jesus is like, Peter, put your sword away.

Because we're not going to do it that way.

And Jesus is carted off.

And Peter is standing out on the fringes watching everything happen.

And to the best of our knowledge, we think a young girl recognizes Peter and says, you were with Jesus.

And this man of action, sword at his side, is petrified by the inquiry of a little girl.

No, I never knew him.

Three times, he denies Jesus.

That had to be the lowest point of Peter's life.

And what we often forget when we think about things like, you know, retelling that story and celebrating it at Easter time, we come to Good Friday services, and uh, and and and and they're you know usually appropriately somber.

They're a moment for us to reflect on the solemnness of that day for the people who experienced it.

But as much as we try to conjure those emotions, none of us can ever be where Peter was.

Because all of us have heard how the story ends, right?

It's like you're trying to read the book for the first time, but you flip to the last chapter and you know what's gonna happen before you get there.

Some of the illusion is gone.

So on Good Friday, we we come.

We come and and we know that Sunday is coming.

In fact, usually by the end of the Good Friday service, we kind of let you off the hook and celebrate a little bit that Sunday's on its way.

Peter did not have that option.

Peter's Good Friday was probably his worst Friday.

Because he did not know what was going to happen next.

And in that moment, Peter, who had given his entire life to Jesus, has his world shattered, denies even knowing him.

And then Jesus dies and is buried.

And Peter isn't standing outside the tomb thinking, just wait two days.

Two days from now, we're gonna have such a great church service.

It's gonna be amazing.

Come back.

It'll be so full of life.

That isn't how Peter lived those moments.

Peter went and hid somewhere where he couldn't be found because he feared for his actual life.

Peter thinks it's all over.

And then Peter sees Jesus alive.

Jesus eventually shows himself to Peter, calls him out of his fishing boat, and has breakfast with him on the beach.

Imagine having breakfast with a dead man.

Imagine what that does for your understanding of hope.

So if you contrast Peter, Good Friday Peter, with Peter, who wrote some of his thoughts about Jesus in letters for us to read later on, imagine the transformation in this one human being's life.

When he wrote, Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

Just try to fathom the amount of change that happened in Peter between Good Friday and the day he sat down and wrote those words.

Because Peter's not writing a motivational poster.

Right?

Peter is not writing something for us to be motivated by.

What he is doing is writing what he has found in his life.

He's saying, I've lived through the moment when all seemed lost.

And in that moment, I discovered that Jesus is more than I could ever have hoped for.

Think about what an anchor actually does.

Right?

Anchors don't stop shifts from moving in storms.

Right?

The wind still blows.

The waves still hit the ship.

The boat still rocks.

Right?

It doesn't make you feel as though you are standing on dry land with nothing to worry about.

The anchor doesn't stop the storm.

It keeps the storm from deciding where you'll end up.

That is Christian hope.

It's not pretending that everything's okay.

Hope is knowing what you're attached to, who you're attached to.

And that the anchor is big enough to hold you steady.

I watched this amazing video just a couple of weeks ago of them uh building an anchor for an aircraft carrier.

I'm not even going to tell you the dimensions because they're almost unfathomable.

Like, how do we actually link chains together that weigh tons, tons, multiple of them, hundreds of them.

To allow an anchor big enough to hold a ship that's a glorified highway with planes and all the crew and everything else, it's unbelievable.

And the picture that I want you to have is that Jesus is more secure than that for you.

He has more than enough capacity to make sure you don't drift away.

That whole list of things that we keep looking at marriage, money, kids, health, your plans, your success, or your ability to control the outcome.

What is it that you've put your hope in?

That can be uh a wonderful gift, but a terrible anchor.

Because everything temporary eventually changes.

But God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Jesus says, I have overcome the world.

So if I was to put these three weeks together as I invite our musicians to come back, here's what I would say.

Week one, plan your rest.

Week two, protect your attention.

And week three, anchor your hope.

Sometimes you have rested, made wise choices, and protected what matters, and life is still gonna hit you with something that you can't control.

And my invitation for you this morning is not to try harder.

Not to pretend that you're okay, put on a happy face, and try to convince everyone that because I love Jesus, everything in my life is always fine.

I hate that version of Christianity.

Right?

Anchor your hope in Jesus because he is strong enough to hold you.

And I believe that he actually died, actually rose, and therefore is actually active in our lives.

Jesus promised this is not the end.

And your hope isn't going to change what happened, and it isn't going to change what will happen.

But hope will change what you believe happens next.

And some of us are bending right now.

Some of us feel pretty close to breaking.

Some of us already have.

The divorce doesn't have the final word.

The thing your kid did doesn't have the final word.

The thing somebody did to you doesn't have the final word.

And your worst day doesn't have the final word.

Because if death doesn't have the final word, none of those things do.

So friends.

Be angry.

Ask questions.

Admit that you're scared.

Talk to someone.

Tell somebody that you're not okay.

You do not need to pretend.

But in all of those things, I would encourage you, don't surrender yourself.

Anchor it to someone strong enough.

Anchor it to Jesus.

And look, if you're here this morning and you're not sure what you believe about Jesus.

Or maybe you're sure about what you believe in Jesus.

It's just not the same thing I believe about Jesus.

I want you to know that you're welcome here.

That it's okay for you to belong in this place long before you ever believe.

And many of us have legitimate reasons why we have been disappointed by faith and people love faith.

Oftentimes people have done things to you or to people you know, or things that you've observed that make it difficult to believe.

And I I wish I could offer you an explanation for all of it.

But I don't have that.

All I have is a legitimate invitation.

Give it another shot.

Not let those people have the last word.

It gives us a person.

One person.

Jesus.

He suffered, he died.

And then he rose.

We believe here that no matter how long you've been on the journey, of trying to follow Jesus.

If you're brand new and not sure and if you've been here for a long time, everybody has a next step to take.

None of us are done.

Maybe maybe your next step, especially for those of us who've been on the journey for a long time, is to stop pretending that you're certain about everything.

Maybe it's deciding.

That Jesus is strong enough.

It's really good for us.

Some of us need courage.

Whatever it is that we need today.

Provide it.

This is this is a broken world.

And it's going to have trouble.

Thank you.

Thank you for the life that you live.

Thank you for coming and dying.

Giving us hope in your resurrection.

Give us the courage to put our hope in you.

In Jesus' name I ask.

Amen.