Build Your Boat

Build the boat of your life. Your boat must be built on a solid rock, a foundation that will be your protector, home, guidance, etc. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Hello. My name is Mark Marquez. And this is Dive into Scripture. A weekly devotional teaching life lessons through the eyes of a disabled veteran with the Word of God. This week's devotional will be titled Build Your Boat. Let us pray before we start. Lord Jesus, I pray that you help me with this today. I pray, Lord, that I can say what's on my heart as I desire for my heart to seek after you. I need help to get across what you have for me to say here. I can put words on paper all I want, but I desire for those words to be your will, for them to honor your name and your gospel. Help me to share your heart with people. I pray I can be a picture of you, Lord. I ask that you help us all to be whom you wish us to be. In your name, Jesus, I pray. Amen. Build your boat? What do I mean to build my boat? Well we know what a boat is, it floats in water and is used to transport people across the waters. We also know that Jesus spoke in parables. So this boat is a hypothetical boat. If you're stranded in a large body of water, what would come to save you? A boat, correct? Or if you're on a cruise ship and it starts to go down, a life raft, a KA, a boat. There are houseboats. People use boats as a way of life, like fishermen or even cruise ship companies. So for this devotional, the boat is a lifesaver. A boat is a way of life and something that protects us and guides us to safety. A boat is something we use as a home, as a safeguard. The boat is what we use to measure who we are. It is our measuring stick. But more so our lives. After all, we're just a corruptible vessel holding our souls. When we die, our souls or us, we go to heaven or hell for eternity. So not just our bodies, but our lives are our hypothetical boats. If you were here last week, you might get the hint this is a postlude or epilogue. Yes, this week and last week go hand in hand. Basically, the first several months of this devotional will be all about doctrine and theology. I want to give my listeners a good foundation of faith. Maybe they have that already, maybe they don't. However, it will be good to listen to these. Plus, it will let you know where I stand in my beliefs in Jesus Christ and the Bible. I won't listen to someone that believes completely different than I do when it comes to God's word. I wouldn't expect you to either. Maybe you're just starting out in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ. Maybe you just have questions, or enjoy hearing another Christian's perspective. Either way, I'm here in attempt to be a good blessing and a help to people. Our lifeboat should be built to last, to hold water, to make it to the end. It must be built to withstand the winds and the rain and go all the way. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what hat is become of him. Exodus thirty two one and verse nineteen says, And it came to pass as soon as he came nigh into the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands and broke them beneath the mount. Do you think this boat is going to hold water? They made their boats out of man made spectacles. Their boats had holes and won't hold anything. Make believe gods that don't exist and had no power. Our boats must be designed from and made from a solid rock, from something that will last and has power to save, the power to be our home, the power to protect. False gods with no power can't do that. I know one God, three and one, Jehovah, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, the real God, the living God. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock, and the rain descendeth, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon the house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock, and every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon the house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. Matthew seven twenty four twenty seven. Do you want your boat to sink? Do you want your boat to break away and fall apart? Make sure your boat can withstand the winds of time and temptations of life. Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves, for if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass, for he beholdeth itself and goeth his way, and straightway forgetth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, he be not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This man shall be blessed in his deed James one twenty two twenty six. So who is Jesus, God the Son, God incarnate, came down from heaven to be born man? Who is he? Matthew sixteen, fifteen and sixteen says, He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And summoned Peter answered, and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. What will you do that God said to live for him and prepare for the future? How will you follow against the world's way? Don't just read the word, but do the word. Christ's commands are simple, yet hard. That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of man and cunning craftness, whereby thy lie in wait to deceive Ephesians four fourteen. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like the wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways James one six. Doing things by faith can be messy. People will dislike you or even hate you. They will persecute you and harass you. In December of twenty twenty five, Ada Najaflo, an Iranian woman, was sentenced to seventeen years in prison for converting to Christianity. They will talk badly about you. Don't let it bother you. Don't listen and don't change for them. Don't fit into the world. The world lies, steals, cheats, kills, fornicates, deceives, etc. As a follower of Jesus Christ, we are not to fit in and be like them. Romans twelve two says And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove that it is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Second Corinthians six seventeen says, Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. We are to be in the world, but not part of the world. We are to be separated for God. Yes, it is difficult, but it is worth it to follow Jesus. John fourteen six says Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Acts four twelve says, Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under the heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Jesus is the only way to heaven. Don't wait to believe in and have faith in him. But you must follow also. Don't wait. When it's too late, it's too late. You can die and wake up in judgment, but by then it's too late. We can share the love of Jesus by speaking the truth about heaven and hell. We can preach the gospel, but you must accept or it means nothing in your life. Noah built the ark and preached that God was going to punish the world and rain was coming. He preached for many years, and no one listened. No one believed him. After all, no one had ever seen rain in the existence of the world before the flood. Noah didn't even know what it was, but he believed and obeyed. Well eventually, Noah finished the Ark. The animals came, God shut the door, then the rain came and everyone believed it. But by then it was too late. Don't wait. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. Today is not guaranteed. This could be your last minute of life. This could be my last minute of life. If you wait until it's too late, at that point in judgment, Christ will speak the scariest verse of all. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not. Whencefore you are, depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. Luke thirteen twenty seven. Don't just go through the motions of Christianity. Go ahead and get saved and have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Learn Scripture and have faith in his words. Remember, the devil knew Jesus, but will spend eternity in hell. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. In order to live in Christ and Christ in you, you must live in the Spirit. Once you get saved, you receive the Holy Spirit. However, you can live without the Holy Spirit by living in your own understanding and power. The more you fill your heart and soul with self and worldly junk, the more you suppress the Holy Spirit. You need the help from this comforter to live a proper Christian life. Don't ask for more Holy Spirit if you feel far from Christ. Just pray for less of you. After all, our cup can only hold so much. When you fill it with junk, there's no room for him. Let Jesus be your boat. He is our protector, our savior, our home. He is our guidance and direction, the light of our life. Anyone who knows me knows I love quoting movies. They don't always have to be Christian movies. A clean movie is still good. Some may have a part or two we must avoid or realize it's not good, but movies in general, if family friendly, are not too bad. Anyway, there I go rambling. In The Guardian with Ashton Kutcher, which is about the United States Coast Guard, it says He's a Fisher of Men, the last hope for all those who have been left behind. He is known as the Guardian. Ben Randall always said life is about making choices. In the end, by making his, he helped me make mine. This was Airman Jake Fisher speaking of the legend of Senior Chief Petty Officer Ben Randall after he died at sea. But this application is the same. Jesus came to serve, he came as a fisher of men, as the last hope for the sinner. He came to be our guardian to save us. To him, life is about choices. When we were made back in Genesis one, roughly around six thousand years ago, we were given free will, the power to choose. Life is about choices, but we are not free from consequences. If you choose Jesus, you'll one day spend eternity with him in heaven. If not, you'll spend eternity in hell. Hell may not be a popular topic, but I won't shy away. With love, I will warn you all about the reality, that it will be home to many one day. So I ask again what he said in Matthew sixteen, but whom say ye that I am? Who is Jesus to you? I pray you can say Lord and Savior, your friend, your confidant, your protector and guardian, etc. If not, you can take care of that today. If you want more assurance, keep listening. And the end credits of my devotionals goes over the Roman Road, which is the biblical way to get saved. So listen, believe, pray, and follow in obedience. Remember, I am Martin Monquis and this is Dive into Scripture. The Romans Road can guide you in helping someone choose salvation. Romans three twenty three for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans six twenty three for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans five eight but God commendeth his love toward us, that in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans ten nine and ten that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans ten thirteen, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Amen.