Building on a Firm Foundation

Building on a Firm Foundation

Matthew 7: 21 - 29

Storms are a regular part of life.  Whether it’s the tornado that drops out of the thunderstorm and targets the random town, or the gunman who storms like a fury into the supermarket or school; storms happen.  We live in a broken, fallen world.  We should expect the storms that life brings.

Jesus talked about storms and houses falling down at the conclusion of one of His most challenging sermons.  It's found in our text from Matthew chapter 7.  We commonly call that sermon "The Sermon on the Mount," because Jesus went up on a high place to instruct the crowds in how to live in God's kingdom.  Jesus concludes that sermon with a warning and a parable.  In the parable, Jesus talks about building houses.  

As he was a carpenter by trade, I'm going to assume Jesus knew a lot about house building.  He knew how to select proper materials.  He knew about proper framing and finishing techniques.  But He also knew that the most important aspect of home building - more important even than the color of the carpeting or the number and size of the bathrooms - most important of all is the foundation.

Let's follow along as I read today's passage from Matthew 7:21 - 29, and pay attention to what Jesus is saying, because as I read this, I get the idea that He is talking about much more than the sticks and stones that compose most of our dwelling places.

Read text [ Matthew 7: 21 - 29 ]

1. Body

1. Everyone is building
1. Everyone of us is building a house.  
1. It's a lifetime job building a house of personality and character.  Everything we do, every word we speak, every thought goes into the structure and becomes part of the life we build.  
2. We may think our deeds, actions and experiences are scattered and unrelated but they are uniquely fitted, nailed, cemented together.
2. We are all building a life, and in the parable, Jesus said that some are building wisely and some foolishly. 
1. Foolishly wrecking our lives with intemperate habits that burn up our bodies and befuddle our minds with alcohol, narcotics and psychedelic drugs; foolishly living a life of moral uncleanness, allowing sexual passions to control and dominate your life, exposing yourself to the deadly ravages of a devastating disease; foolishly bringing unhappiness to those you love and a great burden of guilt upon yourself. 
2. The foolishness of a mixed-up mind that has lost touch with the harsh reality of life.
3. Hers was an unlikely tragedy. 
1. At 18, ready for the world, an honor student, she enlisted in the Army and took the mandatory AIDS test.  A week later she learned she was HIV positive.  Kaye Brown, in Newsweek, blames only herself and a sexually permissive life style.  "It makes me angry," she stated, "that I allowed this to happen.  Choices I made have stolen away the choices that I might have had in the future."
4. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;  for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.  But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.  (James 1:22-25)
5. Now everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts upon them will be like a sensible man, and everyone who listens to these words of mine and does not act upon them will be like a stupid man. (Matthew 7:24)
6. These words of Jesus are not just good advice. 
1. They are not a little lean-to you add on to the house if you want to and leave it off if you don't. 
2. These words are the laws on which the structure of life is built. This is first.   Every person is building his or her own house.
2. Everyone's building will be tested
1. All of us go through tough times.  Jesus said we should expect them and be ready for them.  The time to prepare for the trials of your faith is now, not when you're right in the middle of the trials.
2. There is nothing sadder in my work than dealing with a family at the time of a funeral when they suddenly realize they have no foundation of faith to carry them through the difficult time of the death of a loved one. They may know “about” Jesus but do not know and trust Jesus, nor does Jesus know them. Foundations that needed to be laid years before are not there when they are needed. And so we try to salvage what hope we can, and throw ourselves upon the mercy of God.
3. Talking with someone recently about the health issues that I am going through.
1. They said, “At least you have faith.  I don’t know how I’d get through it.”
2. They said, “I was hoping that you had enough faith for the both of us.”
3. They said, “Surely, you’ve done enough good things for the both of us.”
4. They were trusting their eternity to shadows and sand.
4. Look at the similarities between these individuals Jesus calls foolish and wise.
1. They both were building
2. They both built fine looking homes
3. They both went through the storms and floods
4. Only one's home stood the test.
5. One author writes about traveling during a hurricane.
1. Returning from Trinidad, we flew into Miami on August 23. The airport had an alarming air of panic. We were informed the airport was to close at six because of Hurricane Andrew and we needed to make arrangements for housing in the event our flight did not leave before closing. Fortunately, our flight was the next to last flight leaving the airport before closing. As we waited in the lounge for the flight departure on the television, announcers were warning people of the coming storm and the precautions they needed to take.
2. However, the cameras showed people who were having hurricane parties, drinking and minimizing the danger. They were predicting the storm would not hit us.
3. That storm missed some. Well, this storm of life, of which Jesus speaks, will miss none. Every house, no exceptions—no life will be immune from the storm. This is something that cannot be said too often because many believe, as in Jesus' day, the storm breaks only on the unrighteous.
4. "Not so," said Jesus. Look at that storm coming up. See the thunderclouds shaping the shadowed scowl of the skies, hear the rumbling roar of the thunder, see the flashing intimidation of the lightening. The storm beats on every house. It beats on the house built on the sand. It beats on the house built upon the rock. The same storm that beats on one house beats also on the other. Every house gets tested by the storm. The passage is dramatically clear in its warning, but also in its assurance.
3. The Difference is in the Foundation
1. The difference between standing and falling is not in the houses, not in the storm, but in the foundation.  Jesus presents two different foundations, two classes of people who have been blessed with an understanding of divine truth.  One group not only hears his sayings, but also does them, and another class hears, but does them not.
2. There is a storm coming which will test our life-house to the utmost.  We need to watch with the greatest care how we build.  We should dig deep and lay our foundation sure, making sure that our foundation is solid rock, Jesus being that rock. 
3. For while it is true, this passage carries an admonition about building on sand. The greater truth is, it conveys an assurance about building on the rock.
4. Yes, the Master tells us the storm is coming, and He gives us the storm warning of a Divine Doppler. But more than that, He gives us storm assurance.
5. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. (Matthew 7:25)
6. The State of Florida said it was ready for winds of 130 MPH, but panic set in when winds reached 160 MPH.  Now some say winds reached gusts of 200 MPH.  We have divine assurance whatever the life-storm category, 5 or 10.  No matter how swiftly, suddenly, unexpectedly it comes up, we have his assurance that if we will build on the rock— if we will hear His words, if we will do them— the life house will not fall.  Building on the rock does not prevent the storm.  The rains fell, the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house.  Building on the rock does not prevent the storm.  It prepares for it.
7. Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built on the rock—and it did not fall.
8. Leroy Eims, in his book The Lost Art of Disciple Making, tells the story of an experience in a restaurant one morning.
9. He says, "One spring our family was driving from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa, Florida.  As far as the eye could see, orange trees were loaded with fruit.  When we stopped for breakfast, I ordered orange juice with my eggs.  ’I’m sorry,’ the waitress said.  ’I can’t bring you orange juice.  Our machine is broken.’  At first I was dumbfounded.  We were surrounded by millions of oranges, and I knew they had oranges in the kitchen -  orange slices garnished our plates.  What was the problem?  No juice?  Hardly.  We were surrounded by thousands of gallons of juice.  The problem was they had become dependent on a machine to get it."
10. Then he writes: "Christians are sometimes like that.  They may be surrounded by Bibles in their homes, but if something should happen to the Sunday morning preaching service, they would have no nourishment for their souls.  The problem is not a lack of spiritual food - but that many Christians haven’t grown enough to know how to get it for themselves."
11. Where are you at this morning?  Are you surrounded by all the fruit of God's bounty and yet depending on this hour once a week to serve as your spiritual food?  How can you build your life upon that weak foundation?
1. Conclusion
1. In late 2001, the “Leaning Tower of Pisa” was reopened to the public, after having been closed for almost a dozen years.  During that time, engineers completed a 25 million dollar renovation project designed to stabilize the tower.  They removed 110 tons of dirt, and reduced its famous lean by about sixteen inches.  Why was this necessary?  Because the tower has been tilting further and further away from vertical for hundreds of years, to the point that the top of the 185-foot tower was seventeen feet further south than the bottom, and Italian authorities were concerned that if nothing was done, it would soon collapse.  What was the problem?  Bad design?  Poor workmanship?  An inferior grade of marble?  No. The problem was what was underneath.  The sandy soil on which the city of Pisa was built was just not stable enough to support a monument of this size.  The tower had no firm foundation.
2. How is your foundation this morning?
3. In his sermon on the mount, our Lord gave us a set of building codes by which we are to build our homes.  His teaching is simple to learn but difficult to master.  It is easy to circumvent.  There are no building inspectors who will check to see if you have following the law.  You can circumvent the rules and construct a house that others will admire.  But after the storm rages, and after the waters rise, will house be still standing for every to see.
4. In a sermon, D.L. Moody once said, "We want more Christians like the Irishman who, when asked if he hadn’t trembled during a recent severe storm when he was standing out upon a rocky eminence, said, "Yes, my legs sure trembled, but the rock didn’t and because my feet were on the rock I felt safe."
5. I felt safe because my feet were on the rock.  
1. Where are your feet?  
2. Are they on the rock of Christ?   
3. The storms are coming.
4. Have you built in the right location?