[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 05:00 p.m. or Wednesdays at 07:00 p.m. if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison church, you can find us
[email protected] dot. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again. Thank you again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: We are so grateful to have you here with us tonight. This is one of my favorite times of year, vacation Bible school. I almost kind of feel like I'm living through my own kids when I get to be here and to see their excitement and to see the looks on their face, to get to have their buddies here and their friends here. It's such a great night. And what I love about the way we do vbs at Madison since we've been here is how whatever we're talking about with our kids upstairs is also what we're going to be talking about downstairs here. And if you've seen anything about the topics that we're going to be covering each night, as our kids are different agents of truth, they are going to be learning different parables. And I've always loved parables. And part of it is, if you've been here at Madison any amount of time, you know that I'm one of those people that I'm a very what people call a visual learner. I learned by seeing things, maybe even word images. And that's what the parables are. If you're like me, you heard that same statement growing up, that they're earthly stories with a what a heavenly meaning, right? It's an everyday story. And if you remember, Jesus even got some backlash for teaching this way. They're like, well, you should have used these guys. And, you know, Elijah or Elisha, and he's like, well, I'm gonna talk about sheep. I'm gonna talk about lost boys. I'm gonna talk about building a home. Why? Because those are things that you are familiar with. And so I've always loved that. And so tonight we're going to be in Matthew, chapter seven. And as we learn about the parable the wise and the foolish builders. My encouragement and hope is that the things we learn also, if you have kids here, become conversation starters with them, that when you get in the car, you can ask them, hey, what did you learn about the wise and the foolish builder? And they won't know that. You have been very, very prepared, hopefully tonight. So turn to Matthew seven. That's where we're going to be tonight to kind of give a little bit.
This is the millennium Tower. It started being built, like, late 1990s, was a finish. Being built, like, early two thousands. And if y'all remember anything about this building at the time, it was one of the most expensive buildings ever built. It was around 350 million to build it. And part of the reason why they built this building, number one was, in a way, to kind of show off, like, hey, this is what we can construct, this is what we can create, this is what we can put together. And what was amazing about this building, not only was it beautiful, not only was it 58 stories tall, but they were trying this new construction, this new engineering that was kind of expediting the building process. And what was also interesting about the building, not only was it something that was drawing a lot of people's eyes and a lot of people's interest, that even inside the building, it was one of those places that they would rent out to businesses and different firms, and they would have the opportunity to go swim in the pool and their break, go to the lounge area, hang out with their friends. There was a gym, there was all this stuff that was in this amazing structure. It's beautiful to look at standing, you know, 58 stories tall, $350 million. Here's a big, big problem. It's sinking.
And just to kind of put into perspective how much it's sinking over, like a two year span, if I'm remembering right, it sunk 17 inches. And in one of those corners, the northwest corner, it was sinking 14 inches. And the way that engineers put it is it was going to keep sinking an inch and a half every single year. As you can notice in the screen behind me, some of the pictures of the sinking down at the very bottom. Again, beautiful building. But can you imagine for just a second, by the way, if you're one of the investors, or can you imagine for a second if you were one of the businesses that says, hey, you know, we're gonna be in the millennium Tower? And you get in that millennium Tower, I mean, how many people are gonna wanna go to work on the 55th story, knowing it's sinking? Hey, I'm not coming in today. Why? Well, I don't wanna sink. Right. Like, it would be very difficult sell to want to be in this building. And why in the world was something that was so expensive that people put so much energy into? Why in the world was it sinking? Well, here's why. I. This building, its foundation, they were using concrete piles to go down.
They should have gone down over, they went down 80.
And not only did they just go down 80, but they thought the concrete piles would be enough and they wouldn't need to go into the bedrock. Well, as you can see in the picture here, not only did they need to go a little bit more, they needed to over double the depth in which they went down into that bedrock, into that soil to make that foundation firm. So what happened was a group of engineers ended up coming along and they were trying to fix it. And they did add some concrete piles to it. But even just this year, I found that since January, it's actually sunk an inch, even though it's getting better. Again, I don't know about y'all. I don't know if I would want to be in that building. Now, contrast what you saw there with what you're about to see next and the video that I'm about to show you. Here's what I want you to listen for. What was it that made this next building stand?
And before I share with you this video, when we lived in south Alabama, we had, I think, three major hurricanes go through. I got to file two deductibles, which made it very difficult for me to get insured when we moved up here.
But in that process, I'll never forget when they were announcing Hurricane Michael. In fact, we have a family here at Madison that went through Hurricane Michael and had to ride out that storm. The devastation that it was, it was one of the worst hurricanes to ever hit America. And I have a picture on my phone of how close it was. There's Robertsdale, Alabama here. And the storm just barely missed us. But our neighbors, it was absolutely devastating, especially those in the Panama city area.
I want you to watch this video of this one house that was able to withstand. And as you watch the video of this house, here's what I want you to ask yourself is what was it about that building that made it be able to stand?
[00:06:35] Speaker C: Hurricane Michael destroyed nearly everything that's path in the Florida panhandle. That's the town of Mexico beach. You can just see pictures there. The aerials show the scope of the damage. But this house managed to withstand the historic hurricane. It's one of the few structures. Look at that. Look at the difference between that house and everything around it. Joining us now are the homeowners, Russell King and Doctor Lebron Lackey. Gentlemen, thanks so much for being with us. First, your reaction when you first saw the pictures of your house and all the damage that was done around it.
[00:07:13] Speaker D: We're glad our house survived, but we're so sad. What become the sadness for everybody else.
[00:07:19] Speaker E: So the relief of seeing the pictures was just incredible at the time.
[00:07:23] Speaker D: He watched the storm come in, we had Arlo cameras stationed on the decks. He watched the storm coming in. I'd been watching CNN all day and knew it was coming, but I had to turn it off. And he kept calling me and I kept hanging up on him.
[00:07:36] Speaker E: I was watching a lot of.
[00:07:38] Speaker D: We had all the cameras here that survived.
There it is. And y'all got the disc out of it?
[00:07:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:48] Speaker E: When I first drove into town.
[00:07:50] Speaker C: Go ahead.
[00:07:52] Speaker E: I'm sorry. When I first drove into town, I'd been relieved because I'd already seen the pictures of the house and the fact that the house stood and I'd already seen the pictures of destruction. There was just nothing like it firsthand. Before I ever made it to the house, I already had tears in my eyes. For the community.
[00:08:09] Speaker C: No, it is hard. It's so hard to look at the community now and think of everything that was lost.
Why did your house, with our friends yesterday, why did your house survive?
[00:08:23] Speaker D: Go ahead. We put hard work in it.
[00:08:26] Speaker E: We paid attention to every detail from the ground up at every point, from, from pilings to the roof and everything in between. When it came time to make a decision about what level of material or what to use, we didn't pay attention to code. We went above and beyond code and we tried to. We asked the question, what would survive the big one? And we consistently tried to build it for that.
[00:08:52] Speaker D: Engineers took all kinds of things, apparently.
[00:08:57] Speaker C: My understanding is the hurricane Andrew code in the Florida panhandle is that you have to build a house to withstand 120 mph winds. You built this to withstand 240 mph winds, is that right?
[00:09:11] Speaker E: 200, 4250, something like that.
It's poured concrete walls on top of 40 foot pilings and rebar all in the walls. Steel cables go from the girders above the pilings through the roof and continue through the roof down the other side on the back wall.
[00:09:30] Speaker C: And then of course, you can see the house build up on still. You can see it built up high. Why was that done?
[00:09:37] Speaker B: You know, as you listen to that building project. It's pretty amazing. But if you also think about the question I just asked, what is the answer to why was that building able to stand? Well, he made a statement in that video that he had built it above what code. He knew what the codes were, but he decided to take a step up. Do you think that took a little bit of an investment? Do you think that took a lot more time? Do you think that took him also learning from other people that were able to do the same things and had built something like that before?
Tonight in our text, in Matthew, chapter seven, what Jesus is talking about is building something. And you know that anytime someone builds anything, an architect, before they even begin a project, the one thing they ask is, what is the function and the use of this building? When we know what the function and the use is, we know what to build. And so we have to ask. I think ourselves a similar question as we get into this text tonight. What is our function?
What are we supposed to all be about? Because if we understand what our function is, we'll know what we should be going after, what we should be building. And I'll give you this example. A few months ago, on the way back from one of my son's baseball games, we stopped in the hometown of Elvis Presley and we got to see his little home and watch all these different videos. And if you've ever done that before and you've watched that video, you might have remembered. One of the parts of that video is when they talk about him in his life and his friends made this statement. They said there was one thing that Elvis always struggled with, and this is why they were talking, even about his death. They said he kept wondering what on earth he was here for.
I mean, the guy that had all these number one tracks is still trying to figure out. He's still asking, what's my purpose? What's my intent? When we understand what our intent is, what our function is, we'll know what it is we need to build. So this text tonight in Matthew seven is kind of like that man that was building that home. He said, we built this in case there was going to be the big storm. He didn't say we didn't think what there could be a storm. There may or may not be a storm. He knew what was going to come. There is going to be a storm. And knowing that, it's not a question if there's going to be a storm, but there is going to be a storm. I want to build something that's going to last. And so that's my encouragement for us as we dig into this text in Matthew seven tonight is for us to have that kind of mindset to. To want to build something that last. Matthew seven gives us a clue as to what that looks like. So turn your bibles there. The parable. The wise and the foolish builders is the one that our kids are learning about tonight and that we're going to be learning about, too. And whenever I see this parable, or read this parable, probably like you guys, the one thought I have is the song, right? The wise man built his house upon the what? Rock. And so when the rains came and the floods came, the wise man's house stood firm. But then there was a foolish mandeh. What did he build his house on? Sand. And so when the elements came and when the water came and the weather came and he was building his house, he built it on the sand. My favorite part of the song was doing the what? Splat. Right? And we might even do that tonight just for funsies. But I used to love that song. Yes, I love the splat. But it was an amazing picture.
But I think sometimes I know for me, I misunderstood the direction of this, and I want to read the parable first, and then we're going to talk about what that means in just a second. So, Matthew seven. And, of course, this also appears in Luke chapter six. And we're going to touch one detail of Luke six, but mainly be in Luke seven tonight. This is what it says beginning in verse 21.
Everyone who hears these words. What words?
The sermon on the mount of everyone who hears these words and does them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And when the rains fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.
And everyone who hears these words of mine but does not do them is like the foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell. And great was the fall of it. I don't know if you guys were at all like me, but growing up, I kind of used to isolate this parable and didn't put it in its context. But the more you study parables, the more you'll know that parables have to be, must be understood in their context.
This parable comes at the very end of the greatest sermon ever preached, which is called the what? The sermon on the Mount. And if you've ever listened to a sermon or if you've ever prepared a lesson or if you've wrote, written a paper for anything, papers, sermons, whatever it is, they usually have three parts, right? You've got your intro, the body and the conclusion. And if you know something about that conclusion, if you're writing or if you know something about that conclusion, if you're teaching, that conclusion's where you really sum up everything that you just said, right?
And so Jesus here is summing up everything that he had just said in the greatest sermon ever, and he decides to talk about a wise and a foolish man building something either on rock or sand.
And there was a book that I read this past week in getting ready for this, that one of the ways that he put it is called living Jesus. He said, you know, maybe like when you were a kid and you were given a book report and you had to read the book, but you didn't read the book. Sometimes what's the very first thing you readdez?
Yes. The last chapter or the table of contents. Right. And so you read that very last chapter to know what everything else is about. He said, that's really important when it comes to the sermon on the mount. We should actually want to read maybe the very beginning of this because what he's saying is, hey, if we build our life around these teachings, we're going to be like that wise man. But here's the challenge is if you're like me and you go through all the topics that are in the sermon on the mount, it is very daunting. It's very humbling because as I read it and see it, I also see, oh, man, I'm not always the best at that.
And as I look at all the things here that he's mentioning, I'm like, well, man, I'm definitely building things on sand.
So what's the problem? Well, there's two things, and I'm going to kind of give you the answer from the very beginning. One of those is this, if you notice something about Jesus is teaching, he's teaching in a new way that they've ever been used to.
It used to be said, right? And he mentions this in the sermon that you should not murder.
But he said, but I'm telling you, you don't even need to. What? Have hate in your heart like you've heard before. You're not supposed to commit adultery. What I'm telling you is you're not even supposed to lust after somebody. What is he saying? He's, he's going back to the heart of everything.
But again, as I go through this, I'm also thinking, well, I'm not the best at this. And I guess I'm a foolish man. And here's the thing. The challenge is also in the comfort. And here's what he says right before he does this parable. He says, listen, if you just ask me, I won't give it to you.
If you seek after me, you're going to find what you need. And he says, like, what good dad, if his son asked for bread, would not give him bread, would a good dad give his son a stone?
What I'm saying from the very beginning, kind of giving the objective. Before we get into the text, the answer is in the one preaching the sermon.
The answer of how you and I live out the sermon on the mount is in the one that's preaching the sermon. That's what he's getting at in this text. And so, as we read this together, I want you to notice that the whole parable is set up on if we do these things. Because, look, in verse 20, in verse 21, he says, not everyone who says unto me, lord, lord, is going to make it in the kingdom of heaven, but the one who what does the will of my father on that day? Many will say, lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? Then I will declare I never knew you. Then he says, what? Everyone who hears these words and mine and does them is like a wise man who built his rock. So just as a conclusion to a sermon is needed to understand it also, the introduction is needed.
In this introduction, if you're familiar, we have the what attitudes.
The be attitudes. And if you'll notice every single one of them. Start with this word. Starts with a. B is what? Blessed. And I know I used to understand the idea of that is, oh, you will be blessed if you mourn with those who mourn, and you will be blessed if you weep. With those who weep, you will be blessed, and you will. That's not actually the way it's written. He's saying, you are blessed, and because you are blessed, I'm going to give you everything you need to live out the sermon on the mount. The illustration I've given before is, we know in anything in life we can't do what God has called us to do, or we can't do anything in life, really, if we don't receive a blessing from somebody.
There was a couple that I did counseling for a long time ago, and it was one of those situations where nothing was getting better. Nothing was getting better, nothing was improving. We were trying all sorts of things. And, you know, I'm not a counselor, but at the same time, I was like, we got to find the root of what's going on. And so we end up finding out that he went to ask her dad for her hand in marriage, and he did not give her that blessing.
So what happened was, anytime he messed up, anytime he slipped up, you know what he thought, yeah, her dad was right. I don't have what it takes.
I'm not, you know, the person cut out for that.
Do you think him not receiving that blessing made an impact? Absolutely. That's why he starts with, hey, listen, please understand you are blessed. And when we understand we are blessed, it helps us to understand we can live this out. And so as we go through this, I want us to notice this, because the other point of this parable is for us to put ourselves in either the shoes of the wise man or the foolish man and think about this for just a second. Both of these men shared the exact same vision, which was to what to build. But we also know that both men listened right to the same thing.
Both men faced, actually the same storm.
The two men, though, had very different foundations, and they both experienced two different results. So let's talk about what we can learn from this. Number one, every single one of us are building our lives on something.
Everyone. There's no such thing as neutrality in life in general, but especially in our walk with God, there's no such thing. We're either growing closer to God or we're what? Not right. There's no middle ground. You're either going this direction or you're going that direction. And one of the ways I've heard it explained before is that there really, in life, is no such thing as a deferred decision. A deferred decision is still a decision, and I'll explain it like this. So when I was going to Faulkner, this was in 2004, I was playing soccer. So I had to get there for preseason camp. And for preseason camp, he had emailed out to all of us a list of everything that we would be doing in that preseason camp. And so I was looking at it. I was like, oh, man, I can't do any of that. And so, knowing that, I was not prepared yet for that, guess what I did that summer. I worked extremely hard at trying to do these things. So I wasn't the freshman coming in vomiting.
I was like, all right, I'm going to work at it. I'm going to try as best as I can to do these things well. Then I get to my junior year, and I got burnt out. I was tired, truly, of playing that it was like a job. And so I was not wanting to play soccer. But I don't know if any of you all are like me in this. I don't like to disappoint people.
I want to make everybody happy. And one of those was the coach. He was, like, the nicest guy, but I didn't like playing soccer. And so I remember thinking, you know, I'm going to tell him. I'm going to tell him, I really don't want to do this. I just really don't. And then I would see him on campus. He's like, andrew, you excited for the fall? I'm like, yeah, excited. And I'm like, oh, Mandy. And so then he was like, hey, I want to talk to you about this. I have these ideas for this year. I was like, oh, okay. So I need. And then the words never came out. I kept thinking, I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. Well, school started, and guess what happened?
I was still on the team. So I went out there, but I had done no training. I had put no effort at all that summer. I get out there, I'm vomiting. It was an awful experience here. I was supposed to be a leader, and I wasn't. What I'm saying is a deferred decision. I was still making a. What? A decision. And that's what he's getting at here in this text is, we're all building something. We just have to say, are we going to choose to build what it is that needs to be built right now? I shared this with Madison a few weeks ago. I love Allison Felix. She's somebody that I've loved to follow. Yes, because of her faith, love the way she handles things. And when I shared with Madison a little bit about her, she was at one time known as the fastest woman in the entire world.
What was so intriguing about Allison to a lot of people is that Allison was one of these people that when good things happened, she was steady. When bad things happen, she was steady. When she got disappointment, steady, excitement, steady. And she was getting offered millions of dollars. And Allison said no to some people. Alison was also getting offered millions of dollars to sponsor some things, and she said yes. And so in an interview, they asked Alison, they said, hey, how are you? Like, so stable and, like, so balanced in things and this is what she said. Philippians 121 has always been special to me because it keeps my life centered. What is Philippians 121? Well, it says this. For me to live is Christ.
And if I die, it's what gain she says life is.
And so the way I shared it with Madison a few weeks ago was like this. What if instead of saying to lips, to build my life on that foundation now, not deferring the decision, but if we said, okay, well, I'm gonna live for this and this and this and this, where does that foundation lead? So just for fun, we replace that word and that name, jesus, with different things, and look where it ends. All right, well, what if we say, to live is money?
Well, the problem with that is when we die, we leave it all behind.
If we say, well, I'm gonna live for fame, notoriety, right? Well, if we die, we're very quickly forgotten. For me to live as power, influence, well, when we die, we lose both of those. For me to live as possessions. But when we die, we depart with nothing in our hands.
Again, we're all building something, and we have to ask, is it something that is going to last? Well, how does it last? Well, one of the illustrations that I thought of from Joshua four, that's one of my favorites, is God's people were there at the Jordan, and they needed to get across the Jordan, but they couldn't do that on their own.
And if you know anything about the text, there, God parted those waters, and they walked across, and God delivered them and was leading them there into that promised land. But you remember what God told them to do? He said, I want you to set up what twelve stones.
And whenever you see these twelve stones, I want these stones to become a foundation for you, for your families. And he said, in fact, here's what I want you to do. When your little boys are walking with you and you walk by these. These stones, I want you to say, hey, son, you see these stones? Yeah, dad, I see these stones all the time. Well, I want to tell you, son, what those stones mean. There was this time, I'm telling you, there was this river here. And by the way, if you read the text, this is true, that me and mom, we saw it parted. We were like, ugh. Like, you know, hope that doesn't crash. I mean, we were still a little nervous, but we walked across that water, and then we got on the other side, and it was just a reminder of God's deliverance. And what we know is there was a whole generation where mom and dad were pointing out that foundation, sharing it with their kids. But then guess what happens in judges 210 it says there grew up a generation that did not know the Lord or the things he had done for Israel.
One generation stopped sharing that foundation. They stop sharing that deliverance.
So my encouragement for us as families, as parents, as grandparents, there are things all the time. You walk by, there's moments that you're going through those pictures and those albums to be reminded of what God did. And those memories of God's deliverance are something that we have to keep telling. Because just like judges 210 experience, we can experience two, one generation away. We must keep telling you those stories. Here's the second thing. The foundation is hidden until the storm comes. Foundations are hidden until the storm comes.
When one of the storms that hit us, that was a hurricane in south Alabama, happened. Leading up to that, a lot of people at Robertsdale kept asking me, hey, you got your hurricane preparing kit. And I was like, nah.
And I kept thinking, I don't need that. And they're like, well, you got a generator? I was like, oh, yeah, I'll get one of those. You know how that works, by the way, I don't know if y'all are. I'm not one of those. Like, I'll get one of those. And I'll, like, put it on my to do list or excel spreadsheet and go do that. That's not usually me, and it should be. And so I had nothing. That storm came through. And the problem was, I kept thinking, well, we will be fine. And we were fine, not because of anything that happened to me or my decisions. But when that storm came through, we were actually in Montgomery, and our neighbor couldn't get in our house to plug up our refrigerator to a generator. Cause he called me and said, hey, you got a generator? I'm like, no. And he said, all right, well, where'd you leave a key so I can get in so your food doesn't spoil? I'm like, I didn't do that either. And so, long story short, we get there, our food has rotted, and we go almost a week without power.
And if it weren't for our neighbors cooking the most random meals, I had a corn and cheese quesadilla one night and a fish and corn. I had so much corn that week that I was sick of it. But anyway, the point is, the only reason we got through that is because of other people. The storm revealed Andrew Itzen was not prepared. And so as we think about this, I want to ask you this. Why do storms reveal our foundation?
And I would love to get your feedback. Why do you think that when storms come, it really reveals what our true foundation is? What is it about those storms? Because keep in mind, like you've probably heard, like I have before, we're either what, going into a storm, leaving one.
We're in one at that time. Why do storms do that?
All right, so we're going to go off that. If you didn't hear what Ben said, he said, so what usually comes out is what you're already continually what doing. When you said that, it made me think of Daniel. Y'all remember when Daniel was told to stop? What? Praying to God.
And if you remember, they said, hey, stop praying. And so Daniel did, right? No, he opened up his windows and he kept praying. Right. And we're amazed at that courage and the conviction that Daniel had. But keep in mind I that the courage Daniel had in the lion's den, the courage that Daniel had to keep praying when other people were even gonna put his life on the line. The courage was not created in the lion's den. It was not created in that moment. If you read the text, actually, it said that Daniel was just doing what he had already. What been doing that for Daniel, the pressure did not create the discipline. The pressure revealed the discipline, like Ben's talking about. It revealed what was there from the very beginning. And I love this quote. I have it in one of my bibles in the back, and it says this. The ways we let in are the ways we're set in those continual things that we allow into our lives when those storms happen. That's what's revealed. Here's the third thing, and we're almost done. To reach the bedrock, he had to get a lot of things out of the way and dig deep. If you look in Luke six, there is one small detail that is not in Matthew seven. And that detail in Luke six is that when he was building, he was digging deep. And the idea of digging deep was in order for him to dig deep, he had to remove some stuff. And so in order for us to lay that proper foundation, in order for us to dig deep, it's also going to have to be us making decisions to say, hey, I'm going to remove this from my life. I'm going to walk away from my life, this kind of life, because when a storm comes, this is what it's going to reveal.
I love this word picture because it reminds me of colossians two six, seven. And in that text, Paul says, therefore, if you have received Christ. So he's saying, if you've put on Christ, that's good. He says you need to continue to walk in him and you need to be rooted.
And the idea is, it's kind of like that millennium Tower. The millennium tower was focused on what other people see. But trees. Have y'all noticed how their leaves point down? And the reason is they're called drip trays. So whatever water they received, it goes where? To the roots, to the things you don't see.
And I think about the redwoods of California, these trees, they're like 300, 5400ft tall. And I may be missing that, but one thing I know about those redwood trees that's very interesting is that their roots are actually incredibly shallow. And I've given this illustration at Madison before, but what's neat is even though their roots are shallow, their roots connect with a tree, sometimes 1020 trees over. And so when the storms come, because they will, when those trees are swaying back and forth, they're not going to be pulled down. Why?
Because who they're rooted to. And in the same way, that's why psalm 90 213 says those that root and plant themselves in the church are going to flourish. He said they're gonna be like a tree that's planted near a stream. They're got this never ending source of strength. And here's the final and fourth point to kind of bring it full circle. Faith is an ongoing decision to build your life on the foundation of Jesus Christ. The reason I said ongoing is as I was reading this text and thinking about what Jesus says, well, be wise and do these teachings, I kind of picture myself like, I feel like I'm an infant. You know, if you've ever watched an infant just learn how to walk, they walk a little bit, then they, what? Fall? They walk a little bit and they fall. Y'all think that looks like us sometimes. Like, that's what our walk looks like. We do good for a while, then bam. We do good for a while. Bam. But when I was reading this, and it was very challenging, because I kept thinking, well, I want to be the wise man, but I know I'm not going to be the best at it. But that's the comfort in the sermon on the mount, that the power is found in the one preaching the sermon. And so when we think about that tonight, here's what I want us to do. A few choices that we can make to be wise builders. Number one, to choose to say surrender. But I didn't have Julie. I forgot to let her proofread my slides, and it was too late. So choose surrendering to Christ over a false sense of control. If you open up your Bibles, really, to all the Bible, but especially the Old Testament, the Old Testament is story after story. Start with Abraham and Sarah, Cain and Abel. It's story after story of control gone bad.
Number two, to choose the pain of discipline over the pain of regret. That's the idea of there's storms coming, and like Ben said, we can't plan when those storms are always gonna hit. And so it's what we continually do.
Discipline is that daily choice between what I want, what's best, and what I want right now. And choosing what's best is a very difficult thing, because we also know what we want now. That's why Paul said in first corinthians nine, I choose daily to tell myself no.
And so we're either going to choose the pain of discipline, both of them are pain. Or we're going to choose the pain of regret. And the final thing is this. To choose what is important over what is urgent is if my engine in my car dies, that is very urgent.
But say I miss, like, eight oil changes.
That was important.
If I would have focused on what was the most important, I wouldn't have had something come up that's so urgent.
And so if we choose daily to focus on what is most important, we still will. Don't get me wrong, but we might not have as many things that pop up that are urgent. This is what, y'all know what this is. Golden Gate Bridge. And what's amazing about the Golden Gate bridge is it can survive a nine point something on the Richter scale of an earthquake.
And I've heard from people that have said that if there was an earthquake, you would actually want to be on this bridge.
And what's interesting about which I'm still not doing that, but the reason why it's so strong is literally these two cables. These two cables run all the way down, and those two cables on each side go way, way down into the foundation.
Because the cable is touching that foundation, everything else around it is impacted by the foundation. It was just two cables.
And what's interesting about that, they said if there was a big earthquake that came through, it was going to move back and or if it was going to vibrate. But at the end of the day, it would be able to withstand because of its foundation.
And so, again, I want you to think about what is it that you're building your life around? What is that foundation of your life? As you think about that. Let's pray about it. God, we thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. We pray that we will be like that wise man. And then, Lord, we know that at times we are building our lives, sometimes on things of Sandhya. But, Lord, help us to believe the promises you gave us right before this parable that you are a good God. And if a father knows how to give his son bread and not a rock, we should trust even more in your desire to do what's best for us. Lord, we also read that if we ask you, you will give it to us. Lord, help us to have the faith to believe that. Help us to have the faith to believe that you are working behind the scenes.
Lord, we know that each and every one of us in this room are going to face storms. And every single one of us in this room are building something. Lord, help us to build something that lasts in order to withstand those big ones in Christ. And we pray. Amen.
