Foundations

Asking if Matth 7:24-27 reminds us to build strong foundations for our lives, asking whether we are on something solid or shaky. 

 Clay Lassiter

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SPEAKER_00 0:07

I don't let the screen door slam. Cause everybody's not quiet up. I sit in that old wood swing.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

All right, well, welcome to another episode of City Lights Leadership Podcast. This is the podcast of myself, Clayton Lassiter, and it is also part of our mustard seed movement that is being created as we speak. I'm excited. We're doing some daily things here on this podcast, starting to catch up now. And last episode, we we expanded on what it meant to be back to the basics. We talked about starting small. And as always, this episode, of course, is brought to you by Headland Methodist Church. We are located in Headland, Alabama. Also, we'll just go ahead and give some unofficial sponsors and uh shout outs to some friends. Uh what inspired me this week to think about this episode was actually one of my church members, and her name is Melissa. And Melissa has this just quiet way of inspiring people. Uh, she may never know it, and I'm, you know, I might even tell her, like, hey, I gave you a shout-out on the episode. She's gonna be like, tell me you didn't use my full name. And and so I'm like, no, I did not use your full name, but you know who you are. And anyway, so I'm excited about getting back to this. To start with the simple truth, that every person's life, every person's life is is building. You're building something, you're nobody's standing still day by day, choice by choice, and habit by habit. We are all constructing something. Some of us are also deconstructing things, but we're building marriages, families, character, faith, priorities, patterns. And the issue is not whether or not we are building. The issue that is what sits underneath it all. So I wanted to say this really quick is a house can look very impressive until the storm hits. A life can look strong on the outside but be weak underneath. A person can sound confident until pressure comes. Jesus wants us to think deeper than appearances. He wants us to ask what is underneath the visible structures of our life. Because storms do not create foundations, they reveal them. Storms don't create foundations, they reveal them. Let's pray. Lord our God, thank you for this day that we get to be a participant in. We rejoice in you, in Jesus, and we thank you for the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today's parable is from Matthew chapter 7, verses 24 through 27, and it is simply about the two different types of builders. And um one builds their foundation for real, solid, in the rock, takes hard work, hard effort to dig and to build into rock. And the other sets up in the sand. Both builders hear the words of Jesus. Both builders decide to build. Both builders eventually face the same storm. Rain falls on both houses, winds hit both houses, flood waters rise against both houses. Jesus is painfully clear about this. That the storm is not selective. The real difference is underneath. One built on the rock, the other in the sand. One house stood, the other collapsed. And the real reason was not the size of the storm. It's not. I mean, recently I um have gotten back into hunting. And I I hunt on this beautiful property. Um, and it is fascinating to me, you know, just watching how nature takes care of itself and things that happen out there in the woods is always a little wild, pun intended. And recently we had some straight line winds that came through and just tore trees down. And but it didn't tear down the trees that you thought that it would tear down. Like some of the ones that looked really strong, they they were knocked over. And and I was just kind of surprised by it. And yet I'm not surprised because we you know we can look at things on the outside and always go, huh, that looks strong. And then the storms hit, right? So the real difference in our lives is that storms are not selective, the real difference is underneath, underneath it all. And this is important because many people assume hearing the truth of Jesus is enough. Many people hear the word but don't apply it. Jesus says it's not enough to admire his words. He agrees, we can agree with his words, we can underline his words, quote his words, put it on a t-shirt, tattoo it on our left arm, right? But the wise builder is the one who hears them and puts them into practice. So the difference is not about hearing, it's about obedience. That's such an easy, powerful truth for us to lean into this morning. Are you being obedient? So at the heart of this is a strong life, not built on just inspiration, but on obedience. There is a big difference between inspiring and obedience. Jesus is exposing the danger of confusing familiarity with faithfulness. So it's possible that you are in church every Sunday, hearing sermons, knowing a lot of verses, and still building in the sand. Sand, in this case, represents anything that is unstable that we trust more than Christ. It could be feelings, image, comfort, success, approval, control, and even ready, shallow religion. Sand is anything that cannot hold the real weight of life when pressure comes. And now let me be very clear. The rock is not simply about religious interest. Rock is the rock in this story is the teaching of Jesus. It's received and it's obeyed and built on the rock, is not perfect but anchored. It has weight underneath, it has a center that does not move even when time and circumstances shift. Hearing without obedience creates the illusion of strength. It's not hearing truth that changes your life, it's building on it. So I've taken up turkey hunting, and I'm probably driving my wife absolutely bonkers because I'll take out my slate for those who know. Or I've been trying to practice the mouth calls unsuccessfully, by the way. Um, so I'm just kind of sticking with my slate and a couple of the ones that I've I've mastered called the Kiki Run, um, and I've mastered the distress call. Um, but that outside of that, I ain't got much game in it. And turkey hunting is extremely hard, by the way. Um and turkey hunting, the moment of truth happens fast. Um, you know, you have to be prepared beforehand. You don't wait until the gobbler sounds off to decide whether you're ready. So the setup matters before the moment arrives. Position matters, patient matters, stillness matters, and awareness matters. Hunters can have the right gear, the right camo, the right call, but if you're poorly positioned, careless, fidgety, or impatient, the opportunity disappears in front of you. The bird comes in and the moment reveals whether the hunter was well prepared or not. I know this because uh this last weekend was opening weekend, and I took my son and my daughter out, and we had uh we had a great time. We did not get a shot off. Um in fact, it was low light uh evening time. We had called these birds in, but they never responded. We heard them flap down, we heard them at the very last second. I put out another Kiki run, and then we got blasted at full volume by two just monster turkeys who had popped up in our one blind spot. Ugh. It was and my son's eyes. I wish we could have this on video. I mean, his eyes popped up and as big as the stars. I mean, he was just wide-eyed, and I was excited for him. He was a little shaky. Um, and then, but we had just put our headlamps on because of we were getting ready to walk out in the next 15 minutes. And that was my mistake. My mistake was having him take off some camo and put on the headlamp and not put back camo on. Those birds saw us and they power walked away before we could even really pull the trigger. They went from being at 10 yards to like 35, 40 yards really quick. And for a novice hunter like my son, because it was youth weekend, let me stress that, we did not have the opportunity to make them dinner. So, so the truth is you do not rise to the moment, you fall to the level of your preparation. Hunting at the wrong time can ruin everything. And the same is true of us spiritually, uh, spiritually, panic, impulse, uninformed reactions often reveal the shaky ground that we're actually standing on. What is beneath you shows up when it matters the most. In the life of the church, and our leadership rises and falls on preparation. How prepared are you? What am I leaning into? What habits are forming my life? Am I admiring the teachings of Jesus or am I actually obeying them? So then I begin to lean into that and go, where do you, where do I feel the most anxious? Where do I feel shaky, anxious, exposed? So let's keep it simple. Let's keep it really simple today. We're called to live the words of Jesus, not just read them. We read them. And I apologize for the sneezing. I've been sneezing, so that's why the sound keeps cutting out because I have to sneeze. We read the words, we receive the words, we respond. Receive them. Read them, receive them, respond. So your challenge is this. Go read Matthew chapter 7, verses 24 through 27 every day this week, and let the repetition do the work. And then begin asking three questions. What part of my life feels most unstable right now? What might Jesus be asking me to obey in that area? And where is one practical step, one practical step I can take this week? So let's pray. Lord, we want a life that's built on Jesus. Storms are part of life. Trouble comes, loss comes, confusion comes, temptation will come, pressure will come. The answer is not to hope for a storm to free life. The answer is to be anchored before the storm arrives. That a life built on Jesus may bend, but it doesn't break. It may be tested, but it doesn't collapse. Because the strength of the house is always determined by what holds it underneath. A life built on Jesus is tested, but it does not fully collapse. So, Lord, we thank you. We thank you. We love you. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Read something from a good book to get my head all straight. Yeah, I know the crazies coming, gonna hit me.