The Rock

Matthew 7:24-25
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 

I realize as I get older I spent many years chasing or holding onto the familiarity of the past because it was safe and comfortable. I have also found that as I get older, the only safety and stability I have is in Jesus.  While things change, the Lord does not, He alone is our firm foundation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everybody, thanks for tuning in to Unfiltered with Jesse B. If my voice sounds a little tired tonight, I am. I hit just a half-century milestone today. I mean, I'm not tired because I turned 50. I'm tired just because it's been a busy day. But I was thinking on that. 50 years old, it just does not seem possible mentally, and I don't feel 50. Now my body tells me otherwise. But I was visiting with a friend and classmate whose birthday is just a couple of days before mine. And Friday we were talking about how the class, our class of 94, will all be hitting that milestone at some point this year if they haven't already. Many of my classmates have children who are now grown and beginning families of their own, which means that there are some in my class, including my friend, who is now a grandmother. So there's grandparents. I also know of some guys who, you know, are, well, you know, here's my grandson, and it just does not seem possible. So I heard the intro to Live to Tell by Madonna, and I think that came out in '86 from her true blue album. But it was playing to images of the 80s, just different, I don't know, different things that you know we would remember, different movies, uh, drive-ins, clothing, that kind of thing. And while this intro was playing, I actually teared up when I was watching it. And I mean, I'm sure that our parents and our grandparents have similar reminiscent things in their past. But the point that I'm making is that life goes really fast. It goes faster than you think it does. I mean, it just seems like yesterday I was sitting in school counting the days until summer break. And then I was counting the days until I got my license, until I uh got a job and was able to get my first car, uh, graduation, and so on, and all these different milestones in our lives, and all these things that we couldn't wait for, and now the phrase been there, done that, comes into conversation, or at least in thoughts, probably more than we want to admit. Growing up, I had a pretty stable childhood. I was raised by my grandparents. I think I've mentioned that before, but um, they were not perfect, but they did instill a deep knowledge and desire uh for the Lord in me, and they did the best they could to live out examples of Christ. And I think that we all go through those times where we long for the safety of the past, and I think we spend our lives trying to regain some of that safety, some of that stability that we once knew. However, uh, the older I get, the more I realize that that kind of safety and stability that I'm after can only be found in the Lord. So Ecclesiastes 3, 1 through 8, and everybody knows this. Uh there's actually a song, I think it's called Turn, Turn, Turn or something like that, but uh it was actually a Bible verse, and it tells us for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to kill, a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up, a time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to seek and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to tear and a time to sew, a time to keep silence and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. So what the idea behind this is that life ebbs and flows. Okay, there's no uh even keel, even though we would like for things to be on a keel or even keel, but the fact is is that um life ebbs and flows without warning. So the more I realize there never is any true stability, and like I said before, unless it is found in the Lord. So that also reminds me of a song by Big Tent Revival that was big in the 90s called Two Sets of Joneses. Now, the writer or writers took that idea from the parable Jesus told in the Gospels about a man who built his house on the sand and a man who built his house on the rock. So when the waves came and the storms came and beat against those houses, which one survived? It was the house that was built on the rock. So we know that Jesus is that rock that we need to place our spiritual foundation on. So when the storms of life come, everything is unpredictable, and it seems like it's even more so now. But we need to take refuge, make sure that our foundation is built on the rock, not the stock market, not the government, um, not even relationships, not even our closest relationships. Um the only thing that is gonna sustain you, the only thing that will not fail is Jesus. So when all else fails, when all else seems fragile, make sure that your house, your spiritual house, is built on the rock. Love you guys, and thanks for listening. Good night.