WEBVTT 00:00:01.439 --> 00:00:18.480 Our last message of our making our way through the Sermon on the Mount, which is the core of Jesus' teaching, what we've been saying every week is this Sermon on the Mount is the core of Jesus' teaching, and what it's doing is not just teaching us how we should live, but it's actually taking us even deeper. 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:21.600 It's taking us into the core of who we are. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:29.280 And in that, we're seeing how much we actually need Him, not just as a teacher, but as our sacrifice. 00:00:29.359 --> 00:00:32.960 And so hopefully, as I taught in the next 20 minutes, that'll make sense to some of us. 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:36.880 Maybe if you're new to church or new to the Sermon on the Mount and what this is. 00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:40.240 Hopefully, this morning I can give you something to be thankful for for this week. 00:00:40.479 --> 00:00:44.000 It won't be because of me, it'll be because of this Sermon on the Mount. 00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:45.759 And this is the conclusion. 00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:50.240 This is Jesus' last few words at the end of this teaching. 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:53.679 It's the conclusion, it's the last thought. 00:00:54.159 --> 00:01:00.079 So when I was in high school, I worked in a warehouse of a furniture store in the town that I grew up in. 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:06.239 And so I worked there, my buddy John worked there, and uh Rob was the head of the warehouse. 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:13.120 Rob was a very big white guy, black mustache, he always wore tank tops, black armpits for some reason. 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:17.920 We're not we're never quite sure why, but uh he did have black armpits, just want to throw that out there. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:21.519 And this warehouse was in the old roses in our town. 00:01:21.599 --> 00:01:22.400 You remember roses? 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:23.359 You remember roses? 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:25.200 Richway, you remember Richway? 00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:26.319 Yeah, you were upper class. 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:27.920 If you were Richway, you're upper class. 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:36.319 Roses was a little bit further down, and we were in the roses, and then we left the roses and we moved to this really nice big warehouse. 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:42.400 Well, right away Rob said, Hey, we need to build a second story inside the warehouse. 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:45.120 And he was convinced that we are equipped to do this. 00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:54.719 Two high school students and him were equipped to build a second story to hold thousands and thousands of pounds of tens of thousands of dollars of merchandise. 00:01:54.879 --> 00:02:04.959 And so during the day, Rob would go to Home Depot and he'd buy lots of two by fours in plywood, and then after school, John and I would show up and we would just start, we'd just start building stuff. 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:06.719 I mean, we didn't know what we were doing. 00:02:06.799 --> 00:02:09.599 We we had no not equipped for this, okay? 00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:10.560 Just not equipped. 00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:16.560 Rob wasn't equipped for this, I wasn't, John wasn't, none of us were equipped for this, but this is what we did. 00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:18.960 This is what we got there, and we just start building structure. 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:25.520 And the and the great engineering test of this was simply John and I would get on top of what we built and kind of jump around and run around. 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:27.840 And if it shook, then we just added more wood. 00:02:27.919 --> 00:02:30.800 If it was too shaky, just keep adding more wood. 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:31.680 That was the solution. 00:02:31.759 --> 00:02:40.400 You know, you don't uh you don't consult anybody, you don't consult an engineer for this massive structure we're building, just keep adding more wood, right? 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:42.400 And it was shaky and it was unstable. 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:51.360 I mean, even when it got to be the size that we needed to be, which was pretty big, like the size of this room, a whole second floor the size of this room, and we should not have been building that. 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:59.199 And it was shaky and it was unstable, and never mind consulting anybody about a firm foundation, just add more wood. 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:04.960 Even when the thing was the size of this room, we were adding more wood underneath it. 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:07.039 That was always the solution. 00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:23.680 Maybe you know what I'm talking about because you you built a deck and it's not working out like you thought, and so you're just like, let's get back underneath there, and we'll add this here, and we're gonna run a diagonal, we're gonna maybe you put together an IKEA dresser or you tried to, and then you had a divorce the next week. 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:28.159 If you ever put together IKEA with a spouse, you all the divorce comes the next week. 00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:32.479 But you built something and you had no business building it, right? 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:34.800 And you know it as you get into it, right? 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:38.719 And a lot of times the feeling is like, oh, I'll just I'll figure this out. 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:46.000 I'll just keep, I'll keep at it, I'll keep adding more wood, even though you have no clue what you're doing. 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:53.520 And we spend all this energy, we spend all this energy maintaining something that's it's destined to fail. 00:03:53.759 --> 00:03:54.000 Right? 00:03:54.159 --> 00:03:55.039 We do this all the time. 00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:59.680 We do it with little projects, we do it, but we we do it with ourselves as well. 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:10.240 And so we get this passage that we're coming into, these last words, and I'll re read it again, Matthew 7, 24 through 27. 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:16.000 Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:24.800 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. 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:29.120 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man. 00:04:29.199 --> 00:04:31.199 And that word there is moros, moron. 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:35.680 So it's like Jesus is saying, Hey, if you're like, you're a moron, is what he's saying. 00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:36.240 He's saying that. 00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:37.279 That's the word, moros. 00:04:37.519 --> 00:04:38.879 You're a you're a moron. 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:42.560 You're a moron who built his house on the sand. 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:48.000 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat against the house, and it fell. 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:50.560 And great was the fall of it. 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:54.800 Now, my initial reaction to this passage was like, it sort of sounds like a threat. 00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:58.079 You know, like sort of like do this, keep it. 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:01.920 That's what the word do this, do this, keep it, fulfill it, and you're wise. 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:04.560 If you do this, then you're, then you're wise. 00:05:04.639 --> 00:05:06.000 And if you don't do it, you're a fool. 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:07.519 You're a you're a moron. 00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:09.439 So there's this warning. 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:10.560 There's this warning here. 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:13.439 Jesus is giving a warning and this conclusion. 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:16.079 But if we dig deep, there's also a promise in it. 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:17.360 There's a promise here. 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:21.279 And so a few points to guide our thinking this morning. 00:05:21.439 --> 00:05:26.639 Point number one, in our pride and hurt, we use shaky foundations. 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:30.000 In our pride and in our hurt, we use shaky foundations. 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:34.560 So there's two houses here, and there's two foundations in this parable, this last little bit. 00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:37.120 There's nothing detailing the houses. 00:05:38.079 --> 00:05:38.399 Right? 00:05:38.639 --> 00:05:44.480 We don't know if there's shag carpet, if there's berber, we don't know if there's like barn wood from Nova Scotia and yet it's shipped down. 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:45.920 Like, we don't, there's no details. 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:52.079 We can just assume it's just two houses that are very similar, like shiny Marietta two stories. 00:05:52.319 --> 00:05:54.399 Like we can just assume they're very similar. 00:05:54.560 --> 00:05:58.959 The only difference here that we know about is that which they rest upon. 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:01.040 Like, that's the point of the parable. 00:06:01.519 --> 00:06:07.199 And this is the warning, a very loving warning of like, hey, hey, hey, kids. 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:11.120 I mean, this is like the father saying, careful, kiddos, careful. 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:23.199 It is very possible for you to build your identity, the core of who you are, your life on something and in places that have no stability. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:29.120 And you can get down the road a while and find out it's just really shaky. 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:30.399 And we do this. 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:33.759 We do it because we're prideful, and we do it because we're hurting. 00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:34.800 We want control. 00:06:35.519 --> 00:06:38.000 And in our sinful nature, we want control. 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:39.680 We want to self-save. 00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:50.480 We want to self-save with religiosity, we want to self-save with escaping all of that and pretending like none of that exists, and we don't need redemption, or we're gonna redeem ourselves through what we look like or our work. 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:55.040 I mean, we we that's we love the control, and that's our sinful nature. 00:06:55.120 --> 00:06:56.800 That's what sin is in its core. 00:06:56.959 --> 00:06:58.720 Like, okay, maybe I'll nod at Jesus. 00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:03.040 Like I'll give like the Southern, you know, the Southern church nod at Jesus. 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:09.519 But when it comes down to it, when it comes down to it, I'm really gonna build my two-story where I want to build it today. 00:07:10.639 --> 00:07:14.879 And Jesus is saying, careful, careful on that one. 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:25.040 Years ago, I had a friend whose father owned a successful business, and he had three daughters, he had a successful business, he had a great wife, had great family. 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:27.040 I mean, he he had stability. 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:28.399 He was stability. 00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:32.560 Like, I mean, he was in like in our town, he was stability. 00:07:32.959 --> 00:07:43.360 And one day, one of his daughters was walking down the sidewalk in downtown Atlanta underneath some construction, and a beam fell and hit her, and she died. 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:44.879 Right? 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:47.040 I mean, everything was fine. 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:49.839 And then it rained. 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:57.759 And some of you know what I'm talking about, because one moment, one day, everything's fine, and then the next, it rains. 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:07.759 I mean, this has happened several times in my family in the last 25 years, where one week everything's fine, and then all of a sudden it's pouring rain. 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:22.399 And sadly, that gentleman he went down a self-destructive path, and he not only lost his daughter, he then lost his marriage, and then he strained the other relationships in the family to basically losing them. 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:23.120 Like, right? 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:29.040 I mean, one week you think everything's under your control, because that's how you're building your life, under your control. 00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:32.399 Everything's under your control, and you think you can keep it under control. 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:48.399 And then there's an accident, and and then there's a betrayal by the person that you love the most, or then you betray the person you love the most. 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:55.360 And then the doctor calls with the news you didn't think was gonna come to you or your family. 00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:57.360 And you just feel numb. 00:08:57.519 --> 00:08:58.080 Like, right? 00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:01.279 Like it was fine, and now it's raining. 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:08.399 Or finally the performing you've been doing your whole life. 00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:27.360 They're pretending and the performing you've been doing, like, and you've just been shoving down all the other stuff, like the kind of the mess you are, just sort of performing for everybody else, and that automatically you're shoving everything, and it's just like a brewing storm inside of you, and all of a sudden it just kind of all kind of erupts out. 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:30.799 And the question comes, it has to come. 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:32.879 That's what this parable is about at the end of the sermon. 00:09:33.039 --> 00:09:37.360 It's just, is what is the stable source for your life? 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:39.600 Where is the stable source? 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:46.799 Point number two, the firm foundation is the gift of Christ himself. 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:49.600 Okay, so Jesus is teaching this. 00:09:49.759 --> 00:09:59.600 These people listening at the time, they would have known about a hundred miles from there, King Herod was, his men, King Herod's men were rebuilding, they're building the temple. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:02.639 So that was the epicenter of the law. 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:06.879 I mean, that was home base, the center of the way of law. 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:10.960 And when we talk about law, we're talking about the way you should live. 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:13.200 So we have law throughout the Old Testament. 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:16.559 It's all the do this, this, and this, and then you're approved by God. 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:19.279 It's all the way you should live. 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:22.639 And there's a religion of law, there's also just the way of law. 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:27.440 Like it's all the ways you, the thing you should be in life, and you're not. 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:32.240 And that's why we can't live by law alone, but we need God's grace. 00:10:32.320 --> 00:10:34.720 So we have the covenant of law, but the covenant of law is not enough. 00:10:34.799 --> 00:10:41.360 We need the covenant of grace, and he's rebuilding the temple, they're building the temple, and that's the center of law. 00:10:41.759 --> 00:10:53.440 And Jesus comes into this context, in this context of people thinking, okay, if I do this and I do this and I do this and I do that and that and that, and I bring my sacrifice, then I'm accepted before God. 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:58.720 And everything just experientially for them just feels so shaky and insecure. 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:00.080 It does for us as well. 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:04.320 Anytime we live by law alone, everything's insecure. 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:07.360 Because how do you ever know you're okay? 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:08.799 Because it's based on your work. 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:10.879 How would you ever know your work is enough? 00:11:11.039 --> 00:11:16.399 And Jesus comes right into that context, and he says, He says, Hey, at the very beginning of this Sermon on the Mount, he comes right into it. 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:18.720 He says, Not a dot of the law is relaxed. 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:20.720 None of it, none of it's gone. 00:11:21.759 --> 00:11:22.559 We need all of it. 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:30.879 We need it to guide us for how we should live, and we need it to break us for us to realize we are not perfect human beings. 00:11:31.120 --> 00:11:35.440 And then Jesus says, Hey, all of that law is fulfilled in me. 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:46.240 What that means is it's this good relieving news for us that we are saved, rescued, fulfilled, redeemed. 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:48.639 That word to be made whole. 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:55.360 Not by merit, but by grace through faith. 00:11:56.960 --> 00:11:59.440 And this rescue is objective. 00:12:00.559 --> 00:12:00.799 Right? 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:05.840 I mean, this is the objectivity of the gift of Christ that it was accomplished outside of you. 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:11.039 He took your sin upon himself on the cross, his righteousness is given to you. 00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:18.720 So this incarnation of Jesus going to the cross is the act of God's love for you, and it's outside of you. 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:19.759 So it's objective. 00:12:19.919 --> 00:12:23.519 Because it's outside of you and objective, it's what gives you security. 00:12:23.759 --> 00:12:25.600 Because it's given to you. 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:33.360 So we aren't in the anxiety and the fear or the subjectivity of the emotion before it or the merit of it. 00:12:33.519 --> 00:12:37.519 I mean, this is the stable source your heart longs for. 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:43.039 The foundation is built outside of you and given to you. 00:12:44.159 --> 00:12:50.320 Point number three: the secure foundation of Christ is enough for you and your messiness. 00:12:52.080 --> 00:12:54.240 Now, that doesn't mean that you're going to be perfect. 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:55.919 It doesn't mean life's going to be easy. 00:12:56.240 --> 00:12:59.120 Actually, the parable itself is just saying it's not. 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:01.200 It's going to be really hard. 00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:04.320 But it means there's a foundation there. 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:11.440 Next month, our little church, we, you, we will be giving away maybe around$45,000. 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:18.000 At the end of every year, we give away 15% of the tithe and offering that comes into our church. 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:21.120 And so next month we'll be giving away somewhere around there. 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:26.240 Well, in the next week or so, we'll be calculating that up and talking about it at our congregational meeting. 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:31.679 One of the organizations we give to is this ministry in Guatemala called Impacto. 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:42.080 And they're down there and they're planting churches and they're training pastors, and they do that through trainings and teachings and relationships, and they do that also through doing stuff like building houses. 00:13:42.159 --> 00:13:46.559 And I've been down there probably eight or nine times over the last 12 years. 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:55.279 The second time I went, I took 20 college students, and we built a home for this elderly lady named Francisca. 00:13:56.320 --> 00:14:00.080 It was down this path through a trash pit, basically. 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:11.120 It was down this path through this trash pit, and then it opened up to her little plot of land, and her house was made of limbs, sticks, and a metal roof. 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:14.320 And she was probably around 75 years old. 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:17.840 Her house was about the size of my laundry room. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:20.399 The floor of it was dirt. 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:24.720 And then rainy season would come. 00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:30.399 And it was a constant battle for her of survival and rebuilding. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:33.360 Because the storms always came. 00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:46.159 Every year, every single year, her house, part of it would get knocked down, and that she'd have to huddle in there during the rain, and then and then the next morning would come, and she'd have to get out there and she'd have to patch that thing back together. 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:51.360 And then along comes Impacto and says, Hey, we're gonna build you a house. 00:14:51.519 --> 00:14:52.799 We know it's been really hard for you. 00:14:52.879 --> 00:14:53.679 We're gonna build you a house. 00:14:53.759 --> 00:15:28.159 And then we show up and we we we dig footers and we pour concrete into the ground and we put rebar down into the ground horizontally in those footers, and then we tie up more rebar to this horizontal, and it's down in the concrete in the ground, and that rebar sticking up into the air, and then we start putting cinder blocks down over that rebar, down onto that footer, that concrete, and that rebar shooting up through all these cinder blocks that are going higher and higher and higher, and we're pouring more concrete into the cinder blocks, right? 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:33.919 And the point of all of this is that there's this integration between the foundation and the wall. 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:37.279 There's an integration between the foundation and the house. 00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:42.720 Here's my point: that's the Christian journey is learning about that integration. 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:45.840 That's that this is sanctification. 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:59.840 This transformation of your being by the Holy Spirit of God calling out to your spirit, speaking to you of the greatness of the foundation that you are connected to. 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:04.080 So it's never really about the house. 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:06.399 I mean, Jesus' point here is not to glorify the house. 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:16.879 He didn't say, ah, you know, uh, you know, yeah, the house is on shaky ground, but man, they put in a cedar closet in the hallway, and you gotta see it because they can store some coats in there and some linens. 00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:20.000 No, it's it's about this, always it's about the foundation. 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:22.240 That's what the whole story's about. 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:33.039 Here's what I've been learning this week and been thinking about is so much of my life, I'm walking around like a like a beggar. 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:35.360 Just feeling like a beggar. 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:45.279 You know, feeling a little homeless, a little hungry, and I got this heavy bag with me, and I'm walking around, I'm just trying to get a handout from somebody for some approval or something. 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:49.759 I think maybe I can buy some forgiveness for this or some self-worth with this. 00:16:49.919 --> 00:17:00.480 And then there's this, then there's the Holy Spirit inside calling out to my lowly, self-absorbed, prideful spirit. 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:04.400 And the spirit's going like, hey, hey, moron. 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:06.079 Hey moron. 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:08.720 Look in your bag. 00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:11.279 Just look in your bag. 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:12.400 You're carrying that bag around. 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:21.839 Look in your bag, and then finally, you know, like finally, after a few days of me being a moron, I look in my bag and it's filled with gold. 00:17:24.400 --> 00:17:26.400 Listen, you have gold. 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:36.799 I mean, like, you got rebar shooting up out of a footer of concrete, shooting up into the core of your being. 00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:42.880 And integrating that into who you are is the Christian journey. 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:51.279 Shame doesn't have to define us, sin doesn't have to entrap us, merit does not have to exhaust us. 00:17:51.519 --> 00:17:58.240 Circumstances and failure and all the storms of life that they can only touch you so deeply. 00:17:59.119 --> 00:18:09.440 Because you're integrated into something much deeper, that's firmer, a kingdom that's eternal and that's unconditionally loving toward you. 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:22.240 So you're gonna find yourself around some table on Thursday, and maybe uh, you know, turkey and some really dry dressing by Aunt Janice, and nobody likes it. 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:23.200 We all eat it anyway. 00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:26.079 You're like, I put enough gravy on it, it's gonna be okay. 00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:28.240 Maybe you're with people you love. 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:34.480 Maybe you're with people you endure, maybe you're by yourself and you got like you got the bucket of KFC. 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:36.240 It's all very, very possible. 00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:40.319 But what's true for you is you have gold. 00:18:40.640 --> 00:18:42.799 Like, I mean, you have gold. 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:51.759 It's been good for me this week to be reminded these houses in the parable aren't perfect. 00:18:52.640 --> 00:19:03.359 Like Francisca's house was not perfect, and Tyler Perry just sold his estate in Buckhead for$17.5 million, and I heard a rumor he had problems with his retaining walls, right? 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:05.279 I mean,$17.5 million. 00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:08.000 You got retaining wall problems. 00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:10.079 There's it's none of them are perfect. 00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:12.160 None of the houses are perfect. 00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:13.680 And your life's not perfect. 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:16.400 We're not perfect, you're not perfect. 00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:21.599 It's all about where these old broken down houses rest. 00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:30.240 And then learning about integrating Jesus' unconditional love into our lives. 00:19:32.240 --> 00:20:16.799 And by the way, afterward, after we finished Francisca's house, we finished, and we were standing in a circle, and we were praying and dedicating the house to her, to the Lord, and she little lady with long brown hair, she didn't speak any English, and she just she walked around, she went to every person, one by one, very slowly, one by one, and she would reach up and she grab the neck of the person and pull them down, and she kissed on the cheek, person by person, and the whole time she's just whispering, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. 00:20:17.839 --> 00:20:18.799 She knew it. 00:20:20.160 --> 00:20:23.039 She knew gold had found her. 00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:24.240 Right? 00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:29.279 I mean, finally, she had a firm foundation. 00:20:29.920 --> 00:20:40.880 So, my brothers and sisters, may you live surrendered in that great firm foundation that has found you and it has saved you, Jesus Christ. 00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:42.400 Let's pray together. 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:44.240 God, thank you. 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:49.839 For this great parable of warning and of promise. 00:20:52.480 --> 00:20:59.440 We need the warning that it is completely possible for us to build our lives on a shaky foundation. 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:05.119 That in this life cannot stand, and in the next life it cannot stand. 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:07.200 And we need that warning. 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:12.559 And thank you for the great promise that there is a firm foundation. 00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:22.880 Forgive us for all the many ways that we forget to let it integrate into our hearts and souls as we resist surrender. 00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:34.640 Would you help us to trust you in greater ways, to live surrendered with open hearts, to let go of all our ways of merit.