The Rock Family Sermon of the Week
The Rock Family Worship Center is a multi-cultural non denominational church led by Pastors Scott & Britt Silcox.
The Rock Family Sermon of the Week
Build The House | Foundations - Pastor Scott Silcox
We trace Ezra’s blueprint, Babylon’s fall, and Daniel’s courage to show why formation—not hype—keeps a house standing. We call people to rebuild altars, deepen foundations, and get set on the Rock so families can endure storms with clarity and peace.
• Build the house as personal responsibility rooted in Scripture
• Presence before projects—rebuild the altar first
• Babylon’s river rerouted as a warning about neglect
• Daniel’s formation qualifying him to read culture
• Narrow gate choices and the cost of discipleship
• Fruit as evidence over performance and slogans
• Relationship with Jesus over religious motion
• Sand versus stone—partial truth versus solid truth
• Storms from above, below, and beside and how to stand
• A practical call to get rooted, established, and set
Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week. For more information about our church, please visit therockfamily.tv. Now join us for a message from Pastor Scott Silcox.
SPEAKER_01:I'm excited about where we are as a church. I'm excited about the series that we're in. And for all of our first-time guests, I want to just echo what Sis said. It's an honor to have you here today. And I'm going to do my best to try to catch you up. Now, obviously, I can't go back and do the last, undo the last two weeks worth of messages, but I can try to get you up to speed. It's an entire series around uh build the house. Build the house. Build the house is is kind of oh too much strength there. All right. I don't want to jump to it too soon. Build the house is is the series we're in. It's gonna take us about 11 weeks. And by the way, I have some of my former neighbors are in the room today, and I just want to welcome them today. They're here joining my mom and dad on the front row. It's an honor to have you here today. It's good to see you this morning. God bless you guys, man. That's awesome, right? So it okay, the pressure's on. Right? I'm gonna try to make you proud, mom. Not really. I mean, I said you probably gave up on that a long time ago, I'm sure. Uh uh, but it's good to have you guys here today. Build the house is uh 11 week, 12 week, could be 15 weeks, we don't know yet. Uh just depending on how much we can get in and fit in uh during this time. Uh but we do believe it is a critical time to have this conversation. Now I think it's very important for everyone to understand right out of the gate is that when we use the term build the house, we're not talking about build the rock. Build the rock is the byproduct of your house being built. Does that make sense? The success of this church, ministry opportunities, the outreach, the the length of which we get to spread beyond these four walls is all depending on how you are building your personal home. If there has been one message that has been abundantly clear in our nation, and that is the the home is under attack. Has been for some time. So this is a place for us where we have to shake ourselves, wake up, and recognize we have a responsibility. And every single time we choose to do family and to do life and do home and to build our house according to his word, how many know we are helping aid in and advance the kingdom of God? And so when you think, man, I don't have a platform, I don't have a stage, you have the biggest stage that there is, and that is, in some cases, for those that are in this room, being mom, dad, husband, wife, these are the stages God's given you. And when you want something bigger than the one he gave you, I would argue steward the one you're in. That faithful stewardship to continue to fight for marriage and to fight for family is the thing that is going to advance the kingdom in a way that that there's no other way to do. Does that make sense? God's idea gets put in the center, and we begin to celebrate and move forward in what God believes about who we are as a house. I'll try these guys over here. They're thinking about it over here, praying. But I'm gonna get y'all by the end, I promise. I know y'all are gonna jump in with me. But this is something we're giving our life towards. So we believe this series matters. Now, what we learned from the get-go, first and foremost, is this that we have a responsibility to build the house. So I think I think at the very first of the week, we were just at our first week of the series, we were just trying to introduce the idea. Why should we build a house? Why is that our responsibility? What is my role in it? The first two weeks are really all about building that understanding. In the same way, when you go to build a house or a company or an idea or a business, anything along those lines, you know that there's some pre-work that has to be done. Meaning you just don't buy a piece of property, stand out there and hope the resources come. Right? Yeah, I know a house is coming here soon. No, there's there's a responsibility to do the groundwork, know what you're building on, know what materials you're building with, know exactly the plans of what it is that we're trying to build. The first week was all about that. What are we supposed to build? We're using the biblical framework of the book of Ezra. Now, it's gonna go through a few different ones, Ezra, Nehemiah, through the whole series, but I just want to highlight this one because we're just launching off from Ezra. Now, Ezra is a really great starting point because it helps us find some biblical like grounding for what we're facing today in the natural. And this is important for you to make this bridge, or you're gonna get lost pretty quick. If you don't, if you're just like, what is he talking about? That's Old Testament. We don't need a temple anymore. If you if you're just framing it into something that's old and that has no life left on it, then you're gonna miss the bigger overarching thing, which is the thing that is helping us guide our today. And how many know that everything we're experiencing today has already been experienced in a more macro level, if we can look at that, that's been happening from the book of Genesis to Revelation, God's been building a house. And you're gonna hear language all in between those verses and those scriptures that help aid in this, but we're gonna land in Ezra and use it as sort of like a um maybe we can view it like this, like our plans. We're looking at it as plans. What are our house plans? Ezra really lays this out. Now, what's interesting about this is that just to catch you up, Ezra is is is being is declaring, the book starts off as he realizes that King Cyrus is releasing him because the Persians have just taken over Babylon. Now, now I'm gonna do a little bit of like backpedaling today, if you guys are okay with it, okay? I'm just gonna go back to give you a little bit of history, and then we're gonna spring forward into what I believe God is doing. Now, the this last week we talked about, uh the week before this, we talked about presence and the value of presence, meaning we are living stones, that when we come into this place, each of us a living stone connected to the cornerstone creates a strong building, a strong wall, or the temple, or the house. You follow the imagery there. Also, we recognize is that before we can build the house, we have to do what? Sweet, you guys were all here last week. That's amazing. Man, wow. Nothing builds the confidence more, Cameron, than that right there. Just feeling like you threw a softball and it and it's like Nolan Ryan threw something at you. Come on, listen. The altar. Before Ezra, though he's been released, and the people have been released out of captivity to go build their temple and to serve their gods, right? This is what the Persians have decided. We're going to be a better kingdom than Babylon. Instead of oppressing you, we're gonna free you up. We're gonna give you room to do what you want to do. Now we all know that's just a ploy and in a in and just a like, oh, that's cute. But the truth is, Cyrus and the the the the the Persian Empire are under the influence of the Lord. And now that's hard for us to get behind. How can God use somebody who is not fully submitted to him? But how many know God's in control of everything? And he'll use anything, right? To do what? To fulfill what he has promised around his people. Does that make sense? And so that should be a confirmation. Some of you can walk out of here today and be like, thank God, I heard everything I needed to hear. Some of you, if you would just apply that truth, God's in control, he sees where I'm at, and he won't go back on his promises. We could just end there. If the body of Christ would actually lean into that truth, then we wouldn't get sidetracked so easily. We wouldn't get disappointed so quickly, we wouldn't get frustrated with our present circumstance because you know he has your future in hand. See, that was good enough, Sean. I could stop right there, but I'm not. Not so fast. Because once we realize that that in order for us to have what we need in terms of building the presence of the Lord or the temple so that we can have that, we need to cultivate the altar again in our life. How many know that the one thing that I could say has has increasingly de that has increasingly decreased, that has decreased over a long period of time is our inability or our lack of altar. We've gotten more and more comfortable at being comfortable in the church and not convicted to put something on the altar. We no longer have that conviction anymore. We no longer want to lay anything on the altar because we don't think we have anything to lay down. Because we've been living a life, which is really a lie, that says there's a third thing, and that is middle ground. I can do whatever I want. I can have a little of this and a little of that, and I can stay here and it still be godly. How many know? It can have the appearance of godliness, but it's not holy. When you're wholly set apart, there's just only black and white. There's only good and bad. There's no middle ground. Amen. Come on, that's what we learned in the first couple of weeks. There's no middle ground, and God is calling us to the presence of the Lord by recreating the altar of God in our life so that we can qualify ourselves to build the temple of God. We can't continue to ask the Lord to build something in us, in our physical man, on our spiritual man, that we're not willing to make sacrifices for. Alright, because this is important. So we're gonna go back a little bit further. Ezra is in this moment, all of a sudden there's this thing, and this might take some of you off a little off course a little bit. Some of you, this will confirm some things, but but I want to take you to kind of what Babylon was and what it looked like at the time when the Persians took over. This is sort of like a city, and I'm gonna kind of like try to get out of the way, but this gives you an idea. If you notice, this is kind of like a map of the city here, and there is a giant body of water running through it. Now that's the Euphrates River. Now, this is gonna matter in just a second, but I just want to point this out. That's a Babylon, that's what it looked like. This is the temple of Marduk. Now, what is this? This this is their God. This is their God. This is who they've given their heart and their soul to. Now, now, this God was technically started out as the god of thunderstorms and then like got upgraded along the way. He was the god of thunderstorms, and then all of a sudden, he becomes the god of the beginning of the end. Now you can see where that might be a problem. Now, this city is housing all of the exiled uh children of Israel. Now they're here and they're in bondage and they've been captive and they're living in Babylon, but look what we've got going on here. The truth is, is that their temple has been taken, their sacrifices have been taken, everything has been stored away in this city. And instead of giving uh honor and glory to God, we find out that they make a series of really bad mistakes, Babylon does. And the first and foremost, they begin to attribute the title of God from the beginning to the end over their God. That's their first big mistake. There's plenty of, that's not their first. That's like that's their last big mistake. I'll say it like that. They made a ton of mistakes leading up to this. But I want you to just take close attention, pay close attention of the way the city was laid out. Now, this is interesting because when the Persian Empire came to take over Babylon, they had, they did it with almost no fight. Now, just I this is going to be important because I want you to think today, our focus today is formation. Your foundations matter. Your foundations matter. When we're looking at the plans of what Ezra is doing, we have to pay attention. Why, why, why is Israel in this place to begin with? You have to know that. If you don't know that, then you realize that they've been messing around with their foundations, is what got them in 70 years of persecution. They had been dis here's here's the truth of it. They had begun to make what was holy and sacred not holy anymore. They began to not have justice and care for the poor, and they did not honor the Sabbath. And this is not just like a daily prayer. We're talking about the Sabbath of letting the land rest. Not just you to take a Sabbath, but the land was supposed to take a Sabbath. And the people of Israel, out of their greed, wanted more, and they overtook or overstepped over what God had already ordained for them, and he said, Hey, listen, I got to get your attention. And because of that, like we hear prophecies from like Jeremiah that says, Hey, listen, really, uh, you're gonna be 70 years in this persecution. And all of a sudden they get taken into this captivity. Now, there's a lot that happens during this time, and sometimes because of the way we read the book and the way it's structured, sometimes we miss out on some of the deeper, meaningful things that if you're not paying attention, you can miss. And I'll give you an example. I want you to open your Bibles if you have those, or open your app and go to the Bible app, open up Daniel 5. And I want to talk about this from this perspective with of Daniel 5. You know, honestly, I don't know if I'm not able. Okay, thank you. If I if it doesn't clip, just do it for me, guys. Thank you. Daniel 5, 22 through 28. And this matters because, you know, we're talking about Ezra and the Persians coming in, but there's a catalyst moment. There's a turning moment. So let me say this. Let me say this. I'm gonna go back. See, you see this, the Euphrates here? The Persians took Babylon with almost zero fight because upstream they rerouted the river. So what happens is the Persian Empire, which is arguably coming against the greatest nation, the greatest movement, the biggest, come on, this is the biggest there is on the planet, is is not even fought over because somebody realized there is an access point and the thing that meant to give life to them through what? The river, which is the Spirit of God, has been compromised and been rerouted upstream. So they no longer had to go over the walls they're bragging about. They just walked in through the dry creek bread, creek bed, under the walls. Is it possible for you to take a city in a day? Uh yeah. Is this not a great image for us at times? And this maybe is just a good leadership lesson for somebody. Listen, when you separate the Spirit of God through the middle of your life, when you start to think that you have it all together, you have all the answers, you're the strongest, you're more capable. The problem was the night they got overtaken, they're in a party. They're throwing a giant party in this place celebrating their dominance on the planet. All the while upriver. Somehow, in the middle of all of our celebration, we didn't pay attention that the water's going down. I don't know about you, but this is a great image. Oftentimes, when I see people really difficult walking through life circumstances, that sometimes it's because they they're not paying attention to the water level. Where's the activity of the spirit in your life? And when you get accustomed to it or used to it, or you start to think you're in control of everything, you'll look up and the enemy has already rerouted something around you. Because of your lifestyle, the way you think, the way you operate, the things you keep trying to play with, those things all detour what the spirit wants to do in your life. And this just a side note. I'm just, I just need to say it. Because then there's another, not only are they partying, not only are they just celebrating themselves, but then if you look in the book of Daniel, you'll find out Daniel's in the middle of it. You're like, what? Yes, your Daniel in the lion's den. Yes, that same Daniel. That guy is right in the middle. And I'm gonna read it to you in in chapter five. So check this out. And you, his son Belshazzar, that's who is overseeing, he's governing the nation at this point. He's governing Babylon. He's in proxy, essentially, right? So he's being used, he's the governor there, and he says, Humble your heart, though you knew all of this, which they were referring to, if you go back and read it, he is all of Nebuchadnezzar's stuff, and how he ends up becoming an animal in his afterlife. Not really afterlife, but the rest of his life, essentially. And so, but we we end up here, 23 said, But you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven, and the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, your concubines, have drunk wine from them. You have praised the gods of silver and of gold and of bronze, iron, wood, stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath. Man, that's a strong statement. You've glorified everybody but the one who owns your breath. Oh, I mean, just circle it, highlight it. You need to go back to it all this week. How many things have you honored and lifted up and glorified and put focus in except for the one who gives you the breath? All right, let me say it different. You spent, you and I will spend more time researching how to navigate this cultural moment through the eyes of a news media or a social media instead of getting before the Lord and getting the wisdom of God, the one that owns your breath. That's that's the that's the plane of it. You gotta ask her, who owns my breath? Who who has my breath? That's a great question to ask today. And whose all your ways you have not honored? Verse 24. Then from his presence, now get this one of the craziest things that ever happened in the Bible, right here. Pay attention. Pay attention. I'm serious. This is wild. This is wild. It derails my boy here. Watch. It says, then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed. Mene, mene, tikel parson. This is the interpretation of the matter. Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought you to it to an end. Tikel, you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Perez, you have what? Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. So this that Ezra's writing about, Cyrus comes in, releases them to go back. There's a catalyst moment, and it's this. This hand comes out and starts to write on the wall. Now I'm just trying to tell you something. Ain't nobody in here ready for that today. There's nobody in this room ready to be in your house and a hand appear. Not a body. I'm talking about just a hand. Like old school Microsoft. Do you remember that with just the the little point, the little pointer hand? Just show up in your house and start writing on walls. And I'm gonna tell you what, the Shazzar is undone. He's undone. Says he gets pale, weak, can hardly stand up, starts to call for every wise wizard, anybody that can explain what is written, because I can't read it. I don't know what is written. I just know a hand showed up. He wrote this on the wall. This is what it wrote. I gotta have some answers here. And everyone in that kingdom that you saw a second ago gave a good shot at it. And then finally the queen says, Wait, I remember there is a guy here. And his name is Daniel. Now, why why why am I mentioning this? I'm gonna just tell you why I'm mentioning this because I got a long way to go today. So buckle up. I'm mentioning this because Daniel, this is a play for, listen, why is Daniel such a key piece right here? First and foremost, he is gonna be used as a prophetic declaration. He's gonna be the one who declares the end of 70 years worth of persecution, of enslavement. And he's gonna be used by God to interpret what God is doing on the earth. Now stop right here. Now, what qualifies Daniel is this, and this is why formation matters. Come on, lean in right here. Why formation? Side, why am I talking about formation? Because when you will form, we allow the Spirit of God to form our lives, he'll form us, not in the context of the season we're technically in. Meaning he is not more Babylon than he is, than he is Jewish uh uh Hebrew. You're still not you're not hearing it. He's he's he's living, he is actually in authority, he has power in this kingdom, and if he interprets this well, he's gonna become number three in all of the land, you're gonna become number three, which he says to him, he says, Save it. That why is he that way? Because I'm talking to somebody above 60 today. Listen to me. Don't look around you, they're here. They're hidden under that color, they're hidden. Huh? They're hidden, so you won't be able to notice them, but they're in the room. Listen to me. Daniel can say you can keep it because he's somewhat, he's 80 years old. He's like, nah, I'm good, man. Like, I'm good. I've like had power, I've had the deal. Why is Daniel qualified? Because in his daily formation, what do we know about Daniel? Daniel was praying every single day, three times a day. He's focused in prayer. He understands fasting, he's living in authority in Christ. He is in a dark situation, but he's light in the middle of it. We're constantly saying, oh God, use me. But but and what uh what where's the formation of your life? How does he come to anoint something that isn't there? But he needs to do it because we asked. That one, I'm sorry, it don't it don't actually work like that. It is the daily discipline and forming of Daniel's life that qualifies him for this moment when everybody else is giving a stab at it, can't find it, can't figure it out. Why does this stuff matter? Matters because we understand the importance of what does it mean to be formed in the likeness of Christ. It's not enough for me to have a vision to build the house. I have to actually start putting in the work. The work matters. Yeah, but I don't like reading the Bible. It gets old and boring. Then just keep reading. You you had you hadn't let you hadn't invited the spirit in on that yet. It's not boring, you just don't know how to read it yet. Learn how to read it. It's a it's a thing. Oh, I I just get so I go to sleep every time I read it. Get you in a group of people and read it. Get you some friends around and read it. Oh, I don't like prayer. Prayer's too tough. These are disciplines, these are the forming pieces that qualify us to be used in moments. That's why I get frustrated in moments like we've had right now. We have this cultural moment where all hell is broken loose, and there's very few people that can be used to bring wisdom in that place because they've been operating from Babylon. We're trying to justify all of our actions through the lens of Babylon, but can you be formed in Christ and be in the middle of a situation and carry the wisdom of God? Because that's the call to the church. That's who you are called to be. That's the living stone. Okay. Okay. Um, all right. Question. Okay. Here's the question for you. Can you read the writing on the wall in your own life? Can you read it? Can you read it? What's written on the wall of your life? What is the Holy Spirit depend on the life of your family? Are you just tucking your head in the ground and not paying attention to what's going on in your kids and what's going on in your grandkids? What's going on in your marriage? What's he writing on the wall? And can I interpret it? Or am I just looking at what he's done and being like, it's a mystery? This is a call to to to to pull up the bootstraps. I'm not I'm I I am I am not concerned with what the world thinks about this moment. I want to know what God is saying about this moment and how he plans to use it for his glory. You guys already read that. Your days are numbered. You've been what? Your days are numbered and you've been weighed. I don't know if you remember a few months ago. We preached about a message about this. So we're talking about the heart. That like we're constantly thinking there's no no no. When when you're talking about the heart matters in the spirit, it's a weight problem. You've been weighed. In the balance of who he is and who you are or who you're not, you've been weighed. And in this case, when he's dealing with them, he's saying, You've you've been weighed in the balance. Now, this is fascinating to me, but it says, Your kingdom will be divided and given away. And in that very moment, Daniel delivers the message, unknowing to him that just an hour later, the Persians have already drained the swamp out here, and they're already taking you over. Daniel declares what's about to happen an hour later, my boy is no longer the king. And Darius takes over. They're completely run just like this. And I'm trying to tell you, in the same way that the Spirit of God that ran through Daniel was used to be a catalytic moment, right? In the same way that the Babylonian people weren't paying attention, that their life source was drying up right before their very eyes. And the reason that was happening is because they decided to throw a giant party and invite, and this is what Bashelzar says. He says, This go get me all of the vessels of the temple of the people of Jerusalem. Give me that. And they begin to bring sacred into an unholy situation and to use it. Now, here is anyone picking up on the irony of this. Come on, Kent, listen to me. This is the irony. You know what's crazy? Is that God is no respecter of persons. What I mean by that, he is he is a good judge on both sides of the problem. Israel ends up in exile, right? They end up being taken over because of what? Because they were mishandling the holy. The people of Babylon are about to lose their kingdom because they mishandled the holy. The irony is that that's both parties are still. Come on, somebody. And then there's then there's then see there's this, and then there's there's an elevated perspective like Daniel has. A call higher. God will fulfill his word. God will fulfill his word, folks. You follow me? This is where Daniel finds himself. And so, and so we have to ask ourselves this question. We sang a song about it today. It's Matthew 7. It's Matthew 7. Sermon on the Mount, right? In this hour, and in this moment, Matthew 7, God begins to write on the proverbial wall again. And what does he write? Four filters of discipleship. The action piece. Luke 7, 13 through 14. Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is easy, that leads to destruction. And those who enter it are what? Are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few. First discipleship principle, action. There is an action piece you have to choose. There's a choice. Do I want the easy way? Which Jesus declares what? Leads to what? Do you think it was easy for Daniel to live separate? Do you think it was easy for that little nucleus of people living in the middle of that giant city, living something that's altogether different? No. It was the narrow gate. It's hard. I'm giving you bad news right here, but it's good news. The good news is that Jesus is going to give you the grace to do it, amen? Because you can't do it on your own strength anyway. Right? The bad news is, and this is what none of us really like to hear, it's hard. There it is. I I did it. I did it. I did it. I just pulled the band-aid off. I know that you might have come here and said, like, I thought you were going to show us the easy road to live the best Christian life and be prosperous. Yeah, so like that's not his plan. He's he is he is he is putting us in a place where he gets our heart. Like, like, for instance, Daniel didn't have to pray about how he was going to respond in that moment. Daniel is already pre pre pre pre-built up. He's been formed his foundations. He already knows who God is, what he's come to do, and he knows that he is not, doesn't matter how much power I'm given, you it will never be more power than our God. See, when you have that already solidified, your foundations go deep and wide. That means when anything comes to knock you off kilter, you don't get pushed off that easily. It's like, I see that you're panicked, I see that you're upset, and let me remind you of what the Lord has said. Huh? It's powerful, it's powerful, it's powerful. Action, confession, Luke 7, 15 through 20. Beware of false prophets who come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by what? By their fruits. You don't judge me. No, no, no. Stop, stop. Just stop it. Stop. We've gone too long letting people convince us that we're judging people, like, like because that helps justify. You don't judge me so that I can stay justified to do whatever I want to do. No, no, yeah, I don't have to. I don't have to. You're your fruit. Your fruit. Your fruit. Your fruit. It's just, it's not hard. I'm not being mean. I'm just being obvious. This is obvious. This isn't a mean thing. This is like, oh no, you don't, you don't actually carry the fruit. You don't have it. Come on, somebody. You you don't look at the people next to you right now. I'm just saying you know somebody. Come on, you know somebody. They're not in here. They're not in here, but you know them. Who who can who are quick to give you a scripture verse, huh? I'm gonna gift you a Hobby Lobby sign for your house, right? But but they but but they mean. They're just mean and hateful and behind the scenes, they got a lot to say about people. I'm talking about that that that ain't judgment. That's like, hey, look, your fruit, your fruit's not right. Your fruit's not right. And I'm I'm I know that that's not popular for people because nobody wants to be told your fruit ain't right. Because then somebody will say, like, isn't that just your perception of my fruit? Other people like my fruit. It's like, man, stop, stop, stop, stop. You ever been to a grocery store that that that you know got bad fruit and they still selling it like fresh fruit? Come on, there's there's two, there's two sides of this. There's there's the ones that that knock the flies off and sell it to you. No, no, no, no, no. It's still good, it's still good, it's still good. Man, that banana's black. No, no, no, no. Just like you like it. That's good. That's how you know they're good. And then they give you nine recipes you can make with with broke, busted up fruit.
unknown:Huh?
SPEAKER_01:And then there's the other grocery store that you've been to that has already like frozen all their fruit and time. It's so frozen, it's so they picked it before it ever did get right because they want the money. When you have to buy the fruit and you have to hold it for six weeks before you can eat it. That's the craziest thing. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Anybody had that avocado that will not soften? This is what I'm talking about. That one that sat over there, and you're like, there ain't no way that thing's good anymore. And then you open it, it's like, oh, it's perfect now. Like nine weeks later. How many know that's not right? And then and then everybody can remember and recall a time where you've had real good, solid, like homegrown, organic fruit that changed your life. And I we get get you around someone uh in that that that 50 plus range and and ask them about fruit because they actually tasted real fruit. The rest of y'all, Sicily, you you ain't even had fruit, I don't think. I don't I'm positive Sisley's never even had a piece of fruit. You two young kids. Fruit is not gummies. That like that's not that's not fruit. That's not that's not a thing. That this that's fake. They just put pictures of fruit on things that they're feeding our children. Come on. So some people have never even tried what that is. But here, uh y'all tracking with me today. This ain't judgment, it's just being honest, right? Your fruit is the problem. Are grapes gathered from thorn thorn bushes, figs from thistles? No. So every healthy tree bears what? But what the deceased tree bears what? Now, isn't that interesting? Is it's dead, but it's still bearing fruit. Now that's fascinating to me. That use of language is interesting. Good bears fruit, and the deceased still bear fruit, but it's fruit that what? Doesn't have life. It's not reproductive. Oh boy. There's so much to get into right there. I can't. I can't. Don't don't push me. A healthy tree cannot bear fruit, nor can a deceased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down, thrown into the fire. Uh thus you will recognize them by their fruits. All right? So we have action, confession. How about relationship? Luke 7, 21 through 23. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does what? The will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name, do many, many, many mighty works in your name. And then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Relationship. Here, here, hear me, hear me, church. You can come here every single week and you can go through every single motion. I was happy in the parking lot. I was good to the greeter, right? I was kind to the the people checking in my kids. I came into the sanctuary a little late after the first song. I gave a little worship. I gave a little in the offering every other week. I did all those things. And I can tell you, you can go through every single one of those and not have a relationship with the Lord. You can you can you can check off every single one of the boxes and tell yourself I'm in relationship with God the Father. And you can and you can be deceived for the rest of your life. You're gonna have to fight for relationship. You're gonna have to fight for relationship. Why? Because there is gonna come a day when we stand before the Lord, and there'll be many that are there who claim to have done all the work for the Lord, but lack the relationship with the Lord. Right? Come on. Are you following me? And what are we asking for today? I don't I don't want to be busy. I want I want I want to be I want to be in position. Uh is that make I want okay, so I I don't want to be busy for the Lord, I want to be in proximity of the Lord. Right? And in proximity, my life is transformed and changed. And because my life is transformed and changed, what does it do? What does it do? It causes me to do work, to do something. Like it's not just hearing it. I'm just formed and I'm just formed by myself. No, no, formed is it changes the way I I think and I live, and then my actions follow. Formation gets us down to this passage today, and I'm gonna go through this so far. Oh no. I got a couple more minutes. I'm gonna go on for it. Okay, you guys got it. It's 1128 for those keeping. I know you're keeping time on me. Some of you got stopwatches out there. I know that. I know. I get the timestamp every week. I'm doing, I get it. I'm getting better. Watch. All right. Everyone who hears these words, this is the formation piece of mine and does them, will be what? Like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, right? The floods came, the winds blew, beat out beat, beat, beat on that house. But but what? It did not fall. Because it had been founded on the rock. Now that's just a like happenstance that we didn't choose this because that's the name of our church. All right, but that does work pretty good. Just for the just for the record. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like, what? A foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, beat against that house, and it fell. And great was the fall of it. Now this is this is Christ talking. This is Christ writing on the walls of the hearts of men and women and saying, Hey, the uh you need to pay attention about the way I see the kingdom. I'm teaching you something here, and I want to just go through these construction notes with you. So this is those little notes on the side of your building plans. It says this formation is the final test. You can confess Christ, which is the gate. You can bear fruit, which is the tree. You can even claim relationship, Lord, Lord. But without formation, your house cannot withstand the storms. Now, how is it that we can have all those first three things in Christ say, you can have all that in the check column? You mean I can confess Christ, bear fruit, and claim him, and still not? Because formation is the foundation that upholds these walls. It is understanding why I am to be formed in the likeness of Christ and how he did that. It's the relationship. He brings me in close, he gives me his word. He he gifts me with things that he uses to advance the kingdom. And when I I continue to relinquish myself to him and allow him to shape me, then I can have this. I can stand when chaos comes. And is this not what we're trying to find? Is anybody else not on this same pursuit that's in this room? I just want to be in a stable place. I want to be in a place where it doesn't matter what happens in my home, my family, my life, and I know that it's going to happen, I don't get moved. That's what I'm seeking, and this is what he's given us the answer for. Why does this matter? He says, formation is the difference between someone who burns bright for a season and someone who endures to the end. Every single one of us knows somebody who burns bright and has got all that energy and all that fire and all that deal, but the question is, do they have what it takes to go to the end? Do you have what it takes to press in to the disciplines of life and let the creator of the universe form you in his image and likeness? And if you do, I promise you, you will withstand all things that come against you. How about this? It is what? Formation, it's the hidden work beneath the surface. Anybody ever had foundational problems in a home or heard about that before? Oh my gosh, isn't that the worst? Isn't that the worst? Because the truth is, you walk through your house and it looks beautiful. You walk through your house and everything looks like it's in order. You walk through your house and you feel confident every single day. You sleep, you wake up, you do life, all unaware that underneath your feet there are problems, and those problems are enhancing every day. All the while, I live in the false comfort of a house that's on built on shaky foundation. How many of us are walking in this house that feels like it's on real foundation, but we feel confident, but do you know what your foundation? Have you checked your foundation lately? Have you given attention to the formation of your life, the thing that builds the strength behind what you build? It doesn't matter what kind of vision you have to manifest on the surface, if below the surface it can't handle it. So that's why we get in times where we pray for a vision that God's not going to give you because your foundation can't handle it. And what we do is we get upset at God because He didn't give us a better platform or a better thing. And he's saying, like, don't need to get upset with me. Check your foundation. I I've also come to help you there.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:You see, I can I get a wave in the back corner. Do you know what I'm saying back there? I got you now. Thank you. I gotcha. They're paying attention up there. Construction notes, formation. I got two more of these I want to go through. Construction notes. Sand and stone. This is about total truth or partial truth. Sand and stone are the same material. Isn't that fascinating? He's giving us a parable on where it is to build our house. He's using the same material just in two different forms. This is why we can confuse ourselves oftentimes that we think we're built on good foundation, but the truth is, we see here, it's a fragmented truth. What's devastating to the church is we are a body of Christ operating from fragmented truths about the Bible, about theology, about who we are in Christ. We have a fragmented, look, what fragmented means is you you're you're we, I always say you're, but I'm when I say you're, I mean me. Okay, let me just say that. Because I think some of y'all think, man, he's hard on us. I'm hard on me. Listen, sometimes I get in this place where I think it's solid, but it's fragmented truth. What it is is I actually will hold on to something that God did in my parents' life and call it truth. And they will be the first to tell you some of that wasn't all true.
unknown:Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_01:But if I build an entire diet and lifestyle off of something my mom and daddy said, I that's not a real relationship with Christ. So, so even with my kids, my my stress to my kids is that you got to know him. So my my stress to them is not do what we do. No, I like, no, I want to introduce you to the Father who loves you. And I want you to get an intimate relationship with him because he will sustain you. Even when dad, working through his partial truth right now, doesn't pass that on to you as real truth. So that you don't build your house on something that when the wind the waves come, it just gets knocked over. Right. Sand is fragmented truth, scattered pieces, easy to rearrange, and stone is just truth-pressed, solidified, and unmoved. When Christ tells them, in order for you to sustain, to be strong, to be what you're supposed to be, with the house of God. Come on, somebody say, build the house. Build the house. Again. Build the house. When the job is to build the house, it is to ask myself, what is the foundation I'm building on? Am I building on the sand? Because if you are, you're building on a sandbox theology. You don't know about that. It's a new thing. It's actually an ancient thing. Sandbox theology. Anybody ever, anybody, anybody ever uh remember playing in a sandbox when you were a kid? I'll tell you about it later. Kids don't know what we're talking about. They have more sophisticated toys now. Us, right? It was just like some some some some wood, a wood box, and they just dump sand in it. And they're like, here, just put your kid in there. Huh? We're the primitive. I'm telling you, it's like, that's what they did. That's how we used to play. They used to put us in little kids and just put us in a bucket of sand out there and just play. Now, nobody was thinking kids eat everything. How much sand have you eaten in your life? Huh? Oh man, you gotta try it. Sandbox theology is this. You know what, you know what's so funny is to see kids all get put into a sandbox and watch how it's like it's like a um it's like a actually turns into like a ring. Where where like they fighting over toys. Do you know what I'm talking about? That's my shovel. That's my pail. Right? That's my rake, that's my car.
unknown:Right?
SPEAKER_01:And then they build their little castles in the corner. Little castle, huh? And then boom! That other kid kicks it over, laughs. I don't know that I'm starting to dig up some trauma right here. I guess I was the first telling the story, and then I realized I'm telling my story. Like, like I was, I was uh, I I didn't like that kid. I thought it was a really great castle. I'd put a lot of work into that thing. But but this this is a great image for us, isn't it? Is is oftentimes when when we're we're convinced that we're on on good ground, it really is just us being trapped in a sandbox. Building things we think are strong, what are really vulnerable for people and things and circumstances, even tools. Things that we think are meant to be a help end up being a hurt in those moments. Sandboxiology, it's not gonna work. Formation isn't hearing, it's hearing and doing. How about this? Storms will come. I want you to look at this. There's layers of adversity here. I think that's important to pay attention to. And by the way, there is there is a succinct look at this. But look at this. Rain from above would be like pressures of leadership, authority, systems over you. There are gonna be rains, there are gonna be seasons of life where there's gonna feel like there's something pressing down on you that you didn't ask for. How are you gonna respond? I can tell you if you're on shaky ground, I can already tell you how that's gonna end. What that ends is is you start to justify decisions. Are you begin to justify the way you treat the authority of your life? Kids, this really goes back to you. I'll start with you on this one. Is that is is that when when you feel the pressure of life coming down, your natural thing is to take it out on the people you love the most and are closest to you. And so what you do is you start to treat them as though they're the ones oppressing you somehow. Some of us will look up and we'll say, Oh, it's the system that we live in and it's oppressing you. But I'm trying to tell you that when you're built on the rock, you don't have to worry about that. When you're built on the rock, though that that feeling, you know, is is the seed of doubt the enemy comes to bring, but gets easily uprooted because of where you are in Christ. Floods from below, it's the unseen currents, cultural shifts, temptations rising at your feet. It's just those daily things that you struggle with that we deal with all of us. There's not a person in here, it's not working through that. The question is, is are you building it like a foundation around you? Come on, somebody. I know that sounds kind of wild to think this way, but there there we do this. We do this, we figure out ways to self- self-protect and keep and cover, and and and I don't want to I don't want to involve anyone else, and I don't want accountability, and I don't want to confess anything, and I don't want to do that. And so what you do is you playing in the sandbox. Just building, but not not anything that's gonna last. Win from the side. This is that relational conflict, betrayal, opposition appears, that internal thing that comes at you right here, right around you. I can just tell you that there there's many of us that have had the temptation to get derailed in the last few months and years. Anybody else? Like, you ever just find yourself in circumstances, even in your own home, where you're just like, I don't have answers for it? And sometimes it's easier for me to just kind of like start kicking sand. I mean, that's the worst part of being in a sandbox, right? Is because when people get frustrated, they they weaponize the sand. Is that not true? They start to weaponize the sand. So, what what am I saying? There are times where when we start to feel the pressure, we start to weaponize our experience. How this happened or what happened to me, and the foundation that I have, and then you start to weaponize it, and all of a sudden it brings about more hurt. Not it doesn't help you, but it hurts others as well. Does that make sense? Whether the adversity comes from above, beneath, beside, the test is still the same. Will the house stand? Will the house stand? I wrote this last statement. Stand your feet. This is the call of formation. Now listen to me, I'm gonna tie this all together here. To refuse to live as vessels misplaced and misused, but to be rooted and established and set on the rock. The call of formation is this. This is what what he's calling. Hey, we're building the house, we're building a temple. We've been free, we've been sent, we're building the temple, it's gonna be amazing. Got to build an altar, get the presence of the Lord in it, right? Next step, we need the foundation to be secure. We need the foundation to be secure. How do we do that? Here's why. Here's what, here's what somebody needs to listen to me today. I'm telling you, you've either sidelined yourself, you've convinced yourself this is the best you're gonna get, you've convinced yourself that there can't be any more, you've convinced yourself that this is my last chance. I'm coming to the church for the last time, I'm giving it one more shot. Here's the good news Jesus is never going to say that about you. Yeah, this is my last chance. I'm giving them one more chance. I've got good news. Even when you've gone through your last chance, and I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna I'm gonna hurt your feelings, and I'm gonna I'm gonna put salve on it immediately. You ready? Your last chance when it's motivated like that, you need to just know heartache is on its way. People are we, the church, if you are looking for it will fail you. It will fail you if your idea is that if I don't meet a friend in this room this week, I'm not coming back. No, no, no. No, I'm just trying to tell you. Oh, that's a bad that that ain't gonna work. That ain't gonna work. You know what? You're gonna be right back here again. Here's the great salve. The thing Jesus is never gonna turn his back on you. He's just not because his word right here says, listen to me, I know what matters. You may claim who I am, you may cut claim relationship with me, you may call me the Lord, Lord, right? You may even do things on, but but this is one I'm making myself available to make and deform you, to dig down and and and establish foundational truth in you that when life happens and when you give up and when you say it's the end, you're not forgotten. Now, isn't this interesting? In Daniel, we hear the story where he pulls out all of these vessels. Where were they? Now, this is interesting. God still viewed them as holy and yet they're not in function. Are you tracking? They were his and they were holy, but they weren't even in operation in the temple. They've been buried for 70 years in a back room. Come on, somebody, you feel like you've been buried for 70 years in a back room. Forgotten, taken. I don't know where I am, I don't know where I feel, I don't know where I belong. I don't know where can I tell you? When God calls it holy, it's holy. God has written his name on you. I don't care how far you think you've walked away, you've run away, you've tried your best to offend the Father, you've tried your best to upset him with your lifestyle, he has not left you, but he is saying there is a lie. He is saying that you're not gonna profane the holy. Come on, somebody. There's people in here, but I've been I've been I've been misplaced, I'm in the wrong place, I don't know where I'm at. I got news for you. How do I get there? Formation. How do I find that identity again? Formation, get formed in Christ. Yeah, but I'm confused about who I am and my gender. No, you're not. No, no, no. Here, here, you you just not formed yet there. Come on, man. We got we either believe the Bible or we don't. Now, which is it? Which is it? This is what he's saying. He said, You you may feel misplaced or misused. Come on, church hurt. They took advantage of me. I shared something and it wasn't received. My gift was taken advantage of. My availability, they took my time, made me work the four-year-old room. That is specific and that's real. Come on, that's real, that's as real as it gets. Because that because don't don't they know I prophesy? Don't they know what gift I carry? Don't they know? And while we're waiting around for that opportunity, we're missing opportunity to prophesy over the four-year-olds. Right here. Come on, come on, come on. The church ain't ready. Church ain't ready, but I'm declaring the truth over you. I'm declaring life over you. I'm gonna like come on, somebody. This is when I feel like I've been misused, taken advantage of. Can I tell you? Christ invites you to formation today. Why to be rooted and established and set. Um this is a message for the people who are tired of. Wandering. You're tired of shaking ground. You're tired of the ups and downs. You're tired of the conviction that comes every other weekend. You're fed up with the offense that you've carried. Come on, I'm done building sand castles. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done getting what my work and getting it kicked over. I'm done weaponizing the sand in my experience. And I'm I'm I need Jesus to form me into what? Establish me. Establish me. I am yours, you are mine, and you're creating a new man, new creature, new woman in me. Come on, establish me to be rooted in him and to be set. What does it mean to be set? It means it's done. It's set, it's decided. It's just man, you guys gotta hear me on this. Like the sooner the body of Christ will get set. Boom! We're rooted, we're set. This is what we're building, this is who we are, we're set. Stop allowing the world to come alongside of you and redefine that. Be set. I'm set. My face is set, my faith is set, my hope is set, my life is set, my family is set. We're set. Build the house. Build the house. Build the house. This is the job. This is the job. You don't need a new job. This is the job. Build the house. You got their dads and you've got to start getting serious about your house. Get set. You're wavering. You're all over the place. It's no wonder why your family's all over the place. Get set. Get set. Young men, get set. You hear me? 10, 12, 13, 14. I don't care. Bama shirt. Get set. It's my boy up there. Love you both. Get set. Get set. This this is not this. We're gonna build the house. We're gonna have to get our foundation right. Stop playing games. Stop entertaining everybody else's version of the house. You've been given a blueprint. You've been given plans. Let's build a house. Amen. Bow your heads, close your eyes. Heavenly Father, we love you today. God, we thank you for your word. We thank you, God, for the truth that will set us free. That is what we have. This is the truth that can bring about freedom. This is the truth. What does it mean for me in my house? What does it mean for me in this temple that I'm building? I'm asking you, Lord. We want deep roots. Come on, if you want deep roots this morning, I want you to lift your hands. I want to pray for you. Heavenly Father, we're saying deep roots in our house, in this house, we want deep roots. Come on, you gotta say it. I want deep roots. Establish me, Lord. Establish me. Establish me. Set my feet. Set my feet. I am leading in this place. The kingdom will advance through how I am set. If you're here today, I'm just saying, you should, if you have been more focused on the wind, the storm, the waves, and the nonsense around you, right? If you've given more to that, then ask yourself, where is my foundation and what am I building on? And if you're in a sandbox today, you ask the Lord, get me up on the rock. Who is the rock? Who's the rock? It's Him, it's Him. It's Him. It's the invitation is to be rooted, grounded, established, and set on a rock which is Him. You can say you know me, you can say all the things. Where are you established? And if that's not on the rock, the invitation today is come up. Come up. There's room at the rock. There's room for you to be there. Your family does not have to continue in the generational path that it's going. Pick up your tools, kick over that sand temple you got down there, and get up on the rock and start building again. It's not too late. You're not gone too far. He has not forsaken you, and he reminds you this morning that there's room and he is able. Lord, we thank you for your word today. May it stir our hearts, may it motivate us in the direction of your likeness. You are kind, you are just, you are righteous, you are good, and you have been faithful. You have watched us build a hundred sand castles, and you aren't offended over it. The invitation has been the same from the first one I built to the last one I'm gonna build is to come up and anchor into who you are. Build the house. Build the house, Rock Family Worship Center. Build the house. This is the call. Build the house. Build the house. How do you go about your day? I'm gonna face something at work tomorrow. Build the house. The wind and storms don't have power over you. I am on a higher place. I'm set above. I'm set above. I'm set above. Oh, you don't know what's in the news. I don't care what's in the news. I'm set above. I'm set above. What's the Bible say? What does God say? What is He shaping you into? This is your pursuit. Build the house in Jesus' name. Amen.
SPEAKER_00:We hope and pray this message was encouraging and impactful. Join us live on our website or Facebook on Sundays at 9 and 11 a.m. You can stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram at The Rock Family. Have a Jesus filled week.