Build on the Rock

What is your foundation built on—rock or sand? 

Subscribe to enjoy all episodes of God’s Toolbox. 

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Good afternoon, good afternoon, and welcome to our noonday service today. I'm so glad that we were able to get together today since we did not have it last week. I missed you guys, and I'm so glad to have this opportunity to worship God with us, with all of you. So let us begin with prayer. Lord, we thank you for this day, for this time together, for this medium where we can come together and worship you and give you all glory, honor, and praise. We ask, Lord, that you be with the sick that are among us. We pray for Brother Roscoe Alderman Jr., Sister Loretta Kite, Sister Ray Francis Joyner, Dr. Janae Walker, Reverend Todd Rhodes, Brother Billy Myers, and so many others, Lord. We pray that you would be with them. Heal them if it be your will. We pray for the Bereed family of Mrs. Yvonne Raynor. And Lord, we pray for so many others in our hearts and minds, and even those whose names we don't know to call. We ask that you would be with them today and grant what it is that they are in need of. You know what it is, Lord. Please grant it today. We pray for those that are still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and those in the path of devastation that might come from Hurricane Milton. We pray, Lord, for all of us and our issues and challenges. We pray that you will intervene in our lives and grant divine protection and guidance. Lord, we ask today that you would allow your Holy Spirit to speak through me to use this time to speak to your people. I am your instrument, Lord. Let your words come forth powerfully through this, your vessel. We thank you, we praise you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. On today, everybody, our word comes from the book of Matthew, chapter seven. Matthew chapter seven. And we're going to be reading verses twenty four through twenty nine today from the New International Version of the Bible. Matthew chapter seven, verses twenty-four through twenty nine. This is Jesus speaking to the people, and this is what it says. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house. Yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. When Jesus had finished saying these things the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught up taught as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law. So I'd like to use for subject this afternoon build on the rock. Build on the rock. Matthew chapter seven is full of words of wisdom from Jesus, with the exception of the last two verses. In fact, most of chapter five of Matthew and all of chapter six, and then again in chapter seven are words from Jesus Himself. Red letters, if you have a red letter Bible, all words of wisdom from our Lord and Savior and principles to live by. So in this passage, he tells this story, and then towards the end, which is the end of the chapter, he leads us into something very profound. That is, you can be wise and accept these sayings of mine and put them into practice, or you can be foolish and discount them, ignore them and crash. But let's listen to what Jesus says because in true fashion, he tells us a story that clearly makes the point rather than just preaching and ranting and raving about it to us. Basically, he says this. He says, I'm gonna tell you this story, and then you decide which way you want to be. That's Jesus. He lets us decide. He tells us this is what you should do, this is the way you should go. Choose this, but ultimately it is our decision, our choice. So in this story, he talks about an approaching storm, something we all know something about. He tells us that two houses have been built before the coming storm. He says, one house is built on the rock and the other on sand. Now just imagine that. The foundation of one is rock, the foundation of the other is sand. And we know the difference between rock and sand. And he says, in both cases, three things come in the storm. First, the rains descended. Now let's think for a minute, let's equate the rain to hard times that come upon us, troubles that come on the job, and problems in our government that we know a lot about, taxes and bills and temptations from Satan, all the worldly issues that many of us face every day. That's the rain. And then the floods came. Family issues, trouble with your your spouse, your husband, or your wife, children acting up, other family members giving you problems, your church family going crazy. That's the floods. The floods came. And then the winds blew. We get a little bit closer to home because we start out with the rain, which are worldly issues, and then we come to the floods coming, which is a little bit closer, our family, and now the winds blue is right there with us. Health issues, problems in your bodily functions, heart conditions, aging, high blood pressure, diabetes, strokes run in your family, so you're worried about that, and then they're pushing these vaccines on you for the flu and pneumonia and shingles and COVID is still out there, trouble on every side. But if your house was built on the rock, the belief in the word of God and the promises of Jesus, you can say like Paul does in Philippians one and twenty one, to live is Christ, but to die is gain. Either way you win. If you live here on earth no matter what happens, God's got you. But if you die in Christ, you're still a winner because you're assured of eternal life, a wonderful life in heaven that is more glorious than we could ever imagine. That's a win win proposition. So your house stands strong if you built it on the rock of Jesus. Now I want to make one point here, but I'll save it for later. Let's let's talk about the house built on sand. That is your belief, perhaps, in your good government job coming through for you, or your skill, or your trade, on government subsidies, or social security, welfare, or the VA, your disability payments coming through, or maybe you have a good savings, and you're also depending on your family to come through for you, or your church members, or the prayers of your pastor, and you know that longevity, longevity run longevity runs in your family, so you're not worried about dying anytime soon, about anything happening to you. But you never got around to accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior. You just never got around to it. Never thought it mattered, that it wasn't that important. And so your foundation of life was built on sand. My friend, that's your foundation built on sand. So when the rain descended, just like before, when the problems of the world come, and the floods come with its problems a little bit closer to home with friends and loved ones and church folk and people you know, neighbors that have always been there for you, and then the winds blew, and you have problems with your health and your mind and your body, and nothing is there to help you. Nobody. Because when your foundation is on the sand, none of that other stuff matters, nothing can help you, and great will be your fall, the fall of your house, the fall of your life, and the saddest part about all of that is that now that the storm has come, it's too late to do anything about it. The time to prepare for the storm is before it comes. Earlier I said I wanted to make a point. This is my point. Are you prepared today? Are you prepared? There's a difference I want to say between being prepared and being ready. You may not be ready to die. Most of us, if we want to be honest, we're not ready to die. We got a lot more living we want to do. But I'm not asking you if you're ready. I'm asking you if you're prepared. That's a difference. Are you prepared for death? Are you prepared for the storm? And the way you get prepared is by being under the shadow of the Almighty, being in his good graces and his will, by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and doing your best to live for Him, following His example of living with love for God in your heart and love for your fellow man. You know Jesus said, forget all the Ten Commandments, just keep two. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Because if you love other people and you don't want anything to happen to you, you'll treat them the same way, that nothing happens to them, that you don't do anything to them that you wouldn't want somebody to do to you. And you do for them as you would hope other people would do for you. That's what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. So if you put God first in your life, you're gonna do that. You're gonna be prepared no matter what the storm is that comes in your life. And I'm gonna say that this may not be the last storm. If you keep living, you will endure many storms, but God will be there through them all. As the song says, I pray we'll all be ready, that we'll get our business straight, that we will build on the rock of Jesus. God bless you. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for your word on today. A timely word that reminds us that the storms of life will come. But if we have built our foundation on you on the rock, we don't have to worry about the crash that comes from building on sand. Lord, we ask you today to let us be sure in our heart and our mind that you are our foundation. And if we are not sure, we ask you, Lord, to come into our lives, to build us up, to make us strong. We realize that we're sinners and we cannot save ourselves. So we call upon the blood of Jesus to do that. We thank you, we praise you, we magnify you, and we say as it says in your word, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen today, everybody. It was a very short word today, but I pray that it was powerful and that you will be blessed. So I'm going to now unto him who's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory, dominion, and power both now and forevermore. Let us all say, Amen. Go and be great for God.