Reading the Owner's Manual: Part 4 - True Foundations

Welcome Siena and Cypress in downtown Digital family. And we are so glad that everybody's together. If you got your Bible, I want you to turn to Matthew chapter seven is where we're going to be. Matthew chapter seven. And so we will get that going in just a second, which would be great.

We've got a couple things I want to tell you before we get going is this. We've had an amazing week. We had at the Luke campus, 2,500 people from Christian alliance for Orphans. And it was amazing organizations. We spoke about it a little bit earlier as well.

And I just want us to just celebrate our church being used in the middle of the week for thousands of people to talk about adoption and foster care. Just all those things. So good, so good, so good. The end of the month, we're gonna have baptism day. Hopefully we're gonna baptize hundreds of people, so sign up for that.

If you haven't been baptized by immersion after salvation, then jump in with us. It will be great. It's going to be a lot of fun. But I really want to get your mind before we jump into the scripture. Next week, we're going to be looking at Matthew chapter eight and nine.

And that has in it nine different miracles. And a lot of them are physical healings. And if you remember back when we studied the book of James about a year ago, James chapter five, it said, if any of you is sick, call upon the elders of the church and they will anoint you with oil and pray for healing. And we had a time that was powerful, absolutely powerful. And we're going to do that again next week.

Where I'm going to ask. Yeah, we can cheer for that. Go ahead. Come on.

We're going to do that at all campuses. So everybody be ready for that. And what we'll do, just so you know. Exactly, we'll have a time where I'll ask everybody to stand, if you want to stand in honor of someone that needs physical healing, and we'll pray for them. And then we'll have a time as we go into the invitation time that we'll have people all over the worship center with anointing oil and prayer partners.

And if you personally need physical healing, then you can come and we'll do just what the Bible says. It's not going to be crazy cable tv. It's going to be solid Bible, I promise you. And we're going to be able to just pray and ask God to do that and to just bring great healing. So I just want you to know that I Didn't want you to be surprised.

Next week. Go. Oh, I wasn't ready. I didn't know. I want you to come with a willing and prayerful heart.

Let's be praying for that all week long. Song this morning I was listening to before church, Believe for It by Cece Winan. And maybe you just need to listen to that song this week and just believe for it and just really pray for that. So that's what we're going to be next week. But this week we're in Matthew chapter seven.

And in Matthew chapter seven, it's a great passage of scripture. I hope you'll go back and read it. We're just going to look at the ending part of it. The first part talks about, don't be judgmental. And then it gets into some twos.

He gives us some couplets is what he gives us. He gives us basically he says, I want you to realize there are two roads. There's a road that's broad that leads to destruction. There's a road that's narrow that leads to life. There's two trees.

There's a tree that bears good fruit. There's a tree that bears bad fruit. There's two foundations is what we're going to look at. There's a foundation of sand, there's a foundation of solid rock. And so in this Matthew chapter seven, if you think of Matthew seven, I want you to think about twos.

It's these little twos back and forth to basically say the same thing. And he's going to end, conclude the Sermon on the Mount is where he's going with this. To give this finality to the Sermon on the Mount, we're gonna focus on foundations. What is the foundation of our life based on? What's our true foundation of our lives?

Now we all know hurricanes around this part of the country. We understand that, praise God, and let's continue it. We didn't have a big one and so we're grateful for that. But we think of names like Katrina or Harvey, you know, we think of those names. Michael doesn't really come to mind for me as a hurricane because it hit the panhandle of Florida October 10, 2018.

So right around this time, but 2018, it was one of the most costly hurricanes in American history. An estimated $25 billion in damage. So it was costly. 80% of structures in the area were damaged or severely damaged. And it just hit.

Let me show you a picture of the beach here with. We've seen pictures like this. Just wiped out, right? Wiped out why? Because there wasn't a foundation, right?

It was built on sand and pylons and all of those sort of things. But we want to be people. When the storms come, our lives are built in a way that can sustain the wind and the rays and the waves and the rivers and all those sort of things coming at us. We'll see in the Scripture. We want to be able to stand true on those.

So let's look at these two foundations that we have beginning in chapter seven, verse 24. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Notice that Jesus is saying his words. He's asserting his deity. He's saying, I am the Son of God.

I am God. These words of mine is what you need to be listening to. The rains fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it did not collapse. Why?

Because its foundation was on the rock. Firm foundations are built on salvation and wisdom. Firm foundations are built on salvation. Write it in your listening guide and wisdom. Those are the two components of a firm foundation.

Jesus is going to tell us here at the beginning of verse 24. There's a key word there that says therefore. And you know, whenever you see a therefore in the Bible, you ask, what's that? Therefore. Therefore.

Well, what he's doing is he's recapping all of the Sermon on the Mount back to chapter five. And he's saying, now, therefore, I'm going to tell you these last things I've been telling you all this stuff from Matthew chapter five. But he's also pointing back to these verses of scripture in verses 21 through 23. Now these are key, and I don't want us to miss these, okay? Because if we're going to build on the rock, we're going to have to build on these verses to be able to have.

So Listen, in verse 21. Here we go. Not everyone says to me, that's Jesus again, asserting his deity. Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father. First time he uses my Father in heaven, on that day, many will say to me, lord, Lord, then we prophesy in your name.

Didn't we drive out demons in your name and do many miracles in Your name? Verse 23. Then I will answer them, I never knew you Depart from me, you lawbreakers. See, the first thing that we've got to get to if we're going to build a rock solid foundation is salvation. And what These verses of scriptures do is they say this salvation is based on relationship, not on good works.

See what he said? He said, well, Lord, Lord, well didn't we do this and didn't we do that? Didn't we do these things? He said, I never knew. You see, salvation is not built upon trying to do more good things than bad things.

I thought that for many, many years. I thought if I just do more good, then I do bad, then I'll step up to heaven when I die and God will say, well, come on in. And instead I realized it's not based on good works, it's based on relationship. Do I have a personal relationship with, with God through Jesus Christ? And that makes all the difference in the world.

And so you can go to church. And I've said it before, I go to church more than any of y' all go to church. Okay, going to church is great, but it's not about going to church. Doing good stuff is great, but it's not about doing good stuff. Having a one on one relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

I'm not preaching you Baptist, I'm not preaching you Protestant. I'm preaching you what I just read right here, the Bible to be able to say, here they say, lord, Lord, didn't we do all these things in your name? We drove out demons, we prophesied, we did many miracles. And he says, I never knew you though you're doing all these things. Salvation is a relationship.

It's not religious activity. See, the relationship with God through Christ then allows us to have the Holy Spirit inside of us so that we can do good works. Good works are the result of the relationship. Watch. Not the relationship is a result of good works.

Do you see the difference? Many of us think incorrectly, biblically incorrectly. If I do good things, I'll have a relationship with God. And if you think like that, here's what the rest of your life is going to be. Either trying to earn your relationship with God or maintain your relationship with God and grace will not be a part of it.

But when we realize I have to have a relationship with Christ, that's the solid rock moment. To pray and ask him to forgive my sins and to trust him as Savior. Now he lives in my heart. He's washed me clean. I'm sick, saved.

I'm born again. He lives inside of me now. From that I walk out my good works. My relationship promotes my good works. Not my good works promote my relationship.

My relationship provides my good works. Not my good works provide my relationship. So I just want to stop and say, do you know Jesus Christ as your savior? Not, are you a good person? Not, do you do good things now?

Do you go to church? Not how do you do this, that, and the other, do you know Christ as your savior and you pray right now, in the middle of my message, be the greatest thing I'd ever want you to do and say, jesus, I want you to forgive my sins. I want you to be my savior. I ask for your forgiveness. Do that, man.

Or wait till the end of the service in Cyprus or Luke, doesn't matter. To be able to receive Christ as your savior and do that, that's what is internally important, that we understand this relationship is based on knowing Christ now. Now, John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist Church. His brother, Charles Wesley, they wrote a bunch of hymns. I mean, they're kind of iconic people in Christian history.

He was going, and he was helping young people, he's helping kids in slums. He was giving food away, he was visiting people, he was doing all this stuff. And then he ended up at a place on Aldersgate street in London, England. That's why a lot of Methodist churches have the word Aldersgate somewhere in it. Cause John Wesley and Aldersgate street in London, England, he received Christ as his savior.

He said, on that night, my heart was strangely warmed. And from that, then he did stuff. He was doing all this stuff to try to get salvation, and he received salvation. And then he began to really walk things out. Let me put a quote of his on the screen because I want you to really get it.

Here's what he said. He said, I had the faith of a servant, though not that of a son. I had the faith of a servant. I'm going to do stuff for you, God, Lord, Lord, didn't we cast out demons, Lord, Lord, didn't we do miracles in your name? Lord, Lord, didn't we do all these things?

I had the faith of a servant, but not that of a son, obviously a daughter as well. And so we trust in God our Father to save our souls and Jesus to be our Savior. And he's asserting here his deity. He's saying, my father, my words. They say to me, lord, Lord, on the judgment Day.

And I say to them, I didn't even know you. So we got to have that personal relationship. Wisdom, or, excuse me, foundations, firm foundations are built on salvation and they're built on wisdom as well. Built on wisdom as well. So we want to walk in wisdom.

Now. Wisdom is different than knowledge. Do you know that you can know A lot of stuff and not be wise. You can be incredibly wise and don't have a single degree behind your name. Does not matter.

Wisdom is different than knowledge. And we live in a world of knowledge. Knowledge, knowledge, knowledge, knowledge, knowledge, knowledge. Do you know how much knowledge is produced a day in the world? In a day in the world, 164 trillion copies.

If you were to put it into a book of war and peace. War and peace is about 1300 pages. That's why you've never read it. Okay, got 1300 pages. You would produce A Day in the World, 164 trillion copies of that book.

Amazing. If you were to ask about how much we consume a day. An average person consumes the equivalent in knowledge of 16 full length movies a day. If you're TikTok students, listen up. You're on TikTok.

TikTok. The average user on TikTok spends 90 minutes a day on TikTok and the average clip is 24 seconds. Which means you're consuming 225 pieces of information a day. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. But what does that overload do for us?

Does it make it smarter? It makes us dumber is what it makes, right? We're going backwards. It's proven, it's seen. It reduces our decision making ability, it reduces our willpower, it reduces our ability to focus, it reduces our critical thinking capacity.

It makes us disassociated from the world. All this knowledge coming, all this knowledge coming. And knowledge is great. But wisdom is what you need whether you're a senior adult or you're a senior in high school. Wisdom is what we need.

And so Jesus says, look back in it. He says in verse 24, therefore who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house, the rock. Wisdom, not just knowledge, wisdom is the result. Let me give you a couple things of listening. We're going to see that both groups, the wise and the foolish, both listen.

But listening and obeying, that's it. It's not just hearing it, it's doing it. You can hear all your life about how important studying is. But unless you study, it's not going to work, right? Well, I've heard of that.

No, we've got to do that. We put his words into practice. It says in James, it says, don't be just hearers of the word, but doers of the word. And we trust Jesus as we stand on this rock. Secondly, we get wisdom in this way.

We ask for it. We ask for It James, chapter one. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of the Lord who gives above reproach to beyond reproach, and it will be granted to him. I, in my life for the last 30, probably for sure, 30 years, almost every day, I've missed a few days. But almost every day I pray for two things.

Lord, give me leadership and give me wisdom. Give me leadership, give me wisdom. I want God to lead my life, and I want leadership to be able to lead well. And I want wisdom. He says, I can get it by asking.

I'm going to ask. Ask it. Lord, give me wisdom. Give me wisdom in this moment, but every day, give me wisdom. Give me wisdom.

Give me wisdom. Now, there's some days that I forget to ask, and by the end of that day, I go, ooh, I forgot to ask, Lord. Hey, I need it, right? But to have wisdom, ask for it, look into His Word. If you don't know where to turn for wisdom, read the book of Proverbs.

This is the owner's manual, our series. We're talking about the owner's manual. Getting in the owner's manual. Proverbs. There's 31 proverbs.

There's usually 31 days in a month. Pick out a day and say, oh, it's the fifth. And read Proverbs 5. It's the tenth. Read Proverbs 10, whatever it is, and get that wisdom of looking into God's word.

And what that will give you is stability in the storm. Look at verse 25. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Very graphic. Yet, like surprise, it didn't collapse.

Why? Because its foundation was on the rock. A life rooted in God's word. Listen to me. Will ache, will cry, will grieve, will be.

I mean, just smashed. But it will also endure through the storm. The God who brought you to it is the God that's going to bring you through it. You're not going to like it. You're not going to want it upon your worst enemy, but God will take you through that storm.

We'll talk about that more in a minute. Now, let's look at the next thing in verse 26. Let's compare it. But everyone who hears these words, same thing of mine and does not act on them different, does not act on them, will be like the foolish man who builds his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house.

And it collapsed. And it collapsed with a great crash. Feeble foundations are built on foolishness Wise foundations are built on salvation in Jesus Christ. Wisdom from God through his owner's manual of the Bible. Feeble foundations are built on foolishness.

Now what does he do with foolishness here? What is foolishness? Well, it's basically, it's a lack of application is what it is. It's not a lack of listening, but it's ignoring what you listen to. It's not a lack of hearing truth, it's a lack of applying truth.

It's failing to apply the, the truth that you're giving. You're, you're going to hear, you're hearing me give this, this, this Bible study here, this wisdom, this truth that I'm giving. But the question is, will we apply it? That's the question. Both groups are going to get storms.

Both groups are going to hear the message. One group, and it's the wise group, is going to apply the message. So the question for us is, are we going to be in James? James says, don't be just hearers of the word, but doers of the Word. Are we doers of the Word and not just hearers of the Word?

Because the lack of stability in application will end up in inevitable collapse. And it says it'll be a great crash. It'll be a great crash. Are we locked in with the ability to hear? Yes.

But to apply, to bring that stability. I'm on a text message group with some guys that, some dads went to a, a father daughter camp, some father son camp type thing a couple years ago actually. And we got on a group text message and I'm telling you, every single day, Monday through Friday, one of the dads texts a Bible verse to all of us. I mean, it's great. This has been going on for like a year, two years now.

And on one of the text things, he included this picture talking about listening. Are we obeying? And all of us were convicted. Look at this picture real quick.

I believe in God. I obey God. I'm not saying this is percentagely perfect and accurate, but you get the point. It says in the book of James, even the demons believe and shudder. So we're not talking about may the force be with you and I.

Well, sure, I believe in God. We're talking about, do you believe so deeply in a relationship with Christ? Do I? That, that then is I obey God and I do what God wants me to do. I'm not just a hearer of the word, I'm a doer of the Word.

I'm not just listening, I'm acting on it. So now I'm walking in wisdom. And when the storm comes, and it will, then that storm comes, I'm going to be able to stand true because I've got a foundation that is built of rock. I found just a couple quotes, not from commentators of the Bible, not from maybe even spiritual people from two construction companies about the importance of foundation. The foundation is the cornerstone of any construction project.

It ensures the stability and durability of the structure. A strong foundation is essential for longevity and the safety of a home. Second construction company neglecting the importance of a robust concrete foundation can lead to disastrous consequences, from minor cracks to a complete structural failure. That is Matthew 7 friends, right there. The wise man builds his house on a rock that he listens to these words of Christ and he applies them.

The foolish man hears the same words of Christ, does not apply them, and therefore builds his life on the same land of the world in his own thoughts far different. And there's an extreme verse 27, the house collapsed, and it collapsed with a great crash. Now let me just quickly say, if you are in a moment of house collapse, the grace of Jesus Christ runs to you. You don't have to stand there in the stubble and the rubble and say, I blew it. There's no hope for me.

Jesus is right there and wants you to turn to him so that you can rebuild on the rock. Right? There's grace. Because remember when we started, it's not about your good works trying to get a relationship. It's you have a relationship and then it results in the rest of the things of your life.

And so that makes the huge difference. And here's the deal. Storms are going to come. Storms are going to come. Our series is called Reading the Owner's Manual.

And I went to this really cool used bookstore and I was looking for old owner's manuals, and I got this one. And this. I thought, this is perfect. This is great. The Complete Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook.

Isn't this great? The Complete Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook. But this is the man skills one right here. Okay, so this for the, for the dudes in the room here. Now I just opened it up and I looked through the table of contents.

Got all these different things here, but I picked out some ones that I thought were kind of interesting, a little bit funny here. This is for the worst case scenario here. How to crash land a plane on water. It could be helpful, you know, I don't know if the United guy's gonna say, please, row 20, seat B. We need help.

You know, come but number two, how to outwit a pack of wolves.

How to deal with a charging bull is another chapter. How to survive. We're on the Gulf Coast. A pirate attack. How do you survive a pirate attack?

You need to know these things. The fifth out of six is this. And I think this is the one that many of you are going to need here. Knowing our congregation. How to disarm an irate golfer.

It's got a whole thing about now, when they got their club and they're trying to hit you, move to the center of the body so the head of the club, club will not hit you. Grab the shaft of the club, all this thing. So how to disarm an irate golfer and then just report him to the course and he'll be thrown out, you know, never be back at that place again. How to disarm an irate golfer. You might need that.

And then the last one is this. And we get a little more serious here talking about these storms. How to sail through a typhoon. That's what Jesus is trying to tell us, how to sail through a typhoon. Your typhoon may be grief.

Your typhoon may be financial struggle. It may be at work or at home. Your typhoon may have a name. And you got hurricane so and so barreling through your life right now. So what did it say in this chapter?

It gives you 12 steps on how to sail through a typhoon. But I'm just going to give you three. The first three that I thought were good for us here. Number one, reduce speed.

Number two, determine your position. Number three, adjust your course so when you go through a storm, your life has to slow down. You got to go to the hospital now. You got to go to the doctor's office now. You got to call your friend now.

You got to have a mediation now. You got to talk about this now. You got to have meetings about this. You got to pray about this more. You got to read more scripture about it.

Storms reduce the speed in all of our busy lives. And here's the truth of it. We all know this. You get a phone call this week about something that's a storm, and nothing you got planned this week makes a difference at all, right? Doesn't matter.

Everything gets canceled. Slow down. Not only do we slow down, but in the midst of that, the second thing that it tells us here is, it says, determine your position. We begin to ask, where am I with God? Where's God?

Is he even real? We have to determine our position of, do I know Christ as savior? Am I building my life on the Solid rock of Jesus, or am I just kind of doing some stuff? Determine your position and then number three, adjust your course. See, all storms are either perfecting storms.

You're walking with God. No storm perfects you. It makes you grow deeper in your faith. Or it's a correcting storm. You're not walking with God.

And this storm makes you get to your knees and. And you're like, lord, I need you. I need. I need you to get me right on the back, on the back, on the right path to be able to do that. Now, I have preached and we could preach a whole lot of sermons on did God allow it?

Did God cause it? Where's God in it? All of those sort of things. But I'm just telling you this. Jesus is right there for you in the midst of the storm, and the storm is going to come.

Are we built on right righteousness and wisdom or are we avoiding. Are we built on foolishness? Here's your point. We can. We can't avoid storms, but we can choose our foundation.

We can't avoid storms, but we can choose our foundation. And storms hurt tremendously. But we want to choose a foundation of wisdom and of Jesus as the solid rock, because God will take you through it. Will it hurt? Absolutely.

It will wreck your soul, your heart, but Jesus will grab your soul. He has your soul and your heart and. And to be able to let you go through it. But he'll be right there with you. I want you to look, if you will.

I put on your listing guide just so you can have it very easily, a chart that just gives us a thought of where we are we building on. Foundation of wisdom or foolishness. And when you look at this chart, it just gives you all these different categories. And you just use this this week to say, okay, if I'm building on the rock, I'm gonna make it through the storm. If I'm building on foolishness, then I'm not going to make it through the storm.

There's going to be a great crash. Take this this week and look over this and read some of these scriptures and understand what is happening here. With this, you and I are going to go through storms. But when you go through it with the Lord, he'll take you through it. House built on the rock.

Joshua said, as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord. So that's what we want to do. We want to build on that rock. That rock is number one salvation number. That rock is wisdom.

It's application of obedience. And that gives us the rock in the storm to hang on to doesn't mean it's fun, doesn't mean you like it, doesn't mean you wish it upon your worst enemy. But it means that you can trust God, that he'll see you through it and he'll take you through it. There's things you'll never get over, but you will get through. And we've got to trust him with that.

Now, look at this last verse of scripture. In verse 28, he's wrapping up or he's. He's done with the Sermon on the Mount. Now, this is the response to the Sermon on the Mount, verse 28. When Jesus had finished saying these things.

What are these things? It's the Sermon on Mount. From chapter five to chapter seven. The crowds, like bunches of people were astonished at his teaching. Why?

Because he was teaching them like one who had authority, not like their scribes. Why does he have authority? Well, he has authority because he's the Son of God. He's God in the flesh. He's God come to earth.

He's sinless. He's perfect. He's the Savior that's gonna die. He says, my Father. He says my words, listen to my words and act on these words.

So that's why he's got authority. He's not just some human being. Jesus is not just a teacher. He's not just a nice guy. He's all of those.

He is the Son of God with authority. So listen, listen, talking about obedience. So when we talk about God's words and Jesus words, and Jesus does not just give advice. He gives commands. He does not just expect us to.

To kind of make them optional. He expects that we take them as essential. He doesn't expect that we ponder it, expects that we walk it. Why? Because he's God.

Can the potter say to the. Or can the. Can the pottery say to the potter, what are you making? No, it's God. And so his words are authoritative and makes a huge difference.

He's not just giving advice, he's giving commands. He's not just saying, hey, this is kind of just something, if you feel like it. He's saying, I want you to obey. True discipleship means submitting to Christ's authority in every area of our life. And you know what?

That's a blessing because your house doesn't crash. And you make it through the tough times we're all going to go through. Now, remember I showed you a picture of the beachfront and Michael Florida panhandle. Let me show you that same picture. But A circle of a house that's standing.

You see that house that's standing. Let me show you a little bit closer view so you can really get a picture. Beautiful, beautiful beach house right there on the water. Beautiful beach house. Why did that beach house stay for this reason?

The owners built it to withstand 250 mile per hour winds. They spent 15 to 20% more money on construction, which none of us want to do. Right. 15 to 20% more on construction, so that they surpassed the standard building codes. They just went way past them.

That house the walls of are 1 foot thick concrete walls. We're not talking studs and sheetrock. One foot thick concrete walls. The pilings are 40ft down. There are steel cables in the attic that are holding the roof on.

Absolutely amazing. And it all started with putting a cement rock foundation at the bottom of it. That house can be our lives if we build on the rock of Jesus Christ. Matthew 7. There's going to be two roads.

Broad leads to destruction. Narrow that leads to life. There's going to be two trees. One that's got good fruit, one that's got bad fruit. There's going to be two foundations.

One that's built on the rock, one that's built on sand. So he's saying this. If you will put your life on the narrow road and trust Jesus as savior, then you'll be a good tree and you'll blossom fruit. And as you blossom fruit, you'll find that your life is built on the rock because you are walking in wisdom and you're walking in obedience based on your salvation and relationship with Jesus Christ. And the storms will come, but you'll make it through.

Why? Because of you. No, because of him. And he'll take you through. You won't like it, it'll hurt greatly, but God will use that in your life and then watch what will happen then.

You will be a testimony of the house that stands in the midst of the storm. And others will turn to you and say, how are you guys making it? And you'll be able to say, it's not us, it's our faith in Jesus. He's the only way. We got no hope besides him.

My life's built on the rock storms. Oh, yeah. Oh, they're blowing. They're blowing. And we don't like a bit of it, but we're gonna make it.

We're gonna make it and we're gonna trust him. Church. Build your life on the rock of Jesus.