Firm Foundations: Week 1

Andrew and if you're new or if this is your first time here, I'm

so glad that you are here today. Hope we get a chance to meet

personally as well. We are starting a new message series called Firm Foundations,

And as we start this series, I want to begin by telling you.

When Lauren and I moved here to Indianapolis, we were house hunting and I

had some very specific standards for the house that I wanted to buy. For

example, in particular, I wanted to have a house that was on a

slab foundation or a basement foundation. I did not, under any circumstance,

want a crawl space foundation. Now, if you have a cross space in

your home, like, there's nothing wrong with that, no judgment. This

is just my personal preference. You see, in my past, I've got

some baggage with cross space. I've got a history of a family of raccoons

living in my crass space. You know, the cross space is how you

get under the house, under the foundation. So I've got some trauma that

I'm working at. So I wanted a slab or a basement and I even

remember going to one showing and walking to the house and asking the agent,

is this a cross space, and I said yes, and I said,

I'm not even interested and didn't even look at the house. So the house

that we did buy is on a concrete slab, no basement, just a

slab of concrete, which I liked at first until we started having some plumbing

problems. And the only way to solve some of these plumbing problems is to

jackhammer through the concrete slab. My concrete slab has been jackhammered so many times

to fix these plumbing problems. Oh, what I would give for a cross

space. Our most recent plumbing issue happened actually on the day that Lauren went

into labor with Shepherd, and so I was at work, Lauren was at

home pre labor things, and the plumbers were there. We had clogged drains

and things backed up, and so Laura and was trying to answer these questions

like, yes, this is on a slab, in between having contractions.

What I would give for a cross space. Now, One of the solutions

to these challenges, a contractor told me, is that I could replace all

of the plumbing throughout the entire house. And the contractor said, it's a

pretty standard job, could be done in a couple of days. Be very

cost effective. And then I told the contractor that the house is on a

slab, not a cross space. His eyes got really big and he said,

oh, forget everything. I said, this is going to cost you

three times as much as I quoted you. And I thought, Oh,

what I would give for a cross space. Whatever the foundation is, cross

space, basement, slab, whatever you have. You want to have a

strong foundation. You want your house to be sturdy. You want to withstand

flooding, you want to withstand or come through any plumbing challenges. You want

to have a good, strong foundation. And your life is no different.

Your life needs a strong foundation. And so I want to ask you today,

what are you building your life on? What's the foundation in your life?

Are you building your life on your success, your income, some future

retirement plan. Are you building all your hope and your trust on your reputation

or the connections and the friendships that you made. What are you building your

life on? Because I gotta tell you, this life is painful, This

life is difficult, and you're gonna experience suffering, You're gonna experience lost,

You're gonna be disappointed, and you better know that. You know that,

you know that what your life is built on is gonna make it through all

those troubles. You gotta know that you're gonna withstand the storms. That's why

Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter seven. Therefore, everyone who hears these words

of mind and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his

house on the rock. The rain came down, and 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. Jesus is the foundation for the

Christian life. Are you building your life on Jesus? Are you setting your

hope, your expectations, your future on Jesus? And so, as we

begin this serious firm foundations, I want to encourage you. I want to

implore you to make decisions to build your life on Jesus. Build your family

on Jesus, build your character on Jesus. Help your children build their lives

on Jesus. In this series, we're going to be looking at the ten

commandments that we find in Exodus twenty, where God visits his people and he

gives them the laws, and he gives them these ten commandments, and you

probably know some of them. Things like you shall not murder, you shall

not steal. You shall have no other gods before the One God. You

shall not commit adultery. These are the ten commandments. We're gonna be looking

at these in detail, and in the coming weeks we're gonna look at each

of the ten commandments. But today I'm not gonna look at one particular commandment.

Today, I want to provide an introduction to this series, and I

would like to lay a theological foundation for what's to come. And so we

go back to where did the Ten Commandments come from? God's people had been

in slavery for four hundred years in Egypt, and then God brought Moses,

their leader, to lead them out of slavery. They left Egypt behind,

they crossed the Red Sea, and now they find themselves in the wilderness,

and the whole nation camps out near Mount Sinai. There in the wilderness and

on Mount Sinai is where God's presence comes to his people. The scripture tells

us that God comes down in a great cloud on top of Mount Sinai.

His voice is like thunder, There is lightning, there is fire. It's

it's intense, it's intimidating, it's the glory of God here on earth.

Even modern day historians and archaeologists have identified Mount sat and they have found volcanic

rocks and activity where there would have been fire and lightning on that mountaintop.

And so God's presence is here. And then he speaks to Moses and he

gives him the law. This is what we read in Exodus twenty four.

The Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and stay

here. I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments

I have written for their instruction. I recently came across this meme. It's

really cheesy, but I think it's funny. You know, Moses was the

first person to download from the cloud onto his tablet. It's cheesy. Now

I have my own tablet here. This is something that helps me when I'm

teaching or preaching, and I use this iPad. Now, I remember before

the iPad, the iPhone was the revolutionary invention. I remember when the first

iPhone came out more than seventeen years ago. Did you know that the iPhone

is so old that you can see it in the Smithsonian Museum. It's ancient

now, I still remember the first person I knew personally who bought the brand

new iPhone, the very first version. It was Mike. Mike always had

the latest technology. He had the newest, he had the fastest. Every

year. Mike got a new iPhone. Every year. Mike got a new

computer. Every year. Mike got a new car. He leased his cars

and trade him in every year. Mike needed to have the fastest, the

greatest, the latest. He didn't want anything that was outdated. Now,

some people may ask, is it the Old Testament law outdated? What's the

purpose of the Ten Commandments now at our modern time? And what's the use

of the ancient law in our modern time. Didn't Jesus say, I've come

to fulfill the law. Well, those are some of the questions that I'm

going to attempt to try and answer today. And so first we need to

know what did Jesus say about the law. Look at his words in Matthew

five. Jesus said, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter,

not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from

the law. Until everything is accomplished. Jesus affirmed that the law is not

outdated. The law is a part of our Christian faith. So now we

ask what does Jesus in the Gospel have to do with the ten Commandments?

And here's what I'll say. This is the big idea, the main point

of this message. God's law is a curb, a mirror, and a

map. God's law is a curb, a mirror, and a map.

And I'm gonna explain more about those three things. In preparation for today,

I learned a lot from the work of Pastor J. D. Greer.

He's the first person I heard describe the law as a curb, a mirror

in a map. So God's law is a curb. What does that mean?

Well, God's law curbs evil in our lives. His law curves obeying

his law curbs in our lives. Recently, I was parking my car and

as I was backing up my car into the parking spot, I felt the

whole car bump and then come to a stop. What do you think happened?

I hit the curb, and I was nervous because I thought maybe I

had damaged my car or hit something. And so I got out of the

car and looked, and I was relieved that there was no more damage because

the curb protected me from doing more damage. The law of God can protect

us. It's a curb that protects us from doing more damage. For example,

think about the last five of the ten commandments here in Exodus twenty.

Those last five say, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery,

you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony that's lying,

and you shall not covet your neighbor's house. Even if you're not a Christian,

you probably recognize obeying these commands is gonna curb evil in your life.

It's gonna curb sin in your life. These are a good thing. I

mean, obeying the command not to commit adultery, it's the minimum that you

can do to have a good marriage. Obeying God's command to be honest,

to not steal. I mean that's the simplest way to show your employer that

you're a trust for the employee. I mean, God's law curbs the effects

of evil. Another example is the fourth Commandment. The fourth commandment in Exodus

twenty verse eight says remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days

you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a

Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any

work. So part of God's commands is work six days and rest on the

seventh day. This one command has been historically proven to curb negative effects in

the human body and the human mind. In more than two hundred and fifty

years ago, the nation of France tried to outlaw the Sabbath during the French

Revolution. They didn't want anything religious or Christian, and so they outlawed holidays

and traditions, including the seven day week, and so France installed a ten

day week, so you would work ten days and then get a day of

rest. How do you think that went for the French. Well, after

just a few years, everybody was really worn out. People were tired,

people were exhausted, people were getting sick, people were depressed. Because God

created us to work six days and rest on the seventh he was onto something.

And it only lasted a few years before France had to go back to

a seven day week. See God's law is a curb that keeps us from

running our lives off the road. His law keeps us protextus keeps us on

the right path. It's a curb that day when God came to visit his

people. He came down on the mountain. Cloud and smoke filled the mountain,

and his voice was like thunder. There was lightning, there was fire.

It was intimidating, it was awesome. It was the glory of God

in front of human beings. The glory of God, the righteous of God

came down, and God gave Moses very special instructions for his people. In

Exodus nineteen, God says, put limits for the people around the mountain,

and tell them be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the

foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death.

See, God is holy, God is perfect, and all of his glory,

all of his presence is coming down onto the earth on this mountain.

And sinful people cannot enter into the presence of God without being consumed by his

righteousness and his glory. And so God's warning them. He's putting up these

limits. He's saying, you don't want to get too exposed to his glory

or he will consume you. You know, we have the eclipse on Monday.

Remember all the warnings we got, Remember all the guidelines we got.

You know, don't don't stare at the sun, don't fry your eyeballs,

wear the paper glasses. I don't know about you, but on Monday,

I was out in my yard with my neighbors, staring up at the sky

with those glasses, and for just a second, my glass is slipped tonight.

Just for a second, I stared right at the sun, and I

was seeing spots for a while. God gave special instructions about his holiness because

if sinful people are exposed to the full presence and glory of God, his

glory consumes that sin. He cannot tolerate sin. See God's law reveals how

holy he is and how seriously he treats sin. And when we think about

sin, we think about it from a human perspective, a human centered view

of sin. But if you want to be right with God, you got

to be perfect. God does not great on a curve, and there's no

margin for error with God. J. D. Greer puts it this way.

We think sin is not that bad because we have a very human centered

view of it. It doesn't seem bad to us. But you measure the

wickedness of a deed in part by whom it's against. So think about this

way. You measure the wickedness of a deed in part by whom it's against.

Think about this way. So you get angry, you get frustrated,

you get irritated, and in your anger, you kick the wall. I

mean, that's bad, but it's really not that bad. You didn't like

hurt anybody. Or you get angry, you get frustrated, you get irritated,

and in your anger you kick the dog. Now that's really cruel.

But then you get angry and you get frustrated and you get irritated, and

in your anger you kick your child or your spouse. You are evil and

wicked. You're gonna be arresting, you'll be sent to prison. You see,

this is a human centered view of sin. We measure the severity of

sin by whom it's against. God doesn't measure it that way. See,

all sin is against God's perfect standard, against his holy standard, no matter

how insignificant or severe we think it is. For a God, the standard

is the standard, and we have to be perfect. And so what I'd

like to do is do a little exercise together. We're gonna do a little

participation together. If you have your phone or a device you can find the

church at the Crossing app and there's a place where you can follow along in

notes during the message. And we're gonna use some of those notes right now,

and if you don't have that, you can use pen and paper or

a note on your phone. But we're gonna go through briefly all ten commandments,

and I'd like you to ask yourself how do you measure up to each

of the commands. And then you're gonna turn this into me. I'm kidding,

you're not gonna turn this into me. No grades, it's just for

you, just an exercise, and they're gonna be on the screen. And

so if you have kept the command, mark yes. If you have broken

the command, mark no. So we'll try the first one here. You

shall have no other gods before me. If you've kept that, mark yes.

If you've broken that mark no. Can you honestly say that every day,

at every moment, every second of the day, that God has been

supreme in your thoughts. God has been number one in your decisions and your

desires. If you can say that, go ahead and mark yes. Number

two, you shall not make for yourselves an image that's idolatry. Now I'm

gonna mark yes here, I've kept this command because I doubt any of us

got a little gold statue at home that you're praying to each day. But

you know, as I think about it some more, I think there might

be some idols inside my heart, some hidden idols. When I think about

it even more closely. There are some days, especially on payday, that

I go check my bank account before I ever think about God, before I

ever pray, or before I ever thank him for what He's given me,

I go check my paycheck first. Number three, you shall not misuse the

name of the Lord, your God. God's name is holy. Have you

ever misused his name? Dishonored his name? Here's another way to think about

this. It's you know, the name Christ is in the name Christian.

And if you call yourself Christian, have you always honored the name of Jesus

with your actions, your words, your thoughts? So have you always honored

the name Christian? Number four, remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy?

Have you faithfully dedicated one day a week to worship and rest. Number

five honor your father and your mother. I know I've broken this one.

I'm embarrassed to tell you when I was a teenager. I was angry that

my dad and my stepmom got married, and so, in my bitterness and

my resentment, I wrote down on a piece of paper some very mean things

about my stepmom, and then I like crumpled it up and hit it away

in my bedroom, and unbeknownst to me, my dad found that little note.

I can only imagine how much hurt and pain I caused. Number six,

You shall not murder before you check yes, have you ever hated someone?

Have you ever wished them harm? Jesus says that's as good as murder.

Number seven, You shall not commit adultery. Have you ever looked at

someone with lust sexualized somebody? Number eight You shall not steal. Have you

ever taken something that didn't belong to you? Nine You shall not give false

testimony that's lying. Have you ever exaggerated the truth or intentionally left something out?

I mean, God recently convicted me that. Recently, when a friend

asked me a question, the honest answer to their question felt a little embarrassing

to me, and so in order to save face, I answered the question

in a different way that wasn't as embarrassing, but it wasn't fully honest,

and then number ten, you shall not covet your neighbor's house. Now,

I'm gonna tell you I have broken this commandment specifically, Yes, I have

broken this commandment. I break it almost every Sunday. I think I broke

it this morning because on my way to church, there's a street near my

house that has some beautiful homes and I don't know if they're on a slab

foundation or a basement, but they are beautiful. And there's this one house

that I think is my dream house. And I drive by and I can

see myself living there, and I've watched them over the last year do updates

and remodels to this house. They've got a freestanding barn on one end.

They've got a whole new outdoor patio covered patio place, and I see myself

living there. And I tell myself, when this house goes on the market,

I'm gonna tour that house. Whether or not I can afford it,

I'm gonna go because I want to live there. And you know what,

when I take that drive, that drive from my house to church, past

my dream house, that's not the shortest route from the house to the church,

I take the long way, so I can go look at this house.

All right, how'd you do anybody get ten out of ten? What

about nine? What about ninety percent? Everybody get ninety percent? Now we

probably all are about zero out of ten? Now what is happening inside?

It's the human centered view, right, the human rationale is telling you,

well, hey, I'm not perfect. Nobody's perfect. You know, I'm

not as bad as a murderer or a terrorist. But that's the humans interview

of sin. We try to justify and rationalize it. But God's view.

God's standard is the standard. It's his holy perfect law. If you want

to be right with God, you have to be perfect. You have to

keep all ten at every time. Even if you've kept nine out of the

ten, you still failed. James Chapter two tells us whoever keeps the whole

law yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

One mistake, one slip up, one failure, and you've broken it.

You're condemned. This is because God is a holy and perfect and righteous God,

and he cannot tolerate sin. So now, when you're looking at the

ten commerers, when you're looking at the law, and you realize that you

have failed. You've got really two choices, two responses. On one hand,

you can choose legalism, and on the other hand, you can choose

liberalism. If you choose legalism, then you say, I'm gonna have to

be perfect. I'm gonna have to obey these commands perfectly, and if I

can't keep them perfect, have to at least present myself and fake it till

I make it. And if you choose legalism, then you're going to start

judging other people based on your own standard, your legalistic standard of morality.

But then if you choose liberalism, then you say, well, you know,

it's more about the spirit of the law. It's it's you know,

those are kind of an older time. We need to kind of make adjustments

and contextualize, and you know, it's more about you know, the heart.

But that's a liberal view of God's law. And so I want to

propose a third option, and I want to say that when we look at

the law, the law is a mirror. The law is a mirror like

this rear view mirror from a car. When you look at the law of

God as a mirror, you see your sinfulness, You see that you don't

measure up. You see your score on the ten commandments, that you are

not worthy, that you have failed, that you have sin. You see

your failure in the mirror. And if you're listening to what I'm saying,

and you are living in sin, and you do not have a right relationship

with God, and you have not asked God for your forgiveness of since,

I want to tell you that you just can't invent your own morals, that

all the good things in your life are not going to outweigh the bad things.

I'm telling you that your only hope is Jesus. Your only hope is

Jesus. See. God's law is a mirror that shows us our need.

When I was a teenager learning how to drive, I did a lot of

my practice driving in my mom's minivan, which is a really safe car to

learn in, but it's also a really big car to try and park,

and it barely fit inside our garage. There were just a few inches of

margin between the side mirrors and the garage walls. And one time I was

backing out this minivan from the garage and I wasn't paying as much attention as

I should. And this was before backup cameras and I just smacked one of

the side mirrors right off the car. Now, this was a huge lesson

for me in driving. It was also a big lesson in restitution when I

had to pay for that mirror. When we look at God's Law as a

mirror and we see our sinfulness, we see that restitution must be made,

but we are incapable of making that payment. Only one person has lived a

perfect life. Only one person has never sinned. Only one person has no

regret, and that's Jesus. Jesus is our hope. You see, the

law is a mirror that shows us our need for a savior. The gospel

is that Jesus lived a perfect life, and then he sacrificed his life on

the cross as a payment for your sins so that you can be forgiven.

And then he rose from the dead three days later, securing your eternal life.

This is the gospel. You cannot keep the law. When you look

at the law, the law condemns you. But when you look at Jesus,

he saves you. Romans eight, verse three tells us what the law

was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh. God did by

sending his own son and the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.

So he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of

the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to

the flesh, but according to the spirit. You see, Jesus became your

substitute. He paid the price for your sin. He kept the law,

the law that condemns you. He kept it perfectly. So now when God

looks at your life, he does not see your failures. He doesn't see

your mistakes. He only sees the righteousness of Jesus. You see when I

look at God's law like a mirror. When I look at the law,

I see my failure. When I look at the law, I see my

sin nature. When I look at the law, I see all of my

mistakes. I see all that I'm ashamed of. I see all I feel

overwhelmed. When I look at the law of God, I feel condemned,

and I feel no hope for salvation. But when I look at the cross

of Jesus, I see my salvation. Look at the hands of Jesus nailed

to that wood, I see the scars of love. When I look upon

his face, beaten and bruised. I see the grace of God. And

when I see and look upon that empty tomb, I see my victory over

sin and my victory over the Law. This is the Gospel, This is

the good News. This is the foundation of our faith. Now I'm gonna

say something that might sound surprising. The Ten Commandments are not the foundation of

Christianity. Jesus is the foundation. The Ten Commandments are part of our faith.

But without the Gospel, the ten Commandments are not helpful. See.

Without the Gospel, the ten Commandments condemn you. But because of the Gospel,

we can embrace the Law of God. We can embrace the ten Commandments.

See Jesus is our foundation. Ephesians chapter two tells us that you and

I are built on the foundation of the Apostles the prophets, with Jesus himself

as the chief cornerstone. The firm foundation is the Gospel. So what do

we do with the law? What do we do with the ten Commandments?

This is why I say that God's law is a map. God's law is

a map. I remember in the old days when we had to get paper

maps before we took a trip, and I would go with my parents to

the Triple A store to buy maps. Did you know Triple A used to

have a brick and mortar store. And so we'd get our maps and then

we would take a highlighter and we would highlight our roots and the interstates and

the highways that we were, circle where we're going to stop, Like we

plotted out our map. Nowadays, what do we do? We used GPS.

Put it in your phone your device and use follow GPS turn by turn.

Recently, my brother in law, Blake, came to visit here in

Indy and he was driving from Dayton, Ohio, and Blake put in my

address in his GPS. I live on Dartmouth Road here in Indie. You

recognize the house that has a slab foundation and all the water damage, and

so Blake put in Dartmouth Road and he started driving following his map, but

he was driving away from Indiana. He was driving north instead of coming to

Indiana. He was driving further away from Indiana. But his GPS told him

he was getting closer and closer to my address. And he drove like this

for thirty or forty minutes until Blake realized that he had entered in Dartmouth Road.

Michigan, and so he had to turn around and course correct and follow

the map. It's Indianapolis. When you put your faith in Jesus, when

you receive the gospel, God puts you on a course. He gives you

his righteousness. He puts you on a path to follow Jesus, to become

more like Jesus. And hear me, clearly, look at me. When

your faith is in Jesus. The path that you're on is not the path

to perfection in this life. We will not be perfect in this life.

The path you are on is the path of holiness. Firs Peter tells us

this. But just as he who called you as holy, so be holy,

and all that you do, for it is written, be holy,

because I am holy. God has called us to become like Jesus, to

be holy. And what does holiness look like in this earthly life. It

looks like obeying the law. It looks like repenting from our sin. It

looks like making course corrections. Like my brother had to course correct when he

was on that drive. We have to course correct. When we see sin

in our lives, we repent from it and we yield our lives to God.

We follow Jesus, You're on a path of holiness. God's Law is

a map that shows us the path. Here's why this is so important.

Can I tell you why this is so important for you and for your family.

We live in a culture that is increasingly more and more pluralistic, in

a culture that continually defines morality as relativism. That you can create your own

right and wrong, that you can pursue your own truth, that you can

live how you feel is best for you, without an authority, without a

standard. But the standard is God's law. And there are some in our

culture, even Christians, who will tell you, don't worry about the Old

Testament law. Don't worry about that standard. What we need is to do

what Jesus said in Matthew twenty two. Jesus says, love the Lord your

God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it,

love your neighbor as yourself. So there are some in culture, and

some who are Christians, who will say, just do this, love God,

love people. Keep it simple. I don't know about you, but

how do we know what love looks like? How am I supposed to know

if I'm loving God and loving people. Am I supposed to just make this

up on my own? Am I just supposed to do what feels good?

Am I really going to follow my selfish desire? Let my sinful heart decide

what love looks like. God's law shows me what love looks like. God's

commands teaches me how to love my neighbor. The commands of God show me

that being honest is how I love my neighbor. God's Law shows me that

not committing adultery, being faithful to my spouse, that is how I love

my family. God's law shows me that keeping the Sabbath is how I love

God with all my heart and all my strength. It's God's law. God's

law is a map that shows us how to faithfully love God and love people.

And so when somebody says, don't worry about the law, just love

God and love people. Just keep it simple, my response to that is

to say, well, look at how did Jesus finish that statement. Look

here at Matthew twenty two. He says, this is the first and grace

commandment, and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.

Then verse forty, Jesus says this, the law and the prophets hang on

these two commandments. Notice this, He says they hang on these two commandments.

This word hang on in the original Greek language that Matthew is writing,

and this word hang on can also mean depend. So Jesus is saying that

the law and the prophets depend on loving God and loving people. He does

not say that loving God loving people replaces the law. He says all of

the law depends on this. You cannot keep the law unless you love God.

You cannot follow the law unless you love your neighbor. And you can't

love other people unless Jesus has changed your heart unless your life is built on

the Gospel. That's how we love. God's Law is a map that shows

me how to faithfully love God and love other people. I want to return

to the mirror as we end here. I want to think about this rearview

mirror. When you look in the rear view mirror of your life, what

do you see when you look at that spiritual rear view mirror? What's in

your past? Can you see where you've come from? When you look in

the rear view mirror, can you see where God intervened in your life,

where God has saved you, where God has forgiven you. Can you look

back, can see how far He's brought you out of that brokenness? Have

you ever noticed in Exodus twenty how did God introduce the Ten commandments? How

did he start? He did not start by just jumping into thou shalt do

this, thou shalt do that? How does he start? Look at Exodus

twenty verse one, God spoke all these words, I am the Lord.

You are God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of

slavery. Before God ever gives a command, he reminds the people where they've

been. He reminds them where they've come from. He reminds them of His

grace that brought them out of slavery. And so when you look at your

rear view mirror, can you see that you were once in slave to sin,

You were once in darkness, you were dead in sin. But God

has rescued you. God has brought you out. Can you see where He's

answered your prayers? Can you see where he's reckoned stop? Can you look

back and can you see what God has done and the healing that He's brought

in your life. This is the gospel, This is the grace of God,

God's grace to us through Jesus. And so I would returned to that

question. I asked at the beginning, what are you building your life on?

What is the foundation to your life? If you are building your life

on anything that is not Jesus, today you can make a decision start building

a new foundation. As I was preparing this message, I was reminded of

an old hymn. It may be familiar to you, and I want to

close by just reading these words, it says, my hope is built on

nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

but holy lean on Jesus's name. On Christ, the solid rock I

stand. All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness veils his lovely face,

I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale.

My anchor holds within the veil, his oath, his covenant, His blood

supports me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way.

He then is all my hope. And stay on Christ, the solid rock

I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking

sand. What have you built your life on? Let's pray together, Father

God, thank you that we have a hope and a confidence because of Jesus's

death and resurrection, that we can stand firm in the storms of life.

And right now, I want to recognize that if you are listening to this

today and you do not have a right relationship with God, you are living

in sin. You are far from God. But today you want to make

a decision to build your life on Jesus. You can do that right now,

just in this moment. Turn your heart to God and confess to him

that you're a sinner. Ask for his forgiveness in this moment, tell him

that you believe Jesus died on the cross for you and rose from the dead

to save you. Take this moment, you're laying a new foundation, my

friend. And now, Father God, thank you for all of us,

that those who are new to faith, those have been walking with you for

many decades. God, would you continue to encourage us, continue to give

us the motivation. God, would you restore our joy as we pursue you,

As we say no to the temptations of the world and we say yes

to your commands. We say yes to your instruction. God, give us

the faith to keep walking and to keep building our lives on you. And

we pray all this in Jesus' name.