Summer Song Vol. 3 // "Solid Rock"

I wish I had an accent like that.

People be like, I want to listen to you.

Actually, I'm just hey, good morning, everybody.

Thank you for being here and worship.

I'm glad that you have chosen to come and worship together in this place.

Thanks for those joining online and worshiping with us too.

I know we got vacationers that will, wherever they are, jump online and worship with us too.

And I love this theme.

All the songs we've already sung have been really leaning into this kind of what are you building your life on?

And as I was thinking about that this week, we really do build our lives on all kinds of things.

And some of them are really great sounding.

And I would even argue they don't just sound great.

They are not bad things at all.

Like the, you know, maybe this thing that we call the American dream sometimes, where we're just trying to achieve to be able to live comfortably, a home that we live in that we can afford, maybe a fenced-in yard, being married with children, having a dutiful, very low-maintenance dog to go along with all that, you know.

That's the dream, right?

And that we, there's nothing wrong with being very responsible and uh being very productive in society to be able to earn a wage, to be able to do those things.

You know, some people have a real passion for acquiring knowledge and they love being in school, they love studying, and they get multiple degrees.

I don't think that's a bad thing.

Some people really have this mindset.

I just want to make a difference in the world, and they're pursuing all kinds of volunteering opportunities and just getting outside of their comfort zone and doing things that maybe they never thought they would do.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

I've heard a lot of people say, and I'm sure I've said it as well, just to be able to give to our kids some things that we did not have when we were kids.

I hear that a lot, and for some people, that's almost like their life purpose statement.

And I've even heard people say they do that for their grandkids too.

I'm a grandpa this weekend, just become a grandpa.

Best promotion I've ever had.

Uh and I just can't wait to see him after church today.

Hold my grandboy.

We're so excited.

And so that's another thing.

Sometimes we're like building our life on.

I just want to be that great husband or dad or grandpa or grandma or mom or wife, or whatever it is.

Those are great titles that we get to have.

That's a great thing to aspire to have.

Those are wonderful things.

And you might be expecting me to say that it's bad to build on those things, or you might be expecting me to say, if you build your life on those things, it will fail.

And I would argue with you, that's not always true.

In fact, sometimes the problem is we can build our life on something that's mostly really good.

It's not a bad thing, it's not an evil thing, it's a good thing.

Those are great things to aspire and work towards.

And the problem is that they actually really, really do work.

And it seems like everything does come together.

And at the end of the day, what can happen is we've built our life on some things and it's going well.

And I would argue if we're fortunate, if we're blessed, we'll begin to experience one of two things.

One is this unshakable feeling that there's something more to life than that.

Those things, even though they're not bad things, acquiring knowledge, uh building a life, having a home, being the best, whatever, whatever hat you wear, being the best version of that that you can possibly become, those are not bad things.

But if those are the things, the only things that we're focusing on, that we're living for, all of our tasks are centered on, I do think there's a chance over time, I feel like even though I've greatly succeeded at it, something's missing.

And if you feel like you're not succeeding well at it, the good news is that's not all there is to life.

That's not all there is.

If you've been chasing that American dream and it's felt a little bit more like a nightmare, you know what?

Maybe that's a blessing because that's not all there is to life.

I think a second experience that can happen is that, yes, going well, feel pretty good about it.

I don't necessarily feel like something's missing, but then sometimes completely out of nowhere, a storm blows through and it can knock some of that down or take some of that away.

And sometimes when that happens, it doesn't matter what your income is, it doesn't matter what degree you have, it doesn't matter what life goals you've achieved or not achieved.

We then, when a storm passes through like that, begin to ask maybe a different question, such as, what really does matter most?

What can I build my life on that actually lasts, that truly matters, that no storm can take down?

And I want to say this at the very front.

Don't wait until a storm comes before you get your life on a firm foundation.

Don't wait till it hits.

Like take in this thing.

You might be feeling like, I don't know, man, I I'm not going through any storms right now.

Life feels pretty good.

Well, this is a time to be thinking about this too.

Don't wait till you're in crisis mode to begin to think, wow, maybe there's something else I'm supposed to be building my life upon.

But if you are going through a storm, if a storm has hit your life and knocked it down, rebuild on something.

And I would say instead, someone better.

Someone better.

This solid rock song that we'll sing in a while when we close our service together.

I like hearing what Keith Getty said about it.

And he he spoiled it.

It's based on the words of Jesus, a parable that Jesus told about the wise man and the foolish man who built on two different foundations, one built on sand, one built on rock.

Now, here's what's cool about this: that is the very ending of Jesus' sermon.

A big, famous, amazing, you have to say, probably the best sermon ever preached.

He ended his sermon, Jesus did, with that parable.

So context is important.

Matthew chapters five through seven are that sermon.

And we call that sermon the sermon on the mount, because Jesus was on the mount when he preached it.

So that's why we call it that.

But I was making a little list of just all the topics Jesus hits on.

I encourage you, go back today.

It'd take you just minutes, mere minutes to read this sermon, but it's so practical.

So many topics that Jesus touches on in Matthew chapters 5 through 7.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

But I made a little list like how to experience God's blessings, being salt and light in the world, how to view the how to view the Old Testament law, dealing with anger, dealing with lust, divorce, honesty, how to not retaliate, loving your enemies, giving to those in need, how to actually pray.

What about fasting?

Treasures in heaven, how to deal with anxiety, how to not judge others, believing that we will receive what we ask for in prayer, the golden rule, doing unto others as you have them do unto you, how to discern false teachers, and the importance of knowing, actually knowing Jesus Himself.

He covers all of that in this sermon.

It's an amazing sermon.

And it's important that we know all of this when we think about Jesus being our foundation, because there's something I'm gonna argue today that we miss about making Jesus our foundation.

We'll get to that in a moment, but before we do, let's read that parable that Jesus closed with in that sermon in Matthew 7, verses 24 through 27.

Matthew 7:24–27

It says this everyone then who hears these words of mine that he had just spoken for two other chapters, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

So as I look at this, what we just sang is so good.

I love those songs, and it's like we're gonna build our life on Jesus.

Jesus is the firm foundation, and what I'll argue, he's that rock, and the rock is there.

Jesus is there, right there.

But just because you believe Jesus is real, and even if you believe he is right, it doesn't mean that your life is built on the rock.

You must pick up all the stuff that makes up your life, you must pick it up piece by piece and carry it over to the rock and begin to put nail to hammer there instead of where it is now.

Does that kind of make sense?

This is what I'm learning from looking at this parable in the context that it's the end of this long, amazing, awesome sermon that tells us how to live.

It's commands of Jesus Himself.

The foundation isn't just person Jesus and He's there and we believe in Him.

And just because we believe in Him, that means my life is on the firm foundation.

No, it's whoever hears these words of mine, Jesus says, and does them, then they are the ones who have built their life on the rock.

We must pick up all the things that is our life.

Whether it is I'm acquiring knowledge, I'm getting degrees, whether it is I'm trying to achieve this certain kind of American dream, like I want to have an income and I want to have a home and I want to be a good husband, wife, dad, mom, grandpa, grandma, all the things, sibling, all those things.

I want to achieve, I got goals.

I love sports, and I'm doing this and I'm doing that, I love this, and I'm doing this and doing that.

All those things that we pick them up piece by piece, and we walk them right over to Jesus and we say, this must be founded on him.

And when we begin to do that piece by piece, it looks so different than when it's not built on him.

It's built on our abilities or our own hopes and dreams or something else.

But we bring it over here and put it on him, it begins to be built completely differently.

I think we tend to shy away from a word.

I I have to be honest, maybe I do too.

Maybe I don't say this word often enough when I'm teaching or bringing a message, but that word obedience, the word obey, it's like, oh no, now it feels like rules, man.

Like this is the way.

I think I tend to want to avoid becoming too legalistic.

Like if you really want to follow Jesus, you must, here's some rules to obey.

Here's some uh a list of uh directions you absolutely have to follow in order to be in the good graces of God.

I think that's why I tend to shy away from that word.

In fact, I was thinking to myself, I don't research a lot of worship music in general.

And I thought, I wonder how many worship songs are actually out there that use the word obey.

And I found two.

The old hymn that some of you might be thinking of right now, trust and obey.

I used to sing that, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.

And then another one is actually entitled Obey by Tiffany Hudson.

Never heard of it or her at all, but it's there.

You can Google it and listen to it and sing along with it if you would like.

Now, there's plenty of songs that infer obedience, probably.

We have a lot of songs that talk about us surrendering to the Lord.

But if we're not careful, we may treat that as something extremely passive where we're just letting go and doing nothing before Jesus.

But make no mistake about it, us having Jesus as our firm foundation is a very active thing to do.

Jesus made it very clear in Scripture, in all the things he said, that he wants us to actually love him back.

And the indication that we actually love him back is that we believe him and we trust him.

If we trust him, then the things he asks us to do, we will actually do them.

Because that's what it means to trust in him.

Is that he says to do this?

He says, if someone asks you to go one mile, go a second mile.

That's hard.

We don't tend to do that naturally, but when we begin to build our lives on Jesus, like even though I don't want to go that second mile, he says to do it.

So let's try that.

He says to love our enemies, that goes against all of our nature, right?

To do that, instead, we want revenge, instead, we want payback, instead, we want to defend ourselves at all costs.

And yet he says, love your enemies.

And so to actually build our life on the firm foundation is to not say, I know I should love my enemies, but, and then sing firm foundation.

No, instead, we actually got to do that.

And with his help, that's what's beautiful about it, is that what's great about this thing we call the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is it's not us doing it outside of his strength, outside of his power.

Man, he said it was he told his disciples, it's good that I'm leaving you, because when I leave you, the counselor, the parakletos, the Holy Spirit will come and dwell within you, and he will guide you, he will strengthen you, he will comfort you.

And that's what he does.

We actually put hammer to nail with our lives on a firm foundation of Jesus with the help of Jesus every step of the way, which is awesome.

And so, in fact, just to make sure you understand that I'm not blowing smoke here when I say that Jesus wants us to obey him, and he made it very, very clear.

He gets a little repetitive at the beginning of a farewell speech that he gave to his disciples.

He's about to depart from them, and they don't fully understand what's about to happen.

They don't fully comprehend that what he's preparing them for is his arrest, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.

That's all about to happen.

And so he's saying this at the beginning of his farewell speech in John 14.

Look at all these moments.

He says in verse 15, if you love me, keep my commandments.

Verse 21, whoever has my commands and keeps him is the one who loves me.

Verse 23, anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.

Verse 24, anyone who does not does not love me will not obey my teaching.

If you love me, you'll obey me.

If you love me, you'll obey me.

If you love me, you'll obey me.

If you if you love me, you'll hear what I say.

You'll believe that I should do that, and then you'll actually do that.

To love Jesus is to obey him, and to obey him is to create a foundation for your life that will withstand any storm.

So again, um, this is such a blue-collar teaching today.

It's not so much inspiring as it is goading a little bit, isn't it?

Like, okay, I I got something to do, but I get excited about that.

Don't you sometimes wonder, like, okay, that's cool.

We sing this praise song.

I want a life that will withstand any storm.

Don't you?

But you have something you can do to make that happen.

You get to just simply look at what Jesus says to do and believe him and love him enough to do it one by one, moment by moment, over time.

It's not built quickly, is it?

Just like Keith Getty said in his video, the parable is there that the wise man did this and the foolish man did this, but it took a while for them to come to a conclusion of whether or not they built it on a foundation that would stand or not.

And so that's okay for us to sometimes step back and say, okay, I've been building this life, and based on everything I'm hearing from Jesus, I think I need to do some remodeling.

I think I might even need to actually pick up what I'm building and move it over to a completely different geography and restart that.

And that's okay if that's what God calls us to do.

Jesus' way of living results in a life that's just built different.

We gave the example of loving your enemies and going a second mile.

I mean, when you read that sermon before that parable of the wise and foolish builders, he leans in even on the topic of divorce.

And just, man, back in that day, it was so easy for a guy to divorce his wife, and it made it made her immediately destitute when that happened.

And that's why Jesus was harsh about that.

Like, no, don't do that.

You you make a commitment and you you provide and you protect.

And don't just get annoyed one day and make your wife suddenly destitute.

That's why he was so firm on that.

He talked about prayer, like how to pray, and actually praying, believing, knowing that he actually hears our prayers and responds.

He talked about things that we all battle here in the year 2026, all the way back in the early first century, he was talking about anger and lust and finances and whether or not you should judge other people.

How those topics have stood the test of time, haven't they?

And Jesus speaks about them right here in this sermon.

And so if we hear his words and begin to do life his way instead, we become, over time, we become built different.

And over time, life storms will come.

They will come.

Loving Jesus doesn't prevent storms.

And you've probably heard us say this a lot lately when my friend Jeremy Lawson came and filled in for me back in May.

I loved his message talking about that moment when Jesus was literally sleeping on a boat while these fishermen disciples who had seen a lot of storms in their life thought they were about to die.

This must have been a bad storm for them to be that freaked out.

And yet there is Jesus.

And it's just a reminder that if he's with you, it's enough.

If you're with him lockstep, it's enough.

It doesn't mean there won't be storms, but he's enough to get you through them.

And here's another thing: no storm can destroy your life founded on Jesus.

No storm.

And you might be going through one thinking, I don't know if you're right about that, Bill.

But I made a list of some things like disease.

I mean, it might deeply, deeply impact our bodies, but not the life built on Christ.

That's eternal.

And nothing can take that away.

And I since I do running as a hobby, and I look at that sometimes in my feeds, I happen to have that algorithm going right now where I'm seeing inspirational stories of runners, people with one less limb than I do running like crazy, just going past their limitations that they thought they would have for the rest of their lives and saying, actually, I can do a lot.

Disease is not the end.

Divorce of one of the topics Jesus talked about.

That happens in life, but it doesn't mean your life is over.

Depression, grief, broken relationships, failure, financial loss, family crisis.

Those storms hurt.

And they may rip off some shingles, it might erode some paint, it might take off some.

Siding, but if you are following Jesus, your life will not fall.

You will withstand the storm no matter what.

It may not look the same.

Your house that you've been building may not look what you thought it would look like.

Because none of us sit around thinking, yeah, I know, I hope I go through some really hard storms in my life.

We don't sit around thinking of that.

We don't want that.

But when they do come, they do reshape us.

But I would argue that because of what Christ does, what is built different after a storm is so strong and so good and such a blessing to everyone who walks into that house being built on that firm foundation.

I was thinking a lot this week about my mama.

Um I did a funeral this week and being able to talk to the grandkids, it's actually Karen Anderson, a longtime member of Hickory Grove Baptist Church, and she 14 years ago had a major stroke and was cared for so well by her family over those years.

Um to be able to tell those grandkids, like, you know what, my my mamma is still the closest person in my life that has passed away, and that was over 23 years ago, and to this day I still think of her all the time.

Like the ripple effect that she's had on me is still right there.

But I remember finding out I'd only been a believer at most a year and a half following Jesus.

I'd known my whole life that Mama believed because she took me to her church when I was little.

Man, that was a holiness Trinity Tabernacle Appalachian Pentecostal worship service.

I was like, my mama took me to the church to be able to, because I wanted to go to church with Mama, so my mom took me there.

I remember it vividly.

Some things you don't forget.

I couldn't tell you what I wore yesterday, but I remember saying, I want to sit with Mama.

Sure, you can sit with Mama.

I went to the front row where Mama was.

The singing got started.

Mama got the tambourine she brought from home going, and I got scared, and I went back to my mom in the seventh row back.

Um, but man, I knew she loved Jesus as harder than anybody ever knew loved Jesus.

So I didn't understand, I didn't understand how this saintly woman could get cancer, especially throat cancer, because she sang with all her heart on the front row of her church every single week, multiple times a week.

And when they did revivals, they went a week long, and they'd sometimes decide at the end of that week that it wasn't over, and they'd go another week, and my mama would not miss a single one.

And so this is a Lord, why moment?

Like, this makes zero sense.

And I struggled with that, man.

And I'm telling you, and I've told you all this before, I the spoiler is that who she was in Jesus remained the same in that storm, and that's exactly how my dad's soul got saved.

That was the thing that he saw that was transformative to him.

It wasn't that, wow, now she did have healing.

Like it was a journey, long journey of healing, but she gave glory to God for how she became cancer-free, which truly was a miracle with the kind of cancer she dealt with.

But watching her learn to swallow again, learn to talk again, watching her sing with a raspy voice as best she could in worship.

Ultimately, over time, even though her cancer was gone, the effects that it had in her throat and Larnix area caused other issues.

I remember when finally she just couldn't eat anymore because it was just too dangerous.

She would aspirate.

And when we would go to visit her, uh, she had this amazing meal.

She always made uh pork roast, mashed potatoes, and gravy and cornbread and green beans grown from the garden and corn, and it was amazing.

She would have that all sitting out for us.

We'd make our plates, and she would go to a private room and eat because she would get choked on it so much.

She didn't want us to hear her choking on it.

Eventually, it just became too dangerous.

So she got a feeding tube, and she had that for the last season of her life all the way.

There would be times I felt bad she would still do that in a separate room, and I'm like, I just don't like this.

Here we are sitting in the kitchen.

Mama's in another room.

So sometimes I'm like, I'm gonna go show Mama.

And she'd just have a grin on her face, and she'd unhook a little tube that stayed connected to her, attached this flash to it, looked like a big like auto mechanic funnel or something.

And she'd bust open this white stuff and say, Hey, this is my mashed potatoes, and just pour it in and laugh at me.

She just had such a good attitude about it the whole way, the whole way.

And here's what I learned from my mama's life the storm can come and totally reshape your house, and yet it won't fall.

It looks totally different, but it stands so firm and so gloriously.

And I wanted to be with her in that house, even though what she went through is so hard.

Y'all know this passage that we refer to as the Great Commission.

In fact, our Mexico missionaries right now, we supported them through purchasing shirts that had the Great Commission on them.

And I want to read it for you, Matthew 28, 18 through 20.

It says, Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

And I would highlight to you in verse 20, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

It's why we do Bible study, it's why we do small groups, it's why we gather and not just sing worship songs, but we open up his word and we learn and we learn because what it means to be saved isn't to just pray one time and ask him to forgive us of our sins, and then we've checked the box and we're good.

It's bigger than that.

We were made for so much more than that.

We gotta spread the word that Jesus isn't just a distant, one-time savior, he's a present architect.

How sad our lives would be if all Jesus was to us was some guy we've never met that maybe that we will one day see in heaven, that we just need to ask him to forgive us, and good, we're in.

What about the day-to-day grind?

What happens when the storms come?

What do we do?

How do we battle the crises that we face and the sadness and the disease that hits?

And Jesus is like, here's how.

Follow me, listen to my commands, obey them.

And as you obey them in faith, that love relationship that you and I have together, it will sustain you through everything.

You will get through anything and everything, and even though your life might look different than you thought it would look, it will be built by my hand.

This is how we make sure Jesus builds it and not us.

He is a pioneer and the perfecter of our faith, as it says in Hebrews 12.

We just let him be the engineer, we let him be the architect.

We see what he tells us to do, and we do just that.

I love it.

I got a few questions as we close our time together that I want you to consider.

What are you building your life on right now?

If someone were to like pin you in a corner on this topic and just say, all right, what you building your life on, what is it that you're chasing after?

What is it that is your main goal and purpose in life?

What would that be?

How would you answer that question?

And chances are it's not that bad of an answer.

But what I would argue to consider is what if that's not the foundation?

But you're supposed to put that on the foundation of Jesus and let him be the engineer and the architect of that.

Your studies you're pursuing, the life you're trying to live, the income you're trying to achieve, the goals you're trying to reach?

What if you submit all of that to Christ and come over to the foundation that is him and look at what he says to do and do it his way instead of your way?

If you do that, you will be built differently.

And that's another question I would ask you to consider.

In what ways is your life already different because of Christ?

This isn't just a message and a teaching meant to discourage and challenge.

If Christ has made your life different in some way, that's awesome.

Recognize that today and give him praise for that.

And maybe even say, cool, I I did do some building on that foundation.

That's proof of it right there.

This is how my life is different because of Christ.

I'm thankful that I built that on him.

What storms have you survived because of Jesus?

Or what storm are you in right now that you need his help?

And that's your Jesus story that God's going to use not only for your good, but for his glory.

God's going to use the storm that causes your house not to fall to be a sermon that preaches to someone else.

And I ask you to consider sharing that story with someone, whatever that might be.

So as we pray together, I would ask you, if you haven't begun already, to start with great intentionality, picking up the pieces of your life that you're trying to build, and walk right over to Jesus, who's right there with you, and begin to build upon him starting today.

Let's pray.

Father, I thank you so much that you teach us that you didn't just die for us to have your forgiveness.

You died for us and you came back to life to dwell in us and to help us build the life that you have in store for us.

Lord, may we crucify our dreams and instead look to you to give us the dream that you want to have for our life.

Father, I thank you that no storm can take down our life that is built upon you.

Help us to draw courage and encouragement from that, oh God.

Father, there might be someone here, someone watching, listening online.

They have yet to truly turn to you and begin that walk with you, that faith relationship with you.

Lord, I pray that they would do that right now, that they would turn right now and say, Okay, God, I'm done building my life in my own strength and on a foundation I think feels good today.

With your help, God, build my life on you.

I give you all my life, I give you all the pieces of it, and I ask that you be my architect, that you be my engineer, starting right now.

Oh God, thank you that we can choose that today by the power of your Holy Spirit, by the grace that comes from the death, burial, and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ.

And it's in his name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

I'm gonna