Firm Foundation

Thank you for listening to the Riverbend Church Podcast.

Riverbend Church exists to lead all people to know, love, and

live new life in Jesus Christ. We hope that you enjoy this

message. Thank you so much for taking

time to check us out here today online.

I hope you are having a great time.

Wherever you're at, I hope you're relaxing, grilling maybe

by the pool at the lake, wherever it is.

I hope you're having a great time celebrating with friends

and family on this fourth weekend.

So thank you so much for tuning in just to check us out.

And so I just want to say man, happy 4th of July weekend.

You know, we love to celebrate this time of year.

With grilling, parades and most of all fireworks.

We love to have fireworks. Now.

I grew up in kind of, I'll say, rowdy family that like to really

have a good time and to say that they love the 4th of July would

probably be an understatement. So we would always go to my

uncle's house. And we would be about 30 or 40

of our closest family members. And we would play in the pool,

we would play horseshoes. And for some of you who don't

know what that is, that's the that's the older version of

cornhole. So we would have cornhole would

have all these things going on in the night.

Always ended up with a homemade fireworks display by the adult

men. Well, we always knew we always

graded this fireworks show. Simply because if the fire

department actually had to show up and put out a fire, we felt

like that it was a really good show.

So it was always so fun just to get together with friends and

family and have so much fun and just enjoy that time together.

But I want to start the message and it's going to be a pretty

simple message and it's going to be pretty pointed.

But I want to start the message with one question I want you to

think about, and this is it. When you think of freedom, what

comes to mind for you? So when you think of freedom.

What comes to mind? For you don't have to yell it

out. Wherever you're at, you don't

need, just think in your mind. Just think on that for a second

of what comes to mind when you think of freedom?

Well, this past week I had the incredible privilege of going to

the beach with my family and we had a blast.

Now, when we go to the beach, we get our money to work.

So it was our entire family. Well, all of us, except for one.

He's in Minnesota doing an internship.

So we spouses, kids, everybody, we load everybody up, get a

condo, we go to the beach. We get our money's worth, so

when we get there in the mornings, we pack the coolers

with lunches, everything. We go down to the beach and we

hang out there all day until about 5:00.

O'clock. We know that it's always good

time for us to leave when everybody starts wrapping up in

towels because it's cooled off. So we're going down, we got our

umbrellas, we set our umbrellas and our chairs and our beach

bags and all those good things. It's all set up and I'm sitting

under the umbrella and I'm just kind of hanging out before I go

down to the water and I see this family to the side of me.

And this dad pulls up with a wagon and looks like it's got

5000 Santois in it. I mean, it is loaded and he's

got it. And the wife starts setting up

the chairs. Well, there's a son and a

daughter with them and they waste no time at all.

The daughter just pulls out this shovel.

Now, unlike the shovel I have, she pulls out like next level

shovel, like an actual shovel, and just starts digging.

And I was like, huh, Well, that's that's interesting.

I don't know about you, but my Jess and now when we go to the

beach, part of the fun of going to the beach is people watching.

And so we have this weird thing we do, and I know it's weird, so

bear with me. Don't judge me.

We make up names for families sometimes and stories behind it,

and it's just the whole thing and sometimes it gets really

weird, but it's just, it's just kind of fun for us to do.

So we're watching, I'm watching this family, and we're just kind

of, I'm just checking them out and the daughter just goes to

digging. Well, she starts to waste no

time at all. Like, she just goes straight for

her. She's digging this hole with a

son. And the husband wasted no time,

grabbed their buckets and they started taking the extra stand.

They just started making these piles around the outside of this

hole. I was so fascinated by this

whole ordeal. Not the fact that they were

building their masterpiece, saying Castle on the beach for

the fact that no one said a word, not a word.

It's like they were looking at a flow chart.

Before they went out to the beach to say, here's what you're

going to do, I could tell this was not their first rodeo.

This is not their first time building the sandcastle.

And they knew exactly what to do.

Everybody had a roll. Every had something they had to

do. And so they were just going at

it. Well for over an hour.

Yeah. Again, don't judge me.

I watched these people build this sandcastle for an hour, and

that was hot. And I was sweating under the

umbrella. I know, poor me.

So I'm, I'm under the umbrella and I'm watching them and their

sweating never slowed down. And this thing's starting to

take shape. It's looking good.

So I'm invested by now. And then, like, dude, you wasted

an hour of your life watching these people.

We know. We've all done it on TikTok,

YouTube. We went through that rabbit hole

and an hour later we're watching them make paint or something

weird like that. So we've all done those things.

So I'm watching in fascination, too, because no one's really

talking. Still, after an hour,

everybody's just working. Every now.

They take a break, go cool off in the water, come back.

They're still working. It was incredible to watch.

Them build this thing and they were just going at like they

were even going for the Moat around the outside and I was

just this is watching. But then when I I started to

look around there were lots of other people on the beach

building sand castles too. Not not just stain castles but

like some were nicer than others.

Some were I mean elaborate some were not so much some were just

a bucket with. Just this and maybe something

fancy right on top of it. Just to say, you know, there

there there wasn't much. But hey, to each his own.

You know, build, build what you want to build.

It's your masterpiece. This one guy built a shark.

Some of this pedestal thing came up, had this whole shark.

It was impressive to say the least.

But I'm looking at all these sink houses down the beach and

I'm just curious. I'm like, wow, this is so

interesting because I mean, I've, I am myself, of all the

times I've been to the beach with my family, have dug.

Thousands of holes and built hundreds of sand castles.

But this time was different from me because when I looked around,

I saw all these people and I was like, it's just we're all

building something. They're building their

masterpiece. They're having fun.

They're enjoying it. They're together.

And it hit me. And this is this is our life.

This is a picture of our life. I know you may say.

Wait a minute, Greg, what are you saying?

We're all building, we're all building something like right

now, wherever you're at, you may be with friends, you're building

community, you're building into other people, you may building,

you may be building a career, you may be building a family,

you may building a a retirement, a nest egg, a business plan so

you can start a business. And what's interesting about us

too, is as we build, we're always, you know, we're we're

going to make sure everybody else knows because some of us

are even building our influence on social media so we can help

build that business. So we can build those other

things. So it's one thing or the other.

All of us in here, some of us are actually building multiple

things at one time. And so it's it's an interesting

concept. Not only do we just build these

things and we're builders, but also too we're, you know, we're

taking selfies, we're taking videos, we're posting those on

Snapchat, TikTok, we're telling you how to build your

sandcastle. We're telling you all the things

that we've done to build this amazing masterpiece structure

that we have. Just so that you too can build

it with us. And so we we're we're all doing

this. We're just sometimes we lose

track of us building our masterpiece and we lose sight of

all the things that are around us.

And so it's interesting because Jesus talks about this very same

thing in Scripture. It's in Matthew Chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Now if you haven't read Matthew Chapter 7, it's an incredible

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

book, just a chapter there. Not the book, but the chapter.

And and it's Jesus talking to a crowd now this is a it's it's an

encouraging it's a challenging chapter to read it's Jesus

starts throwing truth bomb after truth bomb and he is just giving

life application of do this do this.

How about this. You should do this you shouldn't

do that. He's going on and on so many

times through this through this chapter of what we should do

everything from judgment to how you should treat others and.

How you should. I mean it was just it was about

how you seek after him. It's going on and on and then

Jesus takes all of this and he wraps it up in this verse at the

end, which is a really cool analogy.

That was what made me think of and it and it's going to be on

your screens, so read along with me.

It's in Matthew Chapter 7, verse 24 through 27.

Matthew 7:24–27

It says everyone then who hears the 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 wind blew, and it

beat on that house, but it did not fall.

But inks have 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 it beat against that house and it fell.

And great was the fall of it, man.

So Jesus takes all those those those things he had been saying,

and at the end he wraps him up with this.

Now, there's some really hard truths and some really

encouraging truths in this passage, and I'm going to pull

out just a couple. And just for a challenge for us

to think about today. And the first one is this,

Storms are coming. It's that simple.

And it's. It's that profound.

The storms are coming. If you're not in a storm coming

out of a storm, then you're about to go into a storm.

Now I know that's not encouraging news on you're like,

man, come on, we're grilling and you're going to throw this at

me. But let this is the truth of

what we live in. Their life is full of storms

now. Not all those storms are

horrible. There's been some storms where I

I actually love to go out on our front porch and watch when

storms blow in. And they're pretty cool because

sometimes they come in and sometimes they go out.

Storms in our life are the same way.

Sometimes they're quick. Sometimes they have somewhat

pain, but they're inconvenience and it's not.

But then there's some of those storms we're holding on for dear

life and we're hoping we make it through it and it's hard and it

feels like it takes absolutely everything that we have, but we

just keep holding on and our family, Jess and I.

No storm. Very, very well.

And there's been some really bad ones and not so bad ones in our

life, but we just keep holding on and we just keep moving

forward. So the idea of storms are coming

in this passage, it it wasn't a when and if it said and the rain

fell and the floods came, it wasn't when it was.

They're coming and it's going to happen.

What's it built on the second truth out of this?

Is knowing what to do is not enough.

So it's interesting so many times as Christians we say oh I

read the Bible or I go to church or or I'm in a small group or or

I even I even give or I even do some of these things and and and

Jesus here is is when he's talking to the crowd saying hey

hey hey this is it's not about just knowing it's because he

says here he says everyone who hears these words of mine and.

Does them will be like a wise man.

That's the trick here. This is a simple, simple

concept. Just.

I mean it's it's it's so simple that sometimes we overlook it

and we get caught up in it and we just miss the the hard truth.

It's not about just you. We hear these words.

We hear the teachings. We know where they are.

Then he goes, now do them. Even some of the versions of

this passage say that you make them an everyday part of your

life. That's what the application

process when we talk about giving scripture handles, we

give those things. That's the ideas that I give it,

something I can grab on to make it a part of my daily life so

that it means something to us. So knowing is not just enough.

It's about being a doer. I hear these words, I know the

truth, and I do them. See, Jesus isn't looking for

perfection from you. It's not.

Jesus is saying I doesn't want you to be obedient.

Take this truth of who I am, of who this is, and put it into

your life. Put it into practice and watch

what it does. Give it some space and see what

happens. You know how many those

masterpiece sand castles, even that cool shark, were left at

the end of the day? Zero.

None of them. Let's see.

None of you expected them to be there either, because we know

how that works. We know that simple concept.

The tide comes in and washes it away.

Our life is the same thing. Storms are coming.

The tide's coming in. What are we building on?

So I want to go back to the question that I asked before

when we started. When you think of freedom, what

comes to mind for you? When you think of freedom, what

comes to mind for me? Miss Jesus, if you want true

freedom, true true freedom from bondage, from sin, from those

things that don't weigh us down, that's found in Jesus and him

alone. That's where the truth is.

That's what he's saying here. Hey, if you wants to build

something that's going to last, build it on the truth of Jesus,

the truth that he tells us, that we mold our lives into, that

it's about him so. Michael is going to, he and Jen

are going to lead us in some worship.

And I'm going to ask you to do something right now.

And I know maybe weird Wherever you're at, wherever you're

you're you're listening to us at.

But I almost want you to turn up the volume.

Take a minute, close your eyes. And as they worship, I don't

want you to allow God just to speak to your heart, create some

space for him to say hey, and ask the question, what is it in

my life that needs to be built? On him and it's about him.

So I ask that question. Allow space for God to just move

in. You let me pray for us before we

worship God. We thank you so much for the

opportunity to God. Just open your word.

God. We thank you for the truth of

who you are. God, I pray as we look around.

Of all the things that we're building.

God, we ask those hard questions.

Are we building him on the truth of who you are?

They built on you the rock and God.

I pray that you would speak to us.

And God, I pray that we are honest with ourselves and honest

with you. But God, more than anything, I

pray that we are doers. God, when you say yes and lead

us God, we say yes right back. God, we thank you for that

opportunity. It's your name, we pray.

Thank you for listening to the Riverbend Church Podcast.

To learn more about who we are as a church and how to connect,

you can head over to our website Riverbendchurch dot Life.