Solid Rock & Shifting Sand

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This past week was Vacation Bible School Week, as you can see through the video, and it was the largest vacation Bible school we've had to date.

Amen.

There was over 200 in this building on this property all week long, and it was packed.

Thank goodness for all the help.

We stayed sane because of you.

And uh man, it was awesome.

I just want to say a word of affirmation.

Uh I know that he's working, but to Pastor Eli for his dedication and organization to uh making the vacation Bible school what it was.

And then Joe and the teens, they rocked us out in worship every night, and the kids were so excited about that.

Um and the serve team again.

I just thank you.

It was so good to just see God's house and property and land all being used.

We used every piece and part of these buildings and property, and there was uh people serving all over.

So it was such a good, good week.

And um, man, thank you.

I just from the bottom of our heart, thank you for serving and to see the looks every night on kids' faces that we're here.

And I tell teens before they, you know, get up and worship with them and everything.

I said, there's some kids that this is probably the best week of their summer.

There's some kids we have no idea what they're going back home to.

And so I just thank God for the opportunity that we had.

And with that said, I'm gonna run right into a commercial.

August the 20th, we are kicking back off, relaunching our kids' Sunday school ministry.

And so I really hope that our church will get behind this.

And um, we don't want our kids to miss a service.

We don't want to miss an opportunity to begin um discipling that generation.

And so, anyhow, the good thing, I'll tell you the good thing up front, I'm I'm sugarcoating here, okay?

This is the good thing.

If you serve in this ministry, you'll never miss a Sunday morning service.

Because it's 8 45 to 9 30 for the kids' ministry and Sunday school.

And I'm gonna tell you, we probably need a minimum of 10 people to get rolling August 20th.

Um, so I'm gonna be in the lobby and I'm gonna ask if you have, if you're willing, in any part, it'll be on a rotational basis.

We're not asking you to sign up for a year or two years or even two months, but we we want to have enough people to rotate on that.

But I do want you to think and pray on this.

Does God want me to invest in discipling the future of CCW?

And I know the answer.

I know it.

I know it.

We need you.

And so after the service today, if you'll see me, I'm gonna try to get Eli um from his duties so that you can check with him.

But if we had ten people, we can kick this thing off and get rotating, and uh, it's a great opportunity to invest in our kids.

All right, my commercial's over.

Turn your Bible to Matthew chapter seven, and we are gonna be talking this morning about solid rock or shifting sand in Matthew chapter seven.

I heard a preacher tell a story about one time he was at home and he noticed in his bedroom on the wall there was a crack on the wall.

He looked at the crack and he decided what he was to do was to call a painter in.

He had a friend and he called the painter and he said, Sir, he said, as you can see there, I've got a crack in the plaster of my wall.

Can you fix this?

And he said, sure.

So he removed some plaster, he patched it up, and he repainted new paint over.

Everything was good for a month.

He said, after a month, he said, the crack came back.

And when that crack came back, he said, I felt the fever running up inside of me, and I got pretty angry.

I called the painter back up and I said, The job you did didn't fix the crack that's on my wall.

He said, So he came back, he looked over it for a moment, and he got the plaster, moved some plaster out, and began to fix that and laid on more paint than he did the first time.

He said, Everything seemed fine.

I was happy, he was happy.

Six weeks later, he said, the crack came back and it brought its cousins.

There was cracks all over the found on my wall, and he said, I was really mad this time.

He said, but I figured the first guy couldn't figure this out.

I'm gonna call a different painter.

So he called in another person, and that painter came and he said he stood there and he looked at the wall.

He said, what seemed like an inordinate amount of time, just staring, staring, staring.

And he finally said, he looked over at me and he said, Sir, I can't help you.

He said, What do you mean you can't help me?

There's a crack on my wall.

He said, I understand.

He said, Don't you fix that?

He said, That's what I do.

He said, But the problem that you have is not the crack on your wall.

And he said, I'm about to lose my mind.

He said, I see a crack.

You see a crack.

Everyone on God's planet could see a crack on my wall.

He said, But the crack's not your problem.

He said, Well, please enlighten me on what my problem is.

He said, Sir, the problem is that you have a faulty foundation.

He said, Until you fix the foundation of this wall, you're gonna have cracks to the end of your time.

He said, So we need to get to the bottom of this foundation.

Now, I heard that story and I recall when we were at Calvary Baptist Church in Connorsville, Indiana, there were cracks that were filling the wall that led to the youth room.

And I would have the maintenance man paint it.

He painted it.

Well, a time came after about six years we were there, somebody came, I don't know who they were, but they came and they checked the building.

They said, We're gonna have to condemn this building if you don't get this fixed.

They shut us down for four months.

Have you ever tried to run youth ministry in the middle of the Midwest with no building in the middle of winter?

So we went to the boys and girls club for six months with no sound, and I'm yelling and screaming at kids, doing all I can, and I've built now a lot of people they might have said, Well, I'm just gonna take off for six months.

I'm gonna take this vacation because God allowed it.

You know, we had built a ministry and we wanted to keep that thing going.

And so they had to come and sixty thousand dollars later, we had our building back.

And so it was a foundation problem.

Well, that makes me think.

There's an old song that we used to sing.

It said, My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

Man, I'm thankful for the hope we have that's built in the rock.

Let me pray.

Father, we thank you today for the opportunity to read in your word.

And God, we ask that you would open our hearts to discover this morning what it is we need.

I ask that you would touch the heart of every individual, open them up to what you have them here for today.

Lord, and I pray that we would not leave here the same as we came.

We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Look at Matthew chapter 7, verse 24 and 26.

Matthew 7:24

We're gonna start at.

The first point this morning is building reveals our foundation.

Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I'll liken him to a wise man who builds his house on the rock.

Look at verse 26.

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

The first thing we have, letter A, is a comparison of constructors.

There's a wise man and a foolish man.

And what do they have at the beginning of their lesson here?

Both men heard instruction.

We know that.

Maybe the same church.

They heard, when you look at this story and the background of it, perfect preaching proclaimed from the perfect proclamator.

Both men heard these sayings of mine, it says, which were Jesus.

These sayings of mine.

The key is not just hearing these sayings of mine, but what do I do with these sayings of mine?

And so we believe here at the Church of Chelsea Westover in four key pillars.

And one of those key pillars to our church is clear biblical teaching.

Hearing these sayings of mine, and then what do we do with that instruction?

What made me think about the scariest time that I have most years?

Some men here can identify with this is Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve is one of the scariest times I have most years.

It's getting a little better, but for years and years and years, we would buy gifts and keep them in a closet hid from the kids until Christmas Eve, in which Heather would then employ me to put things together.

And I'm not very good, I'm just gonna be honest.

And everything that had to be put together had instruction manuals, and I thought about all the different things, and maybe the worst was a Barbie dream house.

And I looked at this thing and the packaging, and it and it pulled out to what looked like a mural of instructions.

There were pictures, there were words in Greek, Japanese, I mean all kinds of things, and I'm looking at this and I'm like, oh no.

And my nightmare was coming true as I began to pull hundreds of pieces out to this thing for my sweet angel's Christmas morning delight.

And I'm like, this is never gonna go good.

And I'm going through it, and finally I got the whole thing about together, but then there's an elevator because what Barbie doesn't need an elevator.

And I'm gonna tell you today, to this day, that elevator never worked.

It was supposed to take Barbie.

You had to rig up your own little poolies.

I was like, it'd be fine, it'd be fine, it's in there.

Okay.

But when I was looking at that instruction manual, man, it was it it scared me.

All instruction manuals, when they come out, look, I do not like a piece of furniture that comes in a box.

Period, there.

That's a bad sign.

If it doesn't come built, it's probably not good anyway.

But you'll have a big giant piece of furniture in a box like this, and I'm like, what is going on?

They expect me to do magic.

I have paid for the furniture, and now I'm paying me to put it together.

That's not worth the pay, I'm telling you.

I'll pay$400 more for something not in a box.

But those instructions, do you struggle being instructed?

Think about that.

If you're going to be a good house builder in this life, ears need to be in tune.

You need to learn to be a good listener and learn to get the right instruction.

Look at your neighbor and say, you need to listen.

Look at your second neighbor and say, you too.

Need to listen.

Well, both men had instruction.

Both men had imagination.

2 Corinthians 4.18 says, so we we do not focus on what is seen, but looking unto the things that are unseen.

God has placed within every man the substance and the capability to create.

We're creators.

We're able to dream.

We're able to imagine.

And so imagine, if you will, a blank slate is presented for a wise and foolish man for building a house.

Well, one question you'd have to have is what's a house?

In the Bible, there are at least four things that are mentioned as a house.

Number one, it's your life, the substance of your being, your significance.

No one wants a failed life.

No one wants to be meandering in mediocrity.

Nobody wants to be a nobody.

So it's your life, or it mentions your family.

Your life, your house is your family.

You hear in scripture, the house of David being mentioned.

No couple today walks down the aisle hoping one day for the day of their divorce.

Everybody wants to build a family or to have rebellious children running prodigal.

Nobody hopes for that or for a wreck at home.

We want to build the house.

Or it could mean your ministry.

Church in the New Testament is called the household of faith.

No pastor wants to have a shrinking membership.

We all hope to build the house.

We want to build the house of God.

Or it can involve society.

God called his people the house of Israel.

We have today a house of Congress, a house of representatives, the white house.

And no doubt we are all concerned about the political well-being of the house.

This is God's order.

I want you to understand.

Life, family, ministry, and society.

We don't sacrifice any, but both men were commanded to imagine and to build a house.

How's your house building?

Well, we see letter B, this a contrast in the construction.

We saw a comparison of the constructors, but what about construction?

I want you to see, I've got two different pictures.

First, I want you to see a picture of the burge.

The burge is in Abu Dhabi.

This picture's gonna come up.

And this building, that is not the burge, that is Edward Moat.

He's coming up later.

They may or may not have the burge, but if they do, you'll see it.

It's the largest building in Abu Dhabi.

It's 2,722 feet, 163 floors.

It has eight million dollars dedicated to its windows.

It takes 36 men three months to clean the windows.

Okay.

In order for this building to be this tall, there had to be something that started out of the gate.

And that is the building of the concrete foundation.

It is, I said, 163 floors up.

It's 164 feet deep in its concrete foundation.

110 tons of foundation.

Are you hearing me?

This building can hold 10,000 people at one time.

That's one building.

Well, if we had it, I would show you the leaning tower of Pisa.

You've all seen this picture before.

The leaning tower of Pisa is 186 feet tall.

Less than 10 feet deep in its foundation.

You see the difference?

164 feet holds the largest building we've ever seen.

Less than 10 feet holds a building that's never been right from the start.

It can fit 45 people in it.

And so we see a contrast when you think about these two buildings.

The construction shows very different starting points.

So I want you to see my pictures here today.

Very different starting points.

He said, A wise man builds his house on the rock, and a foolish man builds his house on the sand.

A rock is sturdy, a rock is durable, a rock can handle all kinds of weather.

The psalmist said, The Lord is my rock.

The Lord is my strength, my stronghold.

In Psalms 42, it says, He lifted me out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock.

He established my goings and put a new song in my mouth and speaking about the Lord and that foundation.

And so we know what a rock is.

Well, what is sand?

Sand is soft, sand gets muddy, sand is shifty.

I want to take you for a moment to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

I want you to look at a scripture that talks about God's building process.

1 Corinthians chapter 3, and we're going to start in verse 9, and I want you to follow along with me.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

It says, For we are God's fellow workers.

You see that?

Our purpose, church.

We are here to work alongside of him.

You are God's field, you are God's building.

According to the grace of God, which was given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it.

But let each one take heed, hear that, listen, be instructed on how he builds on it.

For no other, what did it say?

Who other?

No other foundation can lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now hear this, because this is a big part of the message.

Now, if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one's work will become clear, for the day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire.

Pastor Dave said, A storm is coming.

And the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is.

If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive reward.

If anyone's work is burned, he'll suffer loss, but he himself will be saved.

Verse 60, I need you to hear this.

Do you not know that you, me, were the temple of God, and that Spirit of God dwells in you?

And let me show you this verse.

Go down to verse 19.

Interesting right here that Paul in sync with building.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

And so we see all of this comparison and construction.

We're to build God's way, and that rock is wisdom.

God's way is to build in wisdom.

The world's way is sand.

Okay?

And so we see the comparison there.

The problem that I see is that some people want to live on sandy rock.

We want to have just a little bit here and a little bit here, and let me have a little bit of this on Sunday and Sunday on the weekend.

Let me have a little bit of this.

And I want to combine the two.

And you know what James said about that?

James 4 says that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

That's no foundation at all.

You cannot.

Listen to me, you can't.

You can't have both.

You might think you can have both, but that's unstable and it's going to topple over.

You cannot.

A double-minded man is unstable.

You can't have both because God said, either you're for me or you're against me.

You're not on the fence straddling both sides.

You're for him or against him.

You can't have both.

You're either rock or you're sand.

And so why then, if the Bible says this life of mine and yours is a vapor, are so many people playing in the sandbox?

What about our construction?

It's interesting.

The last time that I was studying this passage, um, about two weeks before I was alerted that I was gonna be studying this passage.

Pastor Danny told me that he was gonna be going on vacation, and he asked me if I would present something on the home, and God led me to this scripture.

He didn't give me the scripture, God led me here.

And let me give you the timing of that.

The time that I was gonna preach was March 17th, I believe, 2020.

March 17th, 2020.

God has me studying for two weeks, and all of a sudden, Thursday of that week, the news is throwing things all through our feed about a word I had never heard of before.

I'm just gonna be honest.

COVID-19 was rushing through the feeds of Facebook and on the news, and all the information was piling on, and all of a sudden there was panic and there was fear and there was scare in everyone.

We didn't know what we didn't know.

And so, but the the immediate it started coming out, and I'm and I'm studying through this passage at the time, and and God is speaking to me for two weeks about listen, you need to know that you're built on the rock.

You need to know your foundation is found in the rock.

And all I'm doing for two weeks is my foundation, all I am, is built on God.

Everything else can kind of fade.

If I build on it with hay, wood, stubble, silver, gold, it all can fall apart in the fire and the storm.

But God is secure.

And so God's feeding me with all that, and the information's coming.

Churches were canceling services before that Sunday.

All kinds of things were happening.

I'm coming home and they're telling us to take our clothes off and wash them in the washer before you expose your clothes.

We're we're we're cleaning the groceries before they get in the door.

All of this stuff is happening, and I'm going, what in the world are we doing?

And I found out quickly there's only one foundation.

COVID 19 is sand.

Found out quickly, a lot of people that had been leaning on the stock market found out, man, this is sand.

Politics, by and large, in ways is sand.

We found out in Weeks toilet paper was sand.

Couldn't get none.

Worldly gains were sand.

Matthew 6.19 says, This church, hear it.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on the earth where moth and rust does corrupt, where thieves can break through and steal, but instead lay up for yourself treasures in heaven.

And that's talking about a foundation built here that goes on for eternity.

You see, both buildings reveal values.

There's a difference between a wise man and a fool.

What is that difference?

Now, wisdom has nothing to do today, hear me, with degrees and doctrines.

Because do we all not know some educated fools?

Are you with me?

The difference is the ability to apply spiritual truth to life's realities.

Let me say that again.

The difference between a wise person and a fool is the ability to apply spiritual truths to life's reality.

The difference was not the information that both men were getting, it was the formation of the information.

What does the data do to your doing?

James 1.22 says, Be ye a doer of the word and not just a hearer only.

What does the data do to your doing?

Told teens for years, don't be a don'ter, be a doer of the word, not just a hearer only.

And so, church, I want you to know today, you can come in here and we can celebrate the data, but don't celebrate the data and then leave your toolbox here at church to meet you next Sunday in this building.

So before these men were to build a house, they had gotten a seminar in Matthew chapter 5 and 6.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Here's some of the highlights of the seminar.

Jesus said, You're to be salt and light.

You want to feel fulfilled in this life?

He said, You'd be salt and light.

He talked about marriage.

He said, Adultery begins in the heart.

He said, marriage is sacred.

He said to go the second mile.

Do more, do above.

He said, Don't worry.

All of Matthew 6 was about, don't worry.

Talk about timely for studying.

In the midst of COVID, God said, I clothe the lilies of the field.

Everything that's on this earth gets its breath from me.

You don't need to worry about one day.

It's got enough worry of itself.

And this is what God was feeding me.

Don't worry.

He said, Only people with a right foundation can live this way, though.

Only people with a right foundation can build a home.

Use your home to serve.

And the apex of it was in Matthew 6.33 before it gets to chapter 3.

He said, But above all of this, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

That is rock.

Are you hearing me?

But why do we need rock?

Because, look at verse 25 and 27.

A storm is coming.

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall.

For it was founded on the rock.

Verse 27, and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.

The second point this morning is this battling reveals our fight.

Reveals our fight.

Battles, letter A, comes from a source.

There's three sources, I believe, that we see.

And I want you to turn over just for a moment to Mark chapter four.

And we're going to look, and I believe exactly what Pastor Dave was talking about.

Mark chapter 4, three places that a battle can come from.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

Number one, we can face a trial, we can face a struggle, we can face a storm because Jesus wants us to.

One place that a storm can come from is because Jesus allows a storm.

Look at Mark 4, 35 and 36.

On the same day when evening had come, he had said to them, Hear this, let us cross over to the other side.

Now when they had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was, and other little boats were also with him.

And a great windstorm arose.

And so the first thing I want you to see is Jesus instructed the disciples to get with him and go in a boat.

Jesus showed them to a storm.

Are you understanding that?

He showed them to a storm.

Jesus knew the forecast, and he didn't reroute.

Jesus knew that the storm was coming.

This is how we know.

Jesus was a man.

He had directions, he was set sail, he was going, and he did not reroute.

Just because a storm was coming didn't mean he was going another way.

Some of the men are shaking their heads.

I had one job involved in my marriage to Heather and the whole marriage ceremony.

I had one job was get us to the honeymoon.

That was my job.

Say I do and get us to the honeymoon.

The rest of it was, yes, absolutely.

If you like that, yes, I love it too.

Yes, I love that photographer.

Yes, I love that cake.

Yes, I love them invitations.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Get us to the honeymoon.

Well, on the way to Miami to port a boat, we had a horrendous downpour.

I mean, it was just pouring out.

Heavens opened up and I'm like, bless God, I ain't stopping.

We're gonna get to this boat.

And I'm telling I couldn't see nothing, couldn't see in front of me.

I got a brand new bride with a family of people from Texas that are coming kill me if I do something to harm their baby.

And I'm driving, and I'm like, we are gonna get to the couldn't see nothing, I'm telling you.

We had a little tiny rental car, and I'm driving through it.

It didn't matter, windshield had the four-ways on, but I'm like, I ain't stopping.

If I gotta paddle this thing, we're gonna get here.

And we made it, we got on the cruise, and that's all I'm gonna say about that.

But I had a job and I wasn't rerouting.

And Jesus, here we see him taking the disciples in the boat.

James tells us this.

This is a hard one for me.

James 1 says, Count in all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations and trials.

For it is that trial that works patience and hope.

I'm like, man, I can count at a lot of things, but Barry, joy is hard.

I can count it a lot of things.

But I understand from that on the other side, we all that have lived a few years have come to understand on the other side of something, there's usually a lesson, if we've been instructed well, that we've learned and we've built from.

And maybe we don't ever do something again the same.

Tell you what, somebody uh was talking about losing their wallet the other day.

I said, what a good learning that is.

You lose your wallet once, you may not do it again.

Okay.

Some ladies just look at their husband.

I know what you're thinking.

Oh, he'd do it all the time.

Heather helps me every morning.

But I understand life's lessons.

The Bible says, gold is purified in the fire.

Sometimes God wants to challenge you and me, and that's his will, and that's a part of his plan.

And so we go through a storm.

Some battles come from Satan.

Ephesians 6.6.

And I'll side note this.

I don't think Satan is omnipresent, so he doesn't got the time to be messing with you all the time.

But Satan and his band of demons, and in Ephesians 6 says there's spiritual warfare, there's a band, and so some battles come from Satan and his help.

And Ephesians 6.16 says, keep up the shield of faith to defend against the fiery darts of Satan.

And so sometimes the enemy is looking for a fight.

He's looking for a crack in the foundation that he can just weasel himself into.

He's looking for when you're tired.

He's looking for when you're easily tempted.

He's looking for a fight.

And so sometimes it comes from Satan.

Sometimes my storm comes right from me.

Galatians 6 7 says, Be not deceived, God is not mocked.

Whatsoever a man sows, that will he also reap.

And so the truth of the matter is, sometimes I'm sowing my own challenge.

Have I been sowing in the house of God?

Am I sowing for the bank house solely?

Have I been sowing for the house of God, or have I been sowing all my time in the sports house?

Have I been sowing in the house of God, in the house of prayer, in the house of God's word, or have I been sowing in the house of my future?

What have I been sowing in?

The Bible says that I cannot sow to the flesh and reap of the spirit.

Doesn't happen.

And so, by nature of my choices, I am often sowing into my own storm.

Me.

And so sometimes I'm in a storm for that reason.

But I want to tell you, I said this to our team this morning.

We are in a storm, we are coming out of a storm, or we're about to go in a storm.

Storms are always around us because of the nature of the things that I just shared.

Battles reveal our fight.

Let it be as this battles come suddenly and severely.

Look at what it said.

Verse 37 and a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling.

It says, there arose.

I mean, out of nowhere.

You ever feel like that?

I mean, and we were plugging along, Pastor, everything seemed just fine, and then bam! Out of nowhere, this thing popped up in my life.

The disciples had just been listening to the teacher.

He had taught in Mark, interestingly, a ton of parables to them.

And then he says, Get in the ship.

And there they were.

An uncontrollable circumstance.

They were emotional, they were afraid, they were terrified, and it was filling up their ship.

You ever felt like this?

The storm was sudden, it was troubling, and they thought to themselves, possibly, I might drown in this today.

Have you ever felt something sudden like that?

A health scare?

Anybody here had a health scare?

A health scare will fill up your mind so fast you feel like you're drowning.

I mean, just mentally you get depleted just from the scare.

Sudden cutbacks.

Anybody lost a job before?

Sudden breakdowns?

You're on the side of the highway and you're going, what in the world?

How did this happen?

And suddenly you feel like the water's closing in.

And it's just enough to keep your head above and keep on swimming as life seems to be surrounding you.

And all you can feel when that water's closing in, often, it's not the rock that's there.

Often what you feel is you're just trying to stay alive.

Barely keep your head above the worry.

And so you go to Jesus.

I hope.

Look at what happens when the disciples go to Jesus.

Look at this.

But he was in the stern, asleep on a pillow.

And they woke him and said, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

Then he arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace be still.

I want you to see what happens here.

So they went from a sudden battle to a spiritual battle.

Sometimes our battle, our life battle, takes us to a place where we get hit in a spiritual battle, and that spiritual battle is how do we respond when fear and emotion and all of it are leading us to that place of drowning and we go something like this.

Teacher, do you even care?

Teacher, Jesus, what I heard about you and what I'm experiencing are not matching.

Have you ever gotten to the place where you sort of question God?

God, do you care?

God, why?

God, I don't understand.

This is a storm, and the disciples are in it, and they're feeling like the water's crashing them in, and they go, Jesus! And they get to the other disciples, they say, Jesus is asleep.

And he's on a pillow.

Jesus is asleep.

And the disciples are like, Can you believe that he's asleep?

One says to the other.

I can't believe it, y'all.

He is snoring.

Jesus is snoring.

I'm in a storm and he's snoring.

I'm rocking, and you're drooling.

I'm seasick and you're counting sheep.

Because the Lord is my shepherd.

Never mind.

Jesus is drooling.

It was beautiful, drool.

But disciples think, what good is a Savior?

I need saving, and he is sleeping.

The other night.

So it was VBS week, and things have been, you know, it's just, it's busy, it's good, it's good busy.

I like good busy.

Um, but we get home from vacation Bible school, and um, first thing we walk into, the air conditioner in the house is off, is not working.

And I'm like, oh, praise, you know, count it all joy.

That's what I said to her.

The count in all joy.

No, I didn't say that.

I said, well, okay.

I said, is it in our room?

She said, no.

I said, okay, we're good.

The rest of them, they can fend for this.

Now I did tell why.

I said, Why, you're gonna have to sleep upstairs.

Right?

But I got back to my room.

I called, you know, I called the guy and tried to get in touch with him.

But then I, you know, I don't know what time it was, but I fell in bed and I'm gone.

I mean, long gone.

You can't even move.

When I fall asleep these days, there's just nothing.

I don't hear nothing, I don't hear sounds, nothing.

And Heather, I wake up the next morning and I'm like, what happened?

My wife left in the middle of the night.

This isn't good.

So I look over, I'm trying to find her, I find she's in the living room and she's got the dog, and I'm like, was I rude last night?

What did I do?

I don't know.

And so come to find out, the dog had been up vomiting until two or three in the morning.

She'd been dealing with the dog doing all this.

I heard nothing.

I'm blissfully unaware.

And when you hear a dog, I mean that's a nasty noise.

And I didn't hear none of it.

And so there she is, and her next day was a wreck.

But I'm just blissfully unaware, even though there's a storm right next to me.

But I want you to think about this.

Jesus there sleeping, a sudden storm shows your belief system.

COVID-19 was coming.

A sudden storm hits you.

It shows your belief system, it shows who you are when the storm begins to hit.

And so Jesus wakes up, and they say, Jesus, why is this storm not bothering you?

Do you care, Jesus, that I'm in pain?

Jesus wakes up, and this is what's interesting.

He's not surprised.

He doesn't get up and say, Holy, what a storm! Jesus gets up, not in panic, ignores the disciple's bag of emotion, and talks directly to the source of crisis.

I love this.

Jesus, even up from a nap, has something to teach.

He looks the storm in the eye, y'all.

He looks the storm in its eye, and he says, You're done.

My kids like to say this these days when they want to cut each other off.

You're done.

I hear this all the time in my house.

Hey, you're done.

Jesus looked at the waves and the wind and he said, Shh, you're done.

He said, Peace, be still.

There was an old song that used to be sung, a gospel song.

It says that the wind tapped the waves on the shoulder and said, Shh, that's him.

It's him.

And it only takes Jesus a moment.

And when he is ready and he shows up, he's going to be right on time.

I want you to know that storms are coming.

Are you built on a rock when the storm comes?

Are we like shifting sand?

Well, the third point this morning is this our bearing reveals our fellowship.

We're going to go back for this a little bit.

I want you to look in verse 13 and 14 of Matthew 7.

Our bearing reveals our fellowship.

Look at what it says.

Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction.

And there are many who go in by it.

Because narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Letter A is this there's an extensive or exclusive fellowship.

Broad and narrow, it says.

It's extensive or exclusive.

Broad and narrow.

The world, broad, narrow, God's way.

There are many or there are few.

And so we see exclusive and we see extensive.

The narrow gate is the John 14, 6 gate.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father except by me.

That gate is narrow and it's restrictive.

Men can approach it only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

We're never saved in groups.

You are an exclusive member when you get saved.

We're not saved by our family and what passed and what foundation was there, and our grandmama taught Sunday school for 60 years.

That doesn't save you.

We're saved exclusively.

A man must come to the narrow path.

And it says that those that are of that narrow gate bear much fruit.

I want you to think about that.

We bear fruit.

Our bearing reveals the gate in which we came.

Because those who came this way are fruit bearers.

They have a seal of the Holy Spirit in their life.

God's way is exclusive and it's restrictive.

Now I want to tell you that the gate that leads to hell, it's broad, it's toleration road.

It is wide.

It's accommodating and it's well traveled.

It is an extensive gate.

Oh, it's where the party's at.

And if you want to be popular, that's the gate that you'll be a part of.

It's the prosperity way.

It will liberate sinful actions and it will join you in the choice to justify all of the things that we do.

If everyone else is doing it in the broad gate, then you should too.

If your house is built on the broad road, you don't have to get uncomfortable.

You can just kind of do what you want to do.

And I want to give you a news flash this morning.

Sin is uncomfortable.

Hell is uncomfortable.

But the Bible says the truth, which is narrow, it's one truth, will set you free.

He said, Jesus is that truth.

There's not another way.

So if you're here today and you're just kind of here and you've been pondering this whole thing, I want to tell you, there's not another way.

It's this.

Either I'm right about this and I'll give my whole life to it, or I'm wrong.

There's only one way.

There's not some other choice.

Narrowgate people.

Look at verse 16 through 20.

It says this, you will know them by their fruits.

Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

Even so, every good tree bears good fruit.

But a bad tree bears bad fruit.

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Therefore, by hear this.

Therefore, by their fruits, you will know them.

Narrow gate people always bear fruit.

Therefore, by their fruit, people who build on the rock, okay, this foundation that we have are fruit-bearing people.

You'll just know them.

You'll be able to tell in conversation, you'll be able to see in their life a legacy of being built in something, and they will be fruitful.

What do you mean, fruitful, Pastor?

Spiritually fruitful.

God will be having his hand.

I'm not saying this is not prosperity gospel.

I'm not saying they have to all the time.

I'm not And they have big houses, big cars.

I'm saying they, as a person, God is allowing successes in their life spiritually.

It's exclusive.

But I want to tell you, we're marked by the fellowship of the fruit we bear.

That fruit is of the Holy Spirit.

And that's a seal.

The Bible says the Holy Spirit seals us, and so we can notice in one another.

I'm not talking about dole or chiquita.

I'm talking about we got a seal for the fruit.

We're fruit bearers.

Letter B is this earthly or eternal foundations.

Look at verse 21 through 23.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.

But he who does the will of my Father in heaven, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?

Hear this.

And then I will declare them, I never knew you.

Why am I so passionate about John 14, 6?

Because I don't want anybody to ever face this.

I never knew you.

You can know about Jesus and him not know you.

You can be around Jesus and him not have a relationship with you.

He says, and I declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me.

Ye who practice lawlessness, built yourself up on a sand foundation.

You lived for everything this world gave, and you just knew about me.

But you never knew me.

You never put your faith and trust.

It wasn't solid, it wasn't secure.

You heard about me, all you glorified.

You raised your hands and worship sometimes, but you didn't ever build actually in me.

It's a scary scripture.

You can do good things, moral things, even seemingly spiritually, but be built on sand.

I get a lot of people that come to me different times and say, Pastor, I've got a vision.

A couple weeks ago, a lady out in the, I've got a vision.

And and I want to tell you, I go back to 2 Peter 1.19 when, and it's not, God speaks to me, he speaks to you, you have your time with God.

I don't have a problem with any of that.

I listen to people.

But 2 Peter 1.19 says we have also a more sure word of prophecy in Christ Jesus.

It's talking about him and his scripture.

I have his word to go to.

And so a man might come to me, but if I don't believe that that foundation of that person, because scripture told me here, this person can cast out demons and thought it was in Jesus' name, but his foundation was not in the rock.

I don't put my trust in any human.

Are you with me?

Jesus has been doing miracles forever.

I bank on that relationship.

One of the saddest phrases that can maybe be uttered in a scripture.

Depart from me.

I never knew you.

Well, we've got a picture, I am sure, of Edward Moat.

We'll show it to you.

Edward Moat, his parents were pub owners, and he was apprenticed at a young age to be a cabinet maker.

So he said, Ignorant was I that I did not know there was a God.

He said, My Sundays were spent on the streets of London and play and folly.

He had an unruly childhood, he said, but found faith when he heard the preaching of a man named John Hyatt at age 15.

He later became a great cabinet maker, Moat did.

But he would become world renowned after one afternoon that he went and visited a lady, a fellow church member.

The wife of this church member was very ill, and the husband informed Moat that it was their custom on Sundays, even in her sickness, to sing a song, to pray a prayer, and to read a passage of scripture.

And Mote said that day after they prayed, I just wrote a new hymn, and I thought in this season of your life that you're going through with your wife at her deathbed, that it would be appropriate.

And as the man's wife lied there taking what would end up being some of her last breaths, these words came out from Edward Moat and was sang over that bed.

And this was the words My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

Hear these.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ a solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide his face, I'll rest on his unchanging grace.

In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, his covenant, his blood support me in the whelming flood.

When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay.

When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh may I then in him be found, dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.

Are you built today on Christ the solid rock?

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