In your Home

Turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Pastor Danny had an opportunity to spend some time with a friend of his and asked me last Sunday, and I'm just giving you a little background because of the way this message fell together, I believe, is a God thing.

I don't always I've heard preachers do this, and I think, well, I don't want to hear all that, just preach to me.

And so anyway, I God led me to this passage, and I really I love my kind of bread and butter, if you will, in the Bible.

I like to preach the Old Testament.

Um, I like to preach in characters, and so God brought me to this passage, and it was an Old Testament, and it had no characters, and I thought, I'm not gonna preach very good, God.

Why do you want me to do that?

Um and so as the week progressed and things have kind of like, man, they've they it it the way that things have been pushed and all has progressed quickly.

And at the beginning of the week, I wasn't thinking anything about what's going on in our country today.

And so God gave this passage without all of that on my mind and on my heart.

And just to be honest, when I talk about everyday Christianity at home, um, man, we have, Heather and I have been through some stuff this week.

Um, and it's some of it's just been hard.

Um, some of it with our kids, we're in a stage where you have kids at different levels and you want to deal with them for who they are and not what you think this other kid brings or somebody else, you know, that this they should be like this because they're like this.

They are who they are, and so trying to deal with things differently in that way and wrapping my mind around what God wants and how we're supposed to lead a home.

And so God brought me to this, and in Matthew 7, um, we'll be looking at it.

But my title this morning is My Hope is Built.

And there's a story told of a pastor who had an issue one morning.

He woke up and he looked in his bedroom on the wall, and there was a crack on his wall.

He looked at the crack, and so he determined, I need to call a painter because I have a crack on my wall.

And so he called a painter over to his house, and the painter came over, he looked it over, he pulled off the old plaster, he put on some new plaster, he sanded it, he painted it.

According to him, it looked great.

Everything was fine.

He paid the man, and 30 days later, he woke up and there the crack was again.

And so, uh, being a little evangelically ticked off, he called the painter and he said, Hey, I woke up and there's a crack on my wall.

Will you come back and fix this crack?

So the man said, sure, he came back over.

He looked it over, took off that old plaster, re-plastered, sanded, painted.

It was shiny, thought everything looked good for about 45 days this time.

And now he woke up and looked at his wall, and not only was there a crack that was back, but there was a crack and brought its brothers and little sisters and cousins, aunts and uncles.

There was cracks, a whole family of cracks on this wall.

And so he called, this time he said, Well, this guy hadn't been doing good enough.

I might have to call somebody else, get a different opinion.

And so he calls another painter in, and the painter comes and he stares at his wall for what seems an inordinate amount of time.

He's just looking it over, looking it up and down, back and forth.

And finally, he looks at the pastor and says, I'm sorry, I can't help you.

And he said, Well, what do you mean you can't help me?

Isn't this what you do?

Don't you fix cracks?

He says, Yes, that's what I do.

I fix cracks.

He said, But I can't help you.

He says, I see a crack.

You see a crack.

All of God's creation could see cracks in my wall.

And he said, You're right.

You're absolutely right.

There are cracks on your wall.

He said, but I can't help you because that's not the problem that you have.

There are cracks on your wall, but the problem is you have a shifting foundation.

He said, You have a shifting foundation, and until you solidify your foundation, you are forever going to be doing patchworks on the crack of your wall.

And when I look at where we are at right now, I think there's cracks all over the place, folks.

There's cracks everywhere.

And my hope is like this man said, is on a better foundation.

And it reminded me of an old hymn, as we have this title.

The hymn says, My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

And so as we dig in in Matthew chapter 7, I want you to know the first point this morning is building reveals our foundation.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 7, look at verses 24 and 26.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

It says, Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.

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

But everyone who hears these sayings of mine now listen, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.

So first we see building reveals our foundation.

This is the end of the great sermon on the mount.

The greatest sermon that has ever been recorded in chapters 5 through 7 here, and this is the conclusion of it, and he's saying, If you do these things that I've instructed you, you'll be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Now, both men, we can determine from this text, there's a comparison, letter A and a comparison of constructors.

Both men heard instruction.

Both men would have been privy to this instruction.

They wouldn't have been able to hear.

They possibly went to the same church.

Both of these men heard perfect preaching proclaimed from a perfect proclamator.

They heard these teachings.

Both men heard these words, these sayings of mine.

Now, what's key in that text where it says, these sayings of mine, they heard.

What happens after that?

One did them, another did not.

And so it's clear.

Now we're blessed to have the opportunity to hear biblical instruction, are we not?

Okay, one of our key core values, clear biblical truth.

Okay, we believe in that.

Now we're in a day and time where we have access to instruction very readily.

Like everybody's got a YouTube channel, am I right?

If you know, if you're a man like me and doesn't know how to fix a whole lot, okay, you just YouTube it, right?

I call I call Russell and YouTube it and and show him what they have to say and he fixes it.

And so, but you can YouTube.

I even have a student who started a YouTube channel called Fix It French, and I watched him fix a faucet one day.

I I don't even have a drippy faucet.

You know, I just thought this is kind of fun watching this student teach on how to fix a faucet.

We have instruction readily available.

Derek came over to my house the other uh day, and now he kind of got conned into it.

He got invited for dinner, and he and Jamie and the family, and what he didn't, I don't know if he knew, was we had a bunk bed to build.

And so he came over for dinner.

Now, when we when I looked at this bunk bed in the box, it makes me feel like scared because when I see something that's supposed to be 20 to 30 feet in a four-foot box, that bothers me.

Y'all with me?

If you buy something that's supposed to take up this much space and it comes in a box like this, that makes me scared.

And so Derek came over, and then the next, you know, I had everything out and ready, and there was the instructions.

And he looked at me and I looked at him, and this thing was, you know, like an encyclopedia.

Now, thank God it did have some pictures, uh, but it was written in Greek.

And Derek says, now, usually when I build things, Rick, Jamie reads the instructions.

And I was like, Well, you want me to stop her fellowship with Heather and get her in here?

Because I can't read this Japanese.

And so, but I will say, by the way, here's a photo of the bunk bed me and Derek put together.

You can put your hands together for this thing.

Look at that.

Yeah.

Now, when you look at that, you might notice this little girl and say, that doesn't look like Callie.

Okay, that wasn't the bunk bed.

Show them the real bunk bed.

Okay, so we made that.

Y'all were about to call me and Derek, weren't you?

We had instruction, and because we had instruction, we were able to build something.

Proverbs says this, church.

Proverbs 1 7, fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Do you struggle being instructed?

Does your pride keep you from being instructed?

If you're going to be a good house builder, you've got to be a good listener.

Listen to this.

This would be worth writing down.

The enemy of growth is the incapacity to be to be taught.

The enemy of growth is the incapacity to be to be taught.

Look at your neighbor and say, learn something today, would you?

I get to tell you.

So we know that they had instruction.

Secondly, both men had imagination.

They came to this project dreaming about building something.

The Bible has two things to say or a lot to say about imagination, but two ways that it can go.

In Romans it says this although they knew God, they did not glorify him, but became darkened in their imaginations.

I would say that's sand building.

2 Corinthians 4.18 says, looking unto the things that are unseen, the things that are unseen are eternal.

So we are given an imagination of what we can do.

I think God has given every man the ability to create, to dream, to imagine greater and bigger, and to be able to build a house.

But what's a house?

Let's define what a house is because we have to see what these men are trying to build.

In Scripture, there's four things that, or four ways that you can see the word house used.

The first way that you see it used in Scripture is a life.

To build a life, to build something of substance, significance, something that matters.

God wants you to build your house, your life.

Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, I want to be a nobody.

I want to meander in mediocrity.

That's what I want from life.

No one wants to have a failed life.

So the first thing is a life.

A house could also mean a family.

You see in scripture where it's called the house of David.

No couple walks down an aisle and says, I can't wait until the day that we are divorced.

Nobody plans on a failed marriage.

Nobody's imagining the day that they're going to have rebellious children who walk away from what they've taught them.

They want to build a house, a family, something that has an impact.

Or in the Bible, sometimes a house means a ministry.

The church is called the household of faith.

No pastor wants to build something that has a shrinking membership.

No pastor wants to say when they're in the pulpit, they are very ineffective.

Nobody wants to have divisiveness in the membership of the church.

That would be the opposite of building.

Every pastor wants to build a house.

A household of faith that can be stood upon.

Or, and what we're seeing right now, a house in the Bible is society.

God called his people the house of Israel.

We look at our world and our society right now and the people that we're looking to for answers.

We have in the House of Congress.

We have them at the White House.

We have a society, and we're all concerned right now about the well-being of our society and the political well-being of our society.

And we should be concerned about the house.

And as a Christian, it is our duty to be concerned for all four houses.

And by the way, that's God's order.

Let's not get it confused.

Okay, God's order is in what I the way I said it: your spiritual life, your family's life, your ministry life, and then the society around.

Okay?

And one cannot take place of the other.

That's God's order.

We don't sacrifice any.

But both of these men wanted to build a house.

And so we've seen their commonalities.

Now let's look letter B at the contrast in their construction.

It said, one built on rock, one built on sand.

I have a couple of photos I want you to see.

As I was thinking about construction, here are a few.

The first is called the Burge.

I'm gonna have to read this, Khalifa.

At 2,722 feet in Dubai, this building is the largest mass construction in the world.

This building is the largest building that stands.

It has 163 floors.

It has it boasts an 800 or an$8 million cleaning system for those windows.

It would take 36 men three to four months just to clean the exterior.

That's a big building.

Am I right?

Now let's look at the world's largest sandcastle.

Now that's a real close-up.

That's 57 feet, 11 inches.

The tallest sandcastle.

So we have 2,722 feet, and then we have 57 feet.

Now I want you to see the next picture and I'll explain the difference.

So we have two buildings here.

We have Lady Liberty and we have the Leaning Tower Pizza.

The difference in all of these buildings is not how high you see them, but how low the cement goes.

And so in Lady Liberty, we know that over 50 feet is dug into the ground with cement poured in so that that building can stand and we can fly by and see a national monument.

In the leaning tower Pisa, the big problem that they had with this is that they dug less than 10 feet deep, and all of a sudden the foundations began to shift, and it's continually shifting and never has stopped.

And so we see this thing that's become something that it was never meant to be.

That was never its intended purpose, but now it's a monument because of its lean, and they have given, they have put over 600,000 pounds of counterweight so that it won't topple over.

This is a construction that is built on a lean that will fall because of the depth of the foundation.

Now, when we look at the contrast in construction, both buildings, number one underneath of that, show vision.

They show very different starting points.

One building starts with rock, one with sand.

What do we know about rock?

Okay, rock don't move easily.

It's rocky.

Very good.

Rock is rocky.

Rock is strong, rock is durable, rock is solid on its own.

Rock can handle weather.

The psalmist says this.

Listen, the Lord is my rock and my salvation.

Listen to this in our times.

My rock and my fortress.

Bible says the Lord is a stronghold, my very present help in a day of trouble.

Bible says, I will lift up mine eyes into the hills from whence comes my help.

Listen to this about rock.

Even if you get your feet on the wrong surface, Psalms 40, verse 2 said, He lifted my feet out of the pit, out of the miry clay, and he set my feet upon a what?

Psalms 40:2

A rock, and he gave me a new song to sing.

And so God, even if our feet get in shifty sand, he can replace that.

He can forgive us, he can change us and bring us back to rock solid footing.

You see, rock is hard and strong, but we know that sand is soft.

Sand gets muddy in a storm.

It's shifty.

Look at your neighbor and say, Don't be shifty.

I want you to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

I want you to see a passage here.

1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 11 through 13, you need to hear this.

1 Corinthians 3:11–13

It says, For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

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.

Now listen to that.

Again, it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work.

And so both of these types of buildings show vision.

One is a long-term vision dug in deep, and there's another one that I think is a short-term vision, looking for temporal gain.

There's plenty of sand foundations in the world, church.

Okay?

I want you to understand having a stock of toilet paper is sand.

Okay?

The coronavirus is gonna come and it's gonna go.

Our government can be like sand, a political party banking on that.

Right now, if you're banking on the stock market, it's going up and going down.

It's dependent on what?

Even, listen, your marriage has an opportunity to fail.

There's only one solid rock foundation.

If you need someone's opinion or approval to get by your days, that's sand.

If you're building your house on any other foundation than Jesus Christ, it's shifting sand.

There's one foundation.

Both buildings show a vision.

Secondly, both buildings show values.

What is the difference between a wise man and a fool?

One word.

Application.

I don't get preaching back like this on normal Sundays.

This is good.

Take notes, church.

Wisdom and foolishness has nothing to do, church, today, I want you to understand, with degrees and doctorates and papers and tassels.

We all know that wisdom has nothing to do with those things.

It's the application of those things.

Because we could all say together today, we all know some educated fools.

Biblical wisdom is the ability to apply spiritual truth to life's realities.

Let me say that again.

Biblical wisdom is the ability to apply spiritual truths to life's realities.

Foolishness is the inability or refusal to apply spiritual truths to life's reality.

The difference for these two men was not in the information, it was what they did with the data.

It's not good, church, to celebrate what you hear right here and then leave the data at church.

When you leave, are you taking your tools?

So, well, what did they learn, Pastor?

You're saying they learned.

What did they learn?

Well, let me take you to the seminar.

I want you to go back to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Let's look at a few things.

Both these men had the same instructions, but they came out differently.

Well, let's hear what they heard.

Just a couple of things.

First of all, they heard in Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Now, I'm gonna give you the filter of what I think was the sand man's hearing and the rock man's hearing.

I think the man built on sand, Matthew chapter 5, verse 3, heard this through the sand tunnel.

Matthew 5:3

Happy are the sandwiches.

Confident, for they will succeed.

Matthew 5 3 says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

I think the man who's building on sand heard in verse 4, Happy are the positive thinkers.

When Scripture says, Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Verse 5, maybe you're the strong can manage their life.

And it says, Blessed are the meek and gentle.

We don't have to bark.

We don't have to over talk.

We don't have to be the one.

The Bible says, Blessed are the meek.

Verse 6.

They who hunger and thirst for things will become protected.

Scripture says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Verse 7 They who have things who do a light for us will be blessed.

Verse 7 said, Blessed are those who are merciful, so they shall obtain mercy.

Verse number 8.

And it goes on and on down the list.

Let me look at verse 9.

It says, I believe the man built on sand heard who, those who beat others at all cost to be number one.

That is success.

It says, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Maybe verse 10, they heard, whoever does not offend others, promoting harmony, for they will be popular.

It says, Blessed are the persecuted for righteousness' sake.

And it goes on and on throughout from chapter 5 all the way to 7, this seminar of how to live your life.

And I found this quote, John Tillotson said, He who provides for this life but takes no care for eternity is wise for a moment, but a fool forever.

Jesus went throughout this scripture and he taught on salt and light.

He taught, and you can look at the headings in your Bible all the way to chapter 7.

He said, Adultery begins in your heart.

Your marriage is sacred.

Don't cheat.

Go the second mile he taught on.

And that means in your home.

Go further and deeper with your kids and with your wife.

It says, Don't worry and pray.

We need to stop there.

And I'm not giving an opinion this morning.

I want to read to you what Scripture says.

Matthew chapter 6, verse 25.

Matthew 6:25

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life what you'll eat or what you'll drink or your body or what you put on.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air.

For they neither sow nor reap nor gather.

Are you of more value than they?

Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to the stature?

So why do you worry?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin.

And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory were not arrayed like one of these.

Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, he will not much more clothe you, O you of little faith.

Therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat or drink or what shall we wear?

For all these things the Gentiles seek.

Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, and here's the key.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

And so as we read that scripture, Jesus is going through and he's saying, What you need is a foundation, and that'll build your home.

Build your foundation.

Now, man, show your wife Jesus.

Show her how to love Jesus.

Show your kids how to love Jesus.

Show them ball.

Show them how to drive.

Show them how to date.

But seek ye first Jesus is what it says.

Why?

Because that's rock solid.

Why is that so important?

Because, number two, a storm is coming to a house near you.

Number two, what we see is that battling reveals our fight and foundation.

Letter A is battles come from a source.

A couple of different sources that we can see.

I want you to turn your Bibles to Mark chapter 4 for a moment.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

Battles come from three sources that I could find.

Number one, they come to me, actually from Jesus.

Mark 4, 35.

I want you to hear a little bit here.

It says, On the same day when evening had come, and he said to them, Let us cross over to the other side.

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

And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat the boat.

Now, pause there.

What I want you to understand is Jesus showed the disciples to a storm.

Jesus said, Get in the boat, we're going to cross over the sea, and Jesus took them.

I think Jesus may have known the forecast, but Jesus didn't reroute.

This is how we first know that Jesus was a man because there was a storm coming and he would not reroute.

He wasn't taking a different direction.

And I was reminded, Heather and I, after we got married, we went to the Ritz-Carlton for the first night of the honeymoon there in Atlanta.

And then we were to drive down to Miami and board a cruise ship.

And uh man, I thought I'd done my part, the honeymoon planning.

Heather did 99.5% of everything else.

I planned the honeymoon, right?

Guys, that's what we get to do.

That's what we dream of, right?

And so I had the honeymoon planned, and we get in the car and we're heading to Miami, and a torrential, and I mean torrential downpour is coming down.

I got my new Brian.

I'm driving in her Ford Focus, and I cannot see anything at all.

I can't see a car in front.

All I see is rain, just pour.

And there I'm going.

I will not be deterred.

I will not be pulled off.

I'm not pulling off the side of the road.

I gotta get to our honeymoon! I've been dreaming about this.

I can't wait to get to our honeymoon.

And so there we went.

I don't know if we were going 20, 15 miles per hour at points.

Big tractor trailers were throwing water at us, and I'm just, we're, bless God, we're getting to this boat, and we are gonna love this honeymoon.

And so Jesus, there's this storm, and he doesn't reroute.

Why is that important?

James chapter 1, verse 1 and 2 says this count it all joy when you have different temptation, different trials, that it tests our faith.

James 1:1

Now, do you think, in the light of the Red Sea that was in front of him, that Moses knew what was getting ready to happen?

Do you think Moses was getting to the Red Sea and he's like, I've got a plan now.

Now he's to lead all these people and all this pressure's behind him, and he's taken them to cross this Red Sea.

You know what he had?

He had a rod and some faith.

He said, I know the rock in which I stand on.

And so we see this testing of faith, and I want you to understand every house church is going to have testings of faith.

Some of them are gonna come from Jesus.

Some testings of faith come from Satan.

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

Isaiah 59, 19 says, sometimes the enemy comes and he comes in like a flood.

Okay.

Satan is looking for a fight.

He's looking for weaknesses, he's looking for opportunity.

He wants you when you're tired, he wants you when you're weary, and he's looking for cracks in the foundation of your faith.

And he wants to come in battle.

Well, another way that storms come is from me.

They come from me.

Galatians 6, 17 says, This church, that you reap what you sow.

What have you been sowing in the house?

What have you been sowing in your spiritual house?

So you say, Well, I got all these struggles and trials, and I say, brother, sister, what's your prayer life been like?

What's your Bible time been like?

What's that been like?

Because you reap what you sow.

And so what are you sowing into?

Are you sowing for the bank house?

Are you sowing for your house?

Are you sowing for the ball field?

Are you sowing for the fields of your life?

What are you sowing?

Are you sowing in family devotions?

Are you sowing, man, and your wife's needs?

I said this before.

You have a garden and you're the gardener.

If you're unhappy with the garden, then you need a garden better.

How are you sowing?

Are you sowing in compliments?

Are you sowing in acts of service?

What are you sowing?

Because the Bible says you might.

No, it doesn't say you might.

It says you reap what you sow.

You will reap what you sow.

And it says in another passage that sometimes you reap and sometimes you reap in the whirlwind.

Sometimes it comes in and it comes in hard.

And so we see the three different ways that a battle can come.

And I want to tell you letter B, battles come suddenly and severely.

I found a couple of fun videos that I thought might help explain how battles come.

Benji, would you play that first video?

It's not a great old start to uh Friday morning.

It's wet and it's pretty windy out there.

And that's the picture we're painting right across the weekend.

Plenty of scattered shares in the mix.

We have full details on that.

All the latest traffic to help you avoid those hot spots this Friday morning.

Put lots.

All your photos put a bit of smoke.

He's recovering.

He's okay.

So one way that a sudden storm comes, it happens, you're in it, and all you can do is just laugh at it, right?

You're like, this happened, that happened, I can't believe this, and you just sit down, all you can do is laugh.

You can do nothing but laugh, okay?

Another way that storms happen is like this one.

Don't make unnecessary journeys.

Don't take risks on treacherous roads, and don't swim in the sea.

Incredibly, people have been spotted in the water here in Black Rock and Salt Hill, both today and yesterday.

Sometimes a storm comes and it just knocks you right off your feet.

You don't even know what's happened, right?

It just comes and bam.

But then, and I think the hardest response, the hardest response is this next video.

And I'm happy again.

I'm laughing.

Now, some of you, real spiritual people that make the rest of us sick, that's how you look in a storm.

I'm just gonna be honest, I picture Miss Susan being like this in a storm.

What a terrible day.

That's right.

People that love Jesus, right?

And so storms come suddenly and severely, and they come with different outcomes.

Now, what we know about this scripture in Mark is that there it says, arose a great storm, an uncontrollable circumstance.

The disciples had no control over what was going on.

Emotionally, they were very afraid, and this storm hits.

They were terrified.

They said the the it says in scripture that the boat was beginning to fill, and they felt so bad about it that they felt like they might just drown in it.

Anybody ever felt like this?

Your storm starts hitting, a sudden health scare strikes, sudden cutbacks at the job strike.

Suddenly, in your home, your kids are learning how to have bad attitudes.

And you don't even know what happened because Dr.

Jekyll and Mr.

High, like it was one way one day, and the next thing you know, it wasn't like that anymore.

Suddenly you feel like you can't hardly keep your head above the water.

You feel like you can barely get your head up for the next breath, and something is storming down.

And so, what we see that the disciples do right here, look at what it says.

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

But he was in the stern, asleep, on a pillow, and they awoke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

I want you to understand what they did right here.

Okay?

When something happens, we can panic.

Okay, and it's the enemy of faith.

Don't you understand that?

Panic, propaganda, the enemy of faith.

And what happens here is the disciples are very afraid, but they go to Jesus.

They're emotional and they go to Jesus.

They go to him, and I want you to kind of understand the picture.

They're afraid, they're emotional, and they go to him, and they the second thing happens.

So, number one, we have suffering battles.

Those are all like we saw.

The second type of battle that I think is a little more depth to it that's that hurts, is a spiritual battle.

See, the disciples are afraid and emotional, and that's all part of the suffering.

But then they get to the teacher and they ask this important question, the spiritual battle.

Teacher, do you not care?

You see, what I heard about Jesus and what I'm experiencing with Jesus aren't seeming to match for me on the inside.

Have you ever had times, church, where you question Jesus?

Have you ever had a spiritual battle like that?

Why is this even, God, why if you're a loving God, why is this like this?

Why am I going through this with my family?

Why us?

Why cancer?

Why now?

Why God?

Do you care, or is what I've learned my whole life just theological nonsense?

Imagine the scene.

It says there's a storm.

The boat is rocking, they're back and forth, they're frantic.

Jesus sound asleep.

Oh no, he didn't.

Jesus is snoring while I'm rocking.

The savior's asleep.

Jesus is drooling, probably.

It was probably beautiful drool.

There he was, just asleep on a pillow.

What good is a savior asleep in a storm?

So what do they do?

They say they wake up Jesus.

We were at, when we first got here, we were living atop the Wilson's garage, living at the Wilson's home, and um for some reason we like set off the alarm system living there.

I don't know what we did, but like the first weekend there, we were woke up at early in the morning.

They were gone to Auburn watching a game, carbon monoxide poisoning.

Carbon monoxide.

I'm like, what?

We're about to die.

Like, get up, and we're checking that.

And but one time later on, we had some company over that were visiting some former students, and we're all asleep.

Heather and I are upstairs with Wes and the kids downstairs, and the thing goes off and it's just blaring.

And we're like, oh, and and we could barely get our bearings, Heather and I, and we're like walking out, and Wyatt and Callie are running up the stairs.

Wyatt looks like the kid on home alone.

He's got his hands on his face.

He passes Callie on the stairs to get up to us, like knocks her down.

We we're trying to get down the stairs to figure out what's happening.

We get down the stairs, we see uh Haley, who's standing with us out in the hallway.

She's got mace out, like she's gonna she's gonna spray the problem down.

And then David walks out of his room, and you gotta understand what people are like at 2-3 in the morning.

So David comes out, and all I'm gonna say is like this this piece of hair, whoo! This thing was going and waving, and he's like, What's going on?

And I'm like, I don't know.

And he's looking at us, and we're like, what is happening?

All of this is going on, blaring, and soundly asleep is Weston in our upstairs bed.

Hadn't moved.

We can't get the kid to go to sleep on a normal night, but there he is.

The whole thing's coming unraveled, and he's just having a good rest.

Jesus is asleep in a storm.

Now catch this.

What does he say?

It's very important.

Very important.

And so they woke him.

Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

Then he arose.

Listen, and he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still.

And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

And he said to them, Why are you so fearful?

How is it that you do not have faith?

And so we see Jesus wakes up.

I want you to understand a couple of things.

Number one, he wakes up and Jesus is not surprised that there is a storm.

Okay, number one, Jesus is not surprised ever that there is a storm.

He wakes up, and it's interesting how he bypasses the situation.

He wakes up to the disciples' cry, and as if to just move them out of the way, he talks directly to the circumstance.

Now hear me, church.

He talks to the circumstance that's causing the crisis in their life, and he says, circumstance, be quiet.

He tells the wind and the wave, rocking the boat of their life, be still.

Why?

Because I'm God and you're not.

And because the authority of my voice tells you to stop so it can stop.

Y'all tracking with me, church?

Right now, in the situation that we're in, what we need to do is like the disciples did, get the attention of Jesus.

And Jesus teaches them that in this situation, circumstances have changed and a storm has come.

What they did right was they got the attention of the Savior.

I believe that's where we need to be in our spiritual battles, church.

Whatever they may be.

We get the attention of the Savior.

That takes us to the third point this morning.

Our bearing reveals our fellowship and foundation.

We're going to have to go back a little bit in the scripture before his conclusion on building on the rock.

And look a little bit in verses 13 and on.

Okay.

Bearing reveals our fellowship and foundation.

Letter A under that is there's an exclusive and an extensive fellowship.

Let me read verse 13.

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.

And so we see an exclusive, first of all, gate.

The exclusive gate is called the narrow gate.

John 14, 6 talks about the narrow gate.

It says there is one way that we get to the Father.

He's the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

The gate is narrow because it is exclusive and restrictive.

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

That's salvation.

That's how we come to know and walk in a personal relationship with Jesus through his shed blood.

We're never saved in groups.

We're saved individually.

There's one way.

I want you to understand that there's a narrow gate.

And in verse 17 through 20, it talks about, let me read here, 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.

Thereby, listen to this, by their fruits you will know them.

A narrow gate bears much fruit.

Those who are of that one way bear fruit.

Bearing fruit is our fellowship.

Bearing fruit is showing our foundation on the rock.

It's our marker.

It's how we show the world our love and that we are part of Christianity, that we bear fruit.

Our bearing reveals our fellowship.

Well, God's way to salvation is exclusive and it's restrictive, but the gate to hell is not.

The gateway to hell is broad and it's inviting, and it'll take any person.

Take any denomination.

You can be a pastor, priest, rabbi.

It does not matter.

If you go the way of the broadgate, it's tolerant.

We hear that word a lot today.

The broadgate is tolerant, it's accommodating, and it's well traveled.

You see, in verse 15 leading up to 70, it's talking about the false prophets who are preaching for this broad way.

They're preaching and teaching with delusion.

They're preaching and teaching, a denial of God's word, denial of hell.

Maybe we have preaching and teaching like this today.

Prosperity in this earthly life.

It's an extensive broad gate.

It's where the party's at.

If you're living in this gate, it's where popularity is at.

If you build your house and you want it to be in a popular neighborhood, you build it where the broadgate is.

It tolerates worldly sin.

It'll tolerate it in front of their children.

It'll tolerate it on their televisions.

It'll say, it's just TV.

It's funny.

It's okay.

The broadgate tolerates.

It'll accept everything else that anyone else is doing and say, well, if it's okay for you, then it's okay.

It's very tolerant.

They'll accept what everyone else is doing.

That house will be built and could be the biggest and best.

And it will be built on a foundation of money, and it'll be built to be the one that is seen instead of a house that is giving.

If your house is built on the broad gate, you will not enter conversation that's uncomfortable about religion.

News flash church.

Sin is uncomfortable.

Hell is uncomfortable.

Personal accountability is uncomfortable.

But the truth, the Bible says, will set you free.

There's two different gates, and their bearing of those people that have walked through them gates shows what they're doing.

Our fruit will show us.

Well, there's an earthly, letter B, an earthly and an eternal foundation.

Look at verse 14.

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

Now again, I want you to look at verse 70.

Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

I want to kind of close with three people illustrations of earthly and eternal foundations.

The first I would illustrate is that of a character, two characters that would have heard Jesus' teaching.

Just like the whole scenario we've been painting.

Two characters that would have heard the instruction of Jesus, but their life went vastly different.

One is named Judas.

He was called and chosen by God.

He saw the miracles of God.

He would have eaten with Jesus.

He would have heard the preaching of Jesus, perfect proclamation.

And I don't know where it started, but some cracks began to form in his foundation.

Started showing up, and Judas tried to cover it up, paint over it.

And he was a great impersonator, was he not?

Yes, he was.

He looked very religious.

He walked with Jesus.

He talked with Jesus.

One day he kissed Jesus.

For what?

For what?

Because he began living for something that was earthly and temporary.

He began looking elsewhere.

He began to have a foundation of shifting sand.

He wasn't standing on the rock.

He took his eyes off of Jesus and he betrayed the Savior for silver.

What happened after this?

And it's important that you know this.

Judas got depressed about his decision.

He got anxious.

It messed him up.

Judas went and took his own life.

So we see Judas, an example of someone on an earthly foundation.

Then we see Peter.

Called and chosen by God the same as Judas, saw miracles, ate meals, and listened to great instruction like did Judas.

Jesus dies, and Peter makes his grave mistake.

He denies Jesus three times.

Why?

Same type of stuff.

Fear for his life.

Fear of what people might think.

I mean, that's the situation.

They asked him, aren't you one of those Christians?

I don't know what you mean.

I don't know what you're talking about.

I'm not with them.

Peter denies Jesus three times.

Peter gets depressed.

But Peter did something vastly different from Judas after he failed Jesus.

He met up with Jesus.

And in talking with Jesus, he recognized his failure and he repented of his sins.

And what he did in that moment was he solidified his foundation and he began living again for eternal foundation.

Let me tell you some things that the Bible says Peter went on to do after he denied Jesus.

He raised up his voice in one day and he said, repent and be baptized, and 3,000 people, souls were added to the church.

Peter healed a lamb, a lame man.

He was arrested for speaking bold truth.

Jesus, listen, was patient with Peter.

I don't want you to get some idea that because you're going through a storm, that Jesus doesn't care.

Because you've failed or you've messed up or you didn't do right by God or something happened in your marriage or something happened with your kids and it's just not right right now that God stopped caring.

He hasn't stopped caring.

But what do you do when that happens?

You see, later on, this is so key.

Paul is on a missions trip with a guy named John Mark.

And Paul kicks John Mark off the team because he just doesn't like the way John Mark is doing things.

1 Peter 5, 13.

Peter makes John Mark a son in the faith.

Now stay with me.

Peter learned that you could mess up and still be of use to God.

Peter learned that you could go through a storm and the rock could pick you up out of that clay and reuse you.

Peter built his foundation on what was eternal.

And one day Peter would ultimately die a martyr's death.

But remember in Scripture, he said this.

Now he was talking about Jesus, but he said Peter, or he said Cephas, which means.

anybody know?

Rock.

He says, Peter, which means rock.

Oh, I'm going to build my church on this rock, Jesus Christ.

And the gates of hell will not prevail against my church.

The last example I want to give you is someone who lived a life and died with eternal value and stake.

There was a man named Edward Moat.

Edward's parents were pub owners.

So he grew up in an ungodly situation.

And he was promised to be an apprentice to a cabinet maker, a great and well-known cabinet maker at a young age.

And he he so he began to work with this cabinet maker.

And of his own testimony, he said, I didn't even know God existed as a child.

He said, I all I did was run the streets of London, frolicking, playing wherever I wanted, until one day I went to a church service, and a pastor by the name of John Hyatt began to proclaim something I'd never heard in my whole life.

He said, and when that man proclaimed that message, I received Jesus as my Savior and it changed my life.

Well, that wouldn't be what he became renowned for.

Again, he became a great cabinet maker.

He built things with his hands that were unbelievable.

And he went on for the next 40 years that way.

Well, one day, after his church service, it was custom for the pastor to take some people and go visiting, and there was a lady in church who was deathly ill.

And so he went, Edward Moat went with some folks from the church, and he sat down, and as they were seated around this lady who was taking what they believed were the last breaths of her life, he said, It's our custom to read the Lord's Prayer, to read some scripture, and sing a hymn.

And Edward said, Well, that's interesting.

I've been working on a hymn.

Could I sing my hymn?

And he pulled out these words as this woman were lying, taking her last breath.

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

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 stand.

Now listen to this verse, church.

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.

Now listen, when one day 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.

They sang those words.

Now listen, Mote, a cabinet maker, known for building great things.

Listen to what he did.

He gave up his life's work at age 55.

He'd been building for 40 years, building with his hands.

And he became a Baptist minister before his death.

He did that for almost 20 years.

And he said this before he died.

My greatest work, he said, was not in anything that I built with my hands, but in what Christ built in his church that I got to be a part of.

My hope is built on Christ, the solid rock.

I want to ask you to bow your heads this morning.

If you're here this morning and you're lost, you're without Christ.

Bible says you're in sinking sand.

You see, what it says, and I didn't close this, was that the house that was built on the rock stood firm in the storm, but the house that was built on sand had a fall and a great fall it was.

Maybe you're here this morning, and as you survey your own heart, that first house is your house, your spiritual life.

Are you without Christ?

The Bible says that's like standing on sinking sand.

A foundation that keeps shifting and falling and is trustless.

Jesus Christ the rock wants to come in and change your heart and life.

I believe that Jesus died, that he was buried, and that he rose again for my sins.

Will you save me today?