Building On The Right Foundation | Elle Koelling | "Red Letter Summer" Pt. 12

My name is Ellie Kelling.

If we have not met before, I am the college young adult pastor here at Overflow.

And I've had the honor and the privilege to get to lead this ministry since 2022.

And it has been the biggest gift, the biggest blessing that God has put in my path.

And I've made so many friendships from it, and I've learned so much from it as well.

And so that's who I am.

But today is special, it's Student Sunday.

So if you see young people all across our church serving, give them a high five on your way out.

Encourage them because I guarantee you they look up to you.

So I'm encouraged by them and by the younger generation as well.

Their love for Jesus, their desire to see God and walk in his ways.

So make sure you give them a high five as you leave.

And then this is the fifth Sunday.

So if you're a kiddo in the room, can you lift your arm up really high for me and wave?

Okay, we got lots of kiddos in here.

I'm excited you guys are here today.

This sermon's also for you.

So feel free to draw, take notes, don't distract your parents, and it's gonna be a fun time.

And lastly, it is small group sign up day.

You've heard about it already.

Make sure you sign up on your way out.

I know there are women in this church that have become so important to me that I would have never met if I didn't go through small groups.

So I'm so grateful for the ministry that Pastor Bethany has worked hard to build.

Make sure you sign up on your way out.

And if you're watching online, do not panic.

We have a way for you to sign up as well.

Make sure you download the Overflow app and you can sign up for a small group and you can hop in with everybody else as soon as it starts and build godly friendships this fall.

While I have the attention of the online, I want to give a special shout out and say hello to my grandma Lynn and Grandpa Denny who are watching all the way from Lake Okoboji in northern Iowa.

So hey guys, I'm so excited that you're with us today, and I pray that you are encouraged from the message this morning.

So enough announcements.

We've had a lot.

Let's pray together, and then we will get into the word of God.

Jesus, thank you for this morning.

God, I thank you for your presence that has been here all day.

I thank you for your presence that's gone before us, behind us, beside us.

I thank you that you're alive and active.

I thank you that your word is alive.

Jesus, I ask that you would speak freely and boldly through me today, that I would be used as a vessel, that you would say and do only the things that you can say and do.

God, have your way in this place.

Help us leave deeply in love with you.

And God, I ask that your word would come alive for someone in a way that it's never been before.

Draw people to yourself.

We love you, God.

In your name.

Amen.

Amen.

Today is week 12 of a series that we have called Red Letter Summer.

We call it Red Letter Summer because if some of your Bibles, when you flip to the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you will see red text.

And that is everything that Jesus has said.

And we have been spending this year focusing on remembering.

That's our church's word for the year is remember.

And we first spent the first 10 weeks talking about the apostles' creed and what that is and why it's important to us.

And then we've talked about what it looks like to be a true disciple of Jesus.

And then we studied the life and the role and the person of the Holy Spirit, who he is, what he does, and why he's essential.

And then it's only fitting that we study this summer the red letters of Jesus Himself.

We study his teachings, his quotes, what he said, the way he lived, what he did.

So back in January, Jed's parents traveled here all the way from Nigeria and they're pastors there.

And it was so fun to have them here.

But the night before their mom left, she sat us down and she had lessons from the Bible that she shared with us.

There was one parable that night that's that came alive to me in a way that hadn't been in a long time.

And this was in January, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

It has been shaping my life these past few months, and I've studied it, prayed through it, talked to people about it, and so when the time came today to pick something to share with you all, I was brought back to that moment.

So I'm extra eager and extra excited to share that with you today.

So if you've been here this summer, you have heard us talk about the Sermon on the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount with Jesus' most famous sermon, right?

He travels up to the mountain, he sits down to teach his disciples a new kingdom, a new way of life.

Just like Moses climbed up a mountain to receive the old covenant on Mount Sinai, Jesus is up on a mountain delivering the new covenant to us.

This was symbolic because people would go on mountains to feel close to God and closer to heaven.

So here Jesus is teaching and preaching his most famous sermon, and he's sitting while doing so.

Only rabbis and teachers of the law would sit while they taught.

So already Jesus is exercising the authority that he has given by God as he teaches his people.

If you would, go ahead and turn your Bibles or your iPhones to Matthew 7, where we'll be today.

So so far in the sermon, he says things like, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

He says, Don't just avoid murder, deal with the anger that's in your heart.

Don't just avoid adultery, deal with the lust that's in your heart.

Be people of integrity and truth.

Forgive rather than seeking revenge.

Give, pray, and fast for God and God alone, not for people.

Don't judge others lest you be judged.

Don't store up your possessions here on earth.

Enter through the narrow gate.

Treat others the way that you want to be treated.

And recognize that genuine discipleship of Jesus always produces fruit.

If there is no fruit, there is no Christ.

And then Jesus says a very serious warning in Matthew 7, verse 21.

Matthew 7:21

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

But the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

So Jesus tells them, lots of people will say my name, lots of people will perform miracles under my name.

They'll cast out demons in my name.

They'll even teach and preach my name.

But when the end comes, I will look at them and say, Depart from me.

I never knew you.

And right after this, he tells a parable about two builders.

If you would, go ahead and look at today's passage in Matthew 7, verse 24.

Matthew 7:24

It says this everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on a rock.

The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house.

But it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.

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.

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

And when Jesus finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished because Jesus was teaching as one that had authority, not as the scribes.

The title of the sermon today is Building on the Right Foundation.

Building on the Right Foundation.

So right off the bat, we see Jesus comparing a few things to reveal to us two different kinds of listeners in the story.

Number one, we see two kinds of builders.

Number two, we see two kinds of outcomes.

And then number three, we see two kinds of foundations.

So let's look at the first one, the builders.

So we have the wise man who chose to build his house on a rock.

When the storms came, the winds blew, his house stood.

What did it stand?

Firm on a rock.

That was really good.

The house in this passage is someone's life.

It represents our life.

The second man we see is the foolish man.

The foolish man built his house on the sand.

Oh, that was good.

When the storms come and the winds came, his house fell, and great was the fall.

Now let's look at the two outcomes.

What happened because of the storms?

So, what we can gather from this passage is that all the listeners in Jesus' crowd and also here today, that we will face storms.

This is no surprise to any of us.

In fact, everyone in this room, young and old, has lived through and walked through storms.

Storms can look like rejection, loss, grief, confusion, a broken heart, a situation that has shook your foundation, something difficult in your life.

I don't have to keep explaining because all of you and some of you are walking through storms right now.

My prayer for you today is that you would be encouraged for what's to come.

Jesus prepares us and his followers for this difficulty.

He says in John 16, 33, in this world you will have trouble.

In James, he says, believers encountering trials of various kinds.

And then in 1 Peter, he says, the trials will test and reveal our faith.

But there's an important distinction here in this parable.

The storms here are representing the trials and the things that come here on earth, but it's actually pointing far beyond just here on earth.

And it's pointing to the final judgment day when we will all stand face to face with our Savior.

And the foundation that we've built on will be fully exposed.

That day there will be no more hiding, no more disguising, no more faking, no more pretending.

The foundation our life has been built upon.

God will see the whole foundation, and unfortunately for some, he will look back at someone he loves.

And what happens is he builds his whole ark and is saves his family.

The storms came and the winds blew, and that was an act of judgment on that time for those people.

Every bit of our foundation will one day be revealed.

And for some, it won't be, you won't be able to go back.

So, yes, we can apply this passage to the difficulties, but it also is pointing to the final judgment of our faith.

And it's better that we test this foundation now than to wait.

What's interesting is that these two men were similar.

They both had a great house.

It was beautiful.

They both had a great house, they both faced the same storms, and so they looked similar, but we often think, well, why did why did the foolish man's house fall?

And it was because of the foundation.

But I think theologian Bruce, shout out to Bruce, he says it best.

He says, Where did the second builder go wrong?

It's not that he was deliberately seeking a bad foundation.

I mean, none of us want a bad foundation, but he wasn't thinking much of it.

His fault was not an error in his judgment, but his fault was an error in inconsiderateness to his foundation.

Bruce is warning us that not everybody's houses will fall because they chose a bad foundation.

But some will fall because they never thought much of their foundation.

They were distracted, thinking their foundation was good.

And today that's why we're gonna look at the foundation.

Jesus is saying all of this to make sure his listener knows that we need to be building on the right foundation.

Let's look at the third comparison.

Let's look at first at the sand.

So if anybody in the room has been to the beach and you've built an epic sandcastle, please raise your hand.

Oh yeah, we got some beach goers in the house.

So if you've built a big sand castle, you've probably spent a lot of time, right, building.

And you've added seashells all around it.

And if you're super cool, you've even added this big moat that goes all the way around to protect your sandcastle from the water.

And then you go inside to eat your sandwich at lunch.

And when you come back, what has happened?

It's destroyed, it's gone.

All of your hours with your family working hard on the sandcastle is gone.

Why?

It's because the tide rose, and when the water touches the sand, what looks like a solid, what operates like a solid, begins to separate and act as a liquid.

It dissolves and it falls away from what used to look secure.

For others, an earthquake, you might be more familiar with that, what happens in earthquakes is called liquefaction.

Liquefaction specifically happens when loose, water-saturated sand is subjected to rapid shaking.

So the foundation, the ground begins to shake.

Water pressure between the sand grains begins to separate the particles, and what used to operate as a solid now operates as a liquid, and it's gone.

It can wash away large structures because the foundation fell apart.

What used to be strong is now gone.

But let's think back to Jesus' crowd.

When he said, don't build your house on the sand, the crowd was not thinking of this beautiful mansion built on the beach of Seaside, Florida.

I mean, that's what we're thinking of.

But his listener was thinking and very familiar with dry riverbeds.

So in the historical context of the time, when we study what was happening then, they would have been very familiar with what's called a wadi, W-A-D-I.

A Wadi was a dry riverbed at the base of a mountain.

It was in the valley.

And what they would do is they would pitch their tents there.

They would build structures in the wadi because it was the easiest place to build.

It was often made of solid sand, maybe some stone, some rock.

But they would build there.

But what would happen is, far off, where they couldn't hear or see, rain would begin to fall on the mountains.

The rain, unable to absorb into limestone, would come down the mountains and within minutes would flood the entire wadi, wiping out every house and every tent and structure that was there.

So if we are building our life on things that look secure, those things can be gone in an instant.

If we're building our life on people's approval of us, if we're building it on our careers and financial stability, if we're building it on our hobbies or our likes and our dislikes, or maybe we're building it on relationships that feel very secure.

They look secure, they feel secure, and it's the easiest place to build.

Or maybe we're building it through social media, or maybe we're building on sin.

All of these structures are just sand.

They look secure, they feel secure, but under pressure, they lose their strength and they operate like a liquid.

This valley would have been here during Jesus' times in Judea, but these structures have been built in over time and the roads.

As you can see, the bottom where the trees are would be where the wadi would be found, the bottom of the valley, where it was dry and it made sense to build there.

But what we can see is what has lasted and what it remains are the houses and the structures that are actually built into and onto the rock.

What is built into and onto the rock has lasted.

Luke 6.48 gives us some more construction details than Matthew did.

He writes, He's like a man building a house who dug deep and he laid his foundation on the rock.

If there's any loose sediment where building would occur, they would have to excavate and dig deep until they found the bedrock of the earth.

Once they found that bedrock, what they would do is they would locate a perfectly shaped stone that would be the cornerstone of the structure.

They'd place it in the center of the house, and every measurement and every wall would come straight from this cornerstone to make sure the walls and the bricks and everything that they used were symmetrical and sturdy.

If they didn't like the cornerstone of what it looked like, they would often reject it and throw it away.

They'd put it off to the side and not use it.

Jesus is communicating with us.

If you want to withstand the storms of life, and if you want to stand firm on judgment day, you must build your house and build your life on the rock.

Onto or into the rock.

So what is the rock?

Jesus says, anyone who does these words of mine, his words are the rock.

And this points to not just what the rock is, but who the rock is.

1 Corinthians 3.11 says, For no one can lay any foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

If we are building our lives on obeying his words, that must mean that we are building our life on Jesus Himself, the rock of all ages, and the rock of our salvation.

What's interesting is, you know how they'd throw out the cornerstone if they didn't like exactly how it looked, what they thought it should be.

Do you remember how people responded when Jesus came as the sunless, sinless man of God?

Because he came as the Messiah.

Ephesians 2 20 tells us that Jesus Christ Himself is the chief cornerstone.

Just like the despised and rejected stone, Acts 4 says, This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builder.

And he's become the chief cornerstone.

Jesus himself was rejected by man, but God used him as the center of the foundation that the church for years has been built upon.

Jesus is the key chief cornerstone in the rock of all ages.

The foolish builder tried to build his house first and then worked.

Worry about the foundation later.

But the wise man worried about the foundation first and then built his house.

The cornerstone always dictates the house.

It dictates the measurements.

The house does not get to dictate the cornerstone.

There are many of you in the room today who you all hear Jesus' words.

You hear them week after week.

You know them.

You've grown up under them.

You've memorized them.

Maybe you've competed in Bible drill with them.

You're familiar with Jesus' teachings.

Yet there's a strong distinction between the two men.

The wise man obeyed and did what Jesus' words said to do.

A mentor and friend shared this analogy with me, and I think it depicts this so well.

So hearing Jesus' words and not doing them is like a college student on your first day of class, you get a syllabus, right?

You look through the whole syllabus to see what your year's worth of work is.

And it's like you go home and you highlight the whole syllabus, you memorize it, you add it into your calendar, you add in all the quizzes, all the tests, then you show up to every class, you take good notes, you're there.

But by the end of the semester, you receive an email that says, I'm sorry you have failed the class.

Shocked, you run to your professor and you say, But I had everything in the syllabus memorized.

I wrote them all in my calendar.

And he said, Well, yes, you did that.

But you never did the assignments I had in the syllabus.

You never did the work or took the quiz or finished a test.

And for many of us, I think that this could be a reality when it comes to doing and hearing and obeying the words of God.

The foolish man hears the words, but he doesn't do them.

James 1.22 says, do not merely listen to the word and then deceive yourself.

Do what it says.

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in the mirror and instantly forgets what color hair he has.

Instantly forgets what he's wearing.

Instantly forgets what he looks like.

But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what they have heard, but by doing it, they will be blessed in all they do.

So by this point, I'm sure all of you want to have a foundation on the rock.

You want to build your life on Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone.

So how do we do this?

How do we practically build our life on the rock of Jesus Christ?

Number one, by knowing Jesus.

It's really hard to build your life on a person that you don't know.

The wise man built his life on the rock, and 1 Corinthians 13 says, He will have hope, and he will have everlasting life.

Psalms 1.3 says that a wise man is like a tree planted by streams of water, who yield its fruit in season, and its leaves never wither.

A wise man is like a tree planted by streams of water.

When we follow Jesus and we're submitted to him, he gives us the grace, the knowledge, the help, and the understanding to fulfill his words.

When you receive the Lord, he gives you his Holy Spirit, the ultimate helper and guide, and he helps you daily know how to live on this solid foundation.

He convicts you daily.

He teaches you daily.

He encourages you daily.

He is alive and active in your life.

And he is the one that helps you know how to place the right bricks in the right places to build your house on the rock of Christ.

He knew we could not do this alone.

And thank goodness we don't have to do this alone.

He offers us new mercy every day, new grace.

He gives us opportunities again and again and again for us to obey.

When we ignore him the first time, he'll bring it back around and he gives us another chance to obey him.

So do we do this perfectly?

No.

No one, no one will do this perfectly but Jesus.

Paul says it well in Philippians 3, he says, 3 verse 12.

He says, I'm not saying I have this all together and that I have it made, but I'm well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who so wondrously reached out to me.

Friends, don't get me wrong.

By no means am I counting myself an expert in this.

But I've got my eye on the goal where God is beckoning us forward towards Christ.

I'm off running and I'm not turning back.

He asks for the pursuit of Christ, not the perfection.

The pursuit of Christ.

How quickly do you turn back to Jesus when you fall away?

When you sin or disobey, how quickly do you turn back to him, receive his forgiveness, confess to a brother and sister, and allow him to help you move forward?

That is the heart that Jesus is asking from us.

He's expecting none of us perfection, but he's saying, hey, you can you can follow me and you can press onward towards the goal.

Okay, this is the portion where of the day where I need your guys' help, or this could be incredibly awkward.

I'm okay with either option.

Um, do you guys remember the kid song?

Sing it with me if you know it.

The wise man built his house upon the rock.

The wise man built his house upon the rock.

The wise man built his house upon the rock, and the rain came tumbling down.

The rain came down and the floods came up, the rain came down and the floods came up.

The rain came down and the floods came up, and the house on the rock stood firm.

He can allow you and help you to keep your house from falling away.

The second way we practically do this, you guys sounded great by the way.

That was good.

The second way we can do this is by spending time in his word and in prayer.

How can we obey words we've never read?

How can we listen to the voice of a shepherd that we've never let actually lead us?

When we spend time reading his word in prayer, he teaches us his voice, and we're able to know what it is we need to do to obey.

In order to hear and know, we have to dwell.

We have to quiet our souls before him so he can direct us in what to do.

The third practical way is surrounding yourself with godly community.

Some of you grew up in Christian homes, and your grandparents and your parents did the hard work of building really good, solid foundations for your faith.

So you could pick up where they left off and build on the rock of Christ.

For others of you, you're starting to build right now.

And God is giving you the grace to build on the right foundation.

Surround yourself with godly community.

Do you know that if you're building on Jesus, do you know what he does?

He builds you into his people.

He never leaves you stranded.

If you're following Jesus, he'll always build you into his people.

Will his people fail you?

Absolutely.

Be prepared.

Will his people hurt you?

Of course.

Will his people fail you?

Yeah.

Do you know who never does fail you and who never will hurt you?

It's Jesus.

Do not give up on his body, on his church.

People will fail.

But when you are built up on Christ, he will build you into his people.

What does that look like?

What we've talked about all morning.

It looks like small groups, it looks like youth group.

It looks like kids' camps.

It looks like college ministries.

It looks like meeting together here on Sundays, doing what you're doing, committing to being in the house of God.

It also looks like sitting across at coffee with someone who's weathered storms.

A mentor, a parent, a teacher, a leader, a pastor, a friend, a counselor, someone who's weathered storms.

Invest yourself in them.

And you'll be placing your house on a firm foundation of Christ.

Whether you realize it or not, we're all building on a foundation every day.

Every time you hear and obey, you're placing a brick on the foundation of your life.

Every time you wake up and you choose to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, you're building.

Every time you choose integrity over a shortcut, you're building.

Every time you choose to forgive over holding bitterness, you're building.

Every time you tell the truth, even though exaggerating would make you look really cool, you're building.

Every time you love your neighbor as yourself, you're building.

Every time you're faced with temptation, but you still choose to flee from all immorality, you're building.

Every time you confess your sin and believe that he's faithful and just to forgive you of your sin, you're building.

Every word from God is an opportunity to build on the right foundation.

Jed's mom, before she left, she said it well.

She said, the foundation you lay today determines the house you'll have tomorrow.

What kind of house do you want tomorrow?

Because no one but you can lay the foundation with Christ.

It's the perfect time to build your foundation.

It's not too late.

And if you've already been building, keep building.

Press on.

If you're in storms, know that God is going to hold you, He's going to carry you, He's going to help your house stand the test of time because He's the rock you're on.

My grandpa always said, if you don't have time to do it right the first time, well, you won't have time to do it over.

And I think today is an opportunity for us to do it right the first time.

To build on the rock of Jesus Christ, our chief cornerstone.

To build each day on him.

So our response today isn't to pretend we've built perfectly because we haven't.

But our response is to come back to Jesus, the center of our life and the center of our house.

We're going to respond with communion and reflect on that foundation.

So if you would go ahead and grab your communion and please stand.

If you did not grab communion on the way in, there is a table and basket right by the door, so you can go at this time and grab that.

And for others of the room, your response today may not be communion.

Communion is reserved for believers of the gospel of Jesus.

It's for those of you who have chosen Jesus already as your chief cornerstone.

You believe he came, lived a sinless life, died, rose again, so that we could have eternal life with Christ.

And the good news for you is that I believe today's the day of salvation for someone, maybe multiple people.

Today is a perfect day for salvation.

Today is a perfect time to make the decision that will change your life.

And there'll be no better decision you'll ever make.

I promise.

So if that's you, I want you to know you can give your life to Jesus right now, where you're standing.

Confess to him your sins.

Believe that he came, lived, and died and rose again for you.

And then confess and accept his free gift of salvation.

When you leave today, if that is you, I would encourage you to come down.

We'll have our prayer team down here who are trained and ready and excited to walk you through that moment.

For the rest of us, I want you to hold your communion elements in the air.

We remember the foundation of our faith.

Jesus' body was broken for us and his blood was spilled out for us.

And he did this because he loved us.

Jesus' love, which means the foundation of our life, the rock, we're actually built on Jesus and his love for us.

That's an incredible gift that we get today.

So as I pray, I want you to ask the Lord, God, is there anywhere in my life that I've been building on sand?

It looks secure, it feels secure, it maybe is secure, but it's not you.

Would you expose the areas of my life where I've been building bricks on sand?

Show me what those are.

Jesus, we thank you today for your blood and your body that was broken for us.

God, I thank you for the sacrifice of your perfect Son so that we would have something steady to stand on.

Both today and forevermore, in eternity.

Jesus, I thank you that you've chosen us for now, for this time, to be here.

God, I ask that every life in this room would choose you daily to build their life on the solid rock of Christ.

Jesus, we repent when we've built on other things.

We repent when we've built on our emotions, when we've built on what we wanted to do, when we've built on good philosophy, when we've built on good ideas, but it hasn't been you.

Jesus, bring us back to the center.

Bring us back to your chief cornerstone and help us build on the right foundation.

God, we love you and we thank you.

God, thank you for this day.

Thank you for these people.

Thank you that you love them.

Thank you that you care to see them standing.

You care to see their house still there.

Jesus, we love you.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

You can take a cup of the bread in the cup.

You guys are officially dismissed.

If you would help out the kiddos team, grab your kids, make sure you sign up for small group, and we will see you guys next week.