A Firm Foundation

A Firm Foundation

Pray.

If I were to ask you, What is the most important part of any structure, Any house, skyscraper, hospital building,

etc. What would your answer be? And of course the answer would be its foundation.

See, it doesn't matter how beautiful of a structure you build, It doesn't matter how glamourous the building is,

without a proper foundation under it, supporting it, it will eventually fall.

One of the greatest and best known examples in our world today, is the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy.

But we must understand, it wasn't built to lean. It was constructed to be the Tower of Pisa, not the leaning tower

of Pisa. But subsequently it began to lean, five years after it's construction due to a poor substrate, very poor soil

conditions.

In the Bible , Jesus warns us of such things in our lives. Jesus certainly understands, that for any Christian to lead

and have the kind of life that He intended us to have,

The First thing you must do is lay the foundation in your life. A proper foundation. A foundation that will not cause

you to lean back towards the life, He saved you from. A foundation that will not cause you to lean back towards the

world, but a Firm foundation that will keep you walking perfectly upright and straight for Jesus.

In Matthew 7:24-29 we have Jesus' words speaking to us today through His Holy Bible.

read verses 24-25.

Here Jesus tells us the proper way, The Godly way to lay the founation for our lives. This is God's blueprint to

follow. Follow it and find success, Decline it and find certain failure, it's your choice.

Jesus says here in these two verses, Anyone, man woman or child that hears my words, and actually does

what He says todo, is a wise person.

Notice Jesus doesn't say, if you sit through a 30 minute sermon without falling asleep is a wise person.

He doesn't say, reading your Bible 15 minutes a day makes you a wise person. He doesn't say praying 3 times

a day makes you a wise person, Although they are all wonderful things and things we should be doing,

But Jesus says, First Hear My Words, But wisdom is found in obedience to His Words.

Jesus says, A proper foundation for your life comes through hearing His words, And then applying them to your life

and living them. These two things are handcuffed together. Doing one without the other, should never happen.

Why come to church and sit through sermon after sermon, Why read your Bible at home daily, IF you're not

going to apply what you've heard and learned?

Also, without hearing God's Word preached regularly and without reading your bible regularly, You certainly will

not choose to live a life pleasing to God. The two work together.

Jesus says, A wise person, does both of these things. Jesus says, that will be an everlasting foundation for

your life to be built upon. And if you chose to hear, read and study God's Holy Book and then Apply and live what

you've learned to your life, in vs. 25 you will be able to stand when the storms of life hit you square in the face.

Why? You will stand, when you receive bad news. You will stand when you get laid off from work? You will

stand when the stock market crashes. You will stand when things do not go your way, Because they won't.

You will stand because your life is built upon the rock. And that rock will hold you strong. And if your foundation

is attached to the rock, you will not waver.

Now I think it's apparent here, who that rock is. 1 Corinthians 10:4 says, And did all drink the same spiritual

drink, for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians 2:19-22 , Paul wrote this to the church members in Ephesus, to which God is telling us here today,

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the house hold of

God. vs. 20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, JESUS CHRIST, Himself Being the

Chief Cornerstone.

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. In whom ye also are builded

together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Paul clealry reaffirms the teaching of Jesus in our text, Matthew 7. Paul says, If you have accepted Christ as

your personal savior, You are no longer a stranger or foreigner to God, you are now a citizen with the saints of the

house hold of God. And your foundation is a foundation built by the apostles and the prophets, BUT the Chief