A Tower That Won’t Fall

A Tower That Won’t Fall

Proverbs 18:10 - 11

* It was a beautiful morning, a light breeze coming off the waters. The sun was on the rise and the soldiers were enjoying every minute of their military duty, thanking God and counting themselves lucky for where they had been stationed. Some were going off the night shift, some just getting up to head to church, work or to enjoy a lazy Sunday morning, and maybe some were sleeping off the hangover they received the night before, most of them for sure were asleep. Little did they know that within a matter of hours, their world would be turned upside down, many of them killed and practically a whole fleet of battleships sunk. On September 6th, 1941, Journalist Clarke Beach wrote this: “A Japanese attack on Hawaii is regarded as the most unlikely thing in the world, with one chance in a million of being successful. Besides having more powerful defenses than any other post under the American Flag, it is protected by distance.”

In 1941, that one chance in a million happened & again in 2001 it happened. (Video – Tribute to the Victims of September 11) (Prayer for the families) With a great deal of respect for and sympathy towards those who lost loved ones; if mankind, and more to the point, Americans, does not learn from our past, history is apt to repeat. This will only result in more casualties & deaths.

* The Twin Towers were said to be a symbol of the greatness of America. Economically, architecturally, and even in Construction, the two towers said to the world that “America is #1”. It would serve us well to remember that there is nothing mankind can build that is indestructible. If man can build it, it can & will be destroyed. If we are not safe in such grand structures, then where is safety found? The situation & solution is found in God’s Word (text)

1. The Situation – we face is written here in scripture. First, take a look at verse 11. The cultural truth in America is that our money has become our security, our shelter, and even our god. It is everything to us. For the last 20 years I have listened in amazement, disdain, and even unbelief to hear those who wear the name of Christ declare they were voting for the one who can take care of them ‘financially’, while the spiritual, moral, and ethical issues were kicked to the curb. Years ago I heard the Christian artist Carmen tells us that the ‘doctrine of the classroom in one generation becomes the ‘doctrine of culture in the next. Candidly, we seem to know more about the temporary performance of the stock market than the eternal plan of the Savior. When we put our trust in things of this world, just like the towers, we can be destroyed in seconds. Those twin towers took 10 years from inception to dedication. Ten years. And it took 102 minutes to bring those building down. The take away for us is this; mankind tends to build our lives on what Jesus called “the sand.” While we ‘think’ our money, our affluence, & all our things may provide protection, it can and, in all likelihood, will be taken in a moment.

a. Some of you are saying, “What kind of message is this?” Here it is; until our security blanket of this world’s good is decimated in our minds and our eyes, we will never seek the Lord with all of our hearts. We will never depend on Him with all our souls. We will never learn on Him with our understanding. And we will never love Him with all that we are. We need a dose of truth.

b. As bad as this may sound, the Bible goes on to further describe our situation. We know that Jesus said He would return and get His church. The days surrounding His return are called, “The Last Days.” We are living in “The Last Days.” The last days have a life all their own. Turn to 2 Timothy 3:1-5 and get the rest of the story. To read these words of the Apostle Paul is to know that things are not likely to get better. It says, “Difficult times!” Others translate this word as terrible, perilous, or days of trouble, but the Greek word means hard to do, hard to take, hard to bear, and ‘dangerous.’ To walk down this list of characteristics is like reading an evaluation of the American culture. (Review) Just as surely as the Twin Towers were taken down by terrorist, so will our life, if we run into a tower that is manmade.

c. If your life is ‘safe’ only within the tower of your own thinking, you are in danger. If your heart is ‘safe’ only within the tower of your own feeling, you are in danger. If your soul is ‘safe’ only within the tower of your own making, you are in danger. Before we can ever discover the protection of a tower that won’t fall, we must come face to face with the truth of the tower which will fall. In Jesus’ story, found in Matthew 7, we are told that one house was built on the rock and another house was built on the sand. The ‘rains fell, rivers rose, wind blew, and all this pounded both houses.’ The rains of secularism are falling, the waters of consumerism (as we demands the church adhere to our thinking & needs) are rising, the winds of humanism are blowing (telling us mankind has it all figured out), and our houses are being pounding. If we have built our house on the sands of human reasoning and ingenuity, our tower, which we believe to be so strong, will collapse. In fact, we are witnesses of lives which have collapsed or are collapsing because their tower was a tower of their own making. If we return to our Proverb, we’ll discover the tower which will never fall. (Proverbs 18:10)