Our Foundation Is Sure Series

January 7, 2018 Sermon Outline - Our Foundation is Sure - Ephesians 2:18-22

Talk today about foundations and superstructures.

001 New Evergreen Foundation Issue;

Many of you have heard about our Evergreen Centre for at-risk youth.

Close to my heart

Forced to move ourselves from current location or be expropriated

we bought land and a building for ministry to at risk youth;- a 3 story ministry centre; drop in, health centre, dental office, employment centre, creative art space, meeting rooms, nursery, housing referrals and more (4 shots of new Evergreen design

then discovered the lack of a foundation for what we wanted to build there. This lack created a big problem and a delay and extra costs.

002 Scripture talks about Foundations

003 Just talked about healing between Jew and Gentile. Gentiles now grafted in to people of God

004 No longer foreigners, strangers, but fellow citizens

005 Foundation of apostles and prophets; prophets of the OT who spoke of coming Incarnation (Isaiah 9:6), Suffering (Is 53)

Isaiah 9:6

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 53

3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

...4 Surely he took up our pain

and bore our suffering...

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

...10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

and though the Lord makes[c] his life an offering for sin,

...by his knowledge[f] my righteous servant will justify many,

and he will bear their iniquities...he poured out his life unto death,

and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors.

006 Apostle’s teachings - the friends of Jesus who relate the Jesus story with authority; can be trusted because they were eyewitnesses, or as in Luke the doctors case, a committed historian

007 Sense is really that the foundation is most accurately Jesus, of whom the apostles testify, to Whom they gave their lives for their faithful service to Christ

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

1 Cor 3:11

008 New Evergreen foundation not good enough; future couldn’t rest on it; vision for ministry not sustainable by existing clay

009 Had to strengthen foundation; lots of additional effort and money

010 Plus steel superstructure to sit upon foundation

011 Above needed to build a future

012 We need a foundation and a superstructure to build our future. This year of 2018 and onward

013 Sometimes we examine and find we have faulty foundation. We either find this out at an early age, as I did, or sometimes later on in life when we have been committed for some time to a particular philosophy or way of living, and we discovered through trial and error that the way we have a living is indeed faulty. It provides the foundation for a living, or for weathering the storms as they come.

014 Atheism of my youth was a shallow, empty foundation. No future, no life; tried to end it all; failed. Sometimes failure is a good thing

015 I exhausted what atheism had to offer and found it wanting. It’s ultimate message is that nothing really matters, but you just try to make the best life you can before you die and become worm food.

016 Learned about Jesus. Moved that He died for me. Didn’t realize at first that He would be that great foundation. At first it was enough to be loved.

017 Then learned the teachings of Jesus. It’s the person of Jesus and the teachings of Jesus that sustain us and provide a great foundation.

018 The Wise and Foolish Builders 24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” 28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.