Jesus gives us the parable of the two houses and the two foundations, and the two men.
These are two different houses, two different foundations, and two different men.
In this text Jesus divides the whole world into two classes of people: #1 The Wise #2 The Foolish
What Jesus teaches us in this text is: It’s up to you.
No one is born with the predisposition to be a fool.
No one is born with the predisposition to be wise.
It’s a choice:
Tell your neighbor: Make the right choice.
Now tell them: Don’t be a fool.
Even though this is a teaching of contrasts and variables, one thing is the same,(that is the storm).
The point is then: storms come to everybody.
That being said: the only thing that is in question is not why? How? Where? But when.
Living in a place called tornado Alley there is no question of why the storm will come, or if they will come, or which direction it will come from.
Because none of those things make any difference anyway.
But the question that remains to be answered is when?
And the truth is: that question cannot be answered because no one can control the weather (at best they can try to predict it).
The same is true of life: no one knows when the storm will come.
Some have had the advantage of the daylight hours and have seen the storm coming in the distance and were able to brace for it, or get out of the way.
But for others there was no warning, they went to bed after a beautiful summer’s evening or spring evening and woke up to the sound of a tornado ripping their house apart.
Destroying everything they hold dear, even to the loss of husbands, wives, and children.
In the morning light all that remains are the broken shattered pieces of a life that used to be: a home that used to be
A marriage that used to be beautiful.
A body that used to be healthy and strong.
A family that used to be close, that used to love each other.
A mind that used to be clear and sharp uncluttered by drugs and alcohol.
A retirement plan that used to exist but got blown away by the storm.
A car that used to be beautiful but got blown away by the storm.
Dreams and aspirations that were destroyed.
And it all happened without warning it happened while they were sleeping
I wonder how many storms could actually have been avoided had we not been sleeping.
I know some storms are unavoidable, but there are some storms that could be avoided if we would just wake up.
Look at your neighbor: and tell them (wake-up neighbor).
All marriages don’t have to end in divorce.
All physical attacks don’t have to lead to heart attack or stroke or cancer or sugar diabetes.
A lot of things happen in our lives simply because we are asleep, we’re not watching, we’re not paying attention.
1Th 5:7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
Samson didn’t have to have his eyes punched out, he didn’t have to suffer humiliation and play the part of a fool and a slave in a Philistine prison.
No this was a storm he could have avoided.
Samson’s problem was: he was sleeping when he should have been praying.
Sleeping when he should’ve been reading the word of God.
Sleeping when he should’ve been in church listening to the word of God being preached, taking notes making preparation building his foundation.
Samson was sleeping while the storm was brewing.
Samson closed his eyes to the obvious threat around him.
Sampson pretended everything was all right, when he knew in his heart it was all wrong.
I’m preaching to somebody today: you’re going through a storm.
I know some storms are unavoidable, but there are some storms that you don’t have to go through.
Some of you today are in storms right now that you didn’t have to go through, hell you didn’t have to go through, heartbreak you didn’t have to experience.
These are storms that are the product and the fruit of fleshly desires and decisions.
Sampson’s life was a series of storms, tragedies, loss, heartbreak, and every one of them was a product of his own self-will and actions birthed out of the desires of his flesh.
We’ve all been there: no one can point a self-righteous finger at somebody else without pointing at yourself first.
We’ve all blown it.
We’ve all moved in the flesh.
We’ve all ignored wise counsel, and did what we wanted to do.
And like Sampson we have found ourselves in a storm.
But these are not the storms that we’re talking about in our text:
The storms our text is talking about are unforeseeable storms.
Supernatural in design and origin.
Unavoidable.
This storm is not the consequence of bad or selfish or carnal decisions.
This storm is a product of satanic conspiracy.
It is designed to destroy your faith, to take you out.
It is a fiery furnace designed, formed, created for the sole purpose of destroying your life.
Nebuchadnezzars fiery furnace was supposed to prove publicly that the faith of the three Hebrew children was worthless; it was his intention to publicly humiliate the testimony and the confession of these three children of faith.
Thats the purpose of the storm: that’s the reason that it comes.
It comes to humiliate you, to ridicule you, to destroy your faith in God.
To put you on display and say to the world they couldn’t make it, and neither will you, I destroyed them, and I’ll destroy you too.
And the sad truth is: There are many in the church that have been blown away by the storms and have fallen.
And Jesus tells us why: Because they built their house on the sand.
They went to church, they heard the preacher, they shouted, they danced, they even paid their tithes, they talked in tongues.
But they built their house on the sand.
Sand means (surface, moving, shifting, changing, unstable).
They built on their religious affiliation.
They built on their good deeds.
They built on their morality, and legal righteousness.
They built on their own wisdom and knowledge.
And all of these things are but sand moving and shifting with the rising tide.
No wonder the songwriter said: On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand.
It is no mystery then when someone falls, regardless of how big or beautiful the house or the Ministry.
Jesus reveals that when the house is destroyed in the storm, it is a foundation problem.
Everything is dependent upon your foundation, and this is where so many people miss it.
They want to build something they can be proud of that will impress others.
They want the anointing and they want to minister.
They want to preach, they want to teach, sing, or evangelize.
They want big houses, fancy cars, reputation, and popularity.
And they put all of their energy into what you can see, and they fail to build a strong foundation.
Jesus said: The wise man dug down deep and laid his foundation on the rock.
The wise man understands, that the most necessary thing in his house is the foundation.
The wise man is more concerned with what others cannot see, than what they can see.
Jesus spent 30 years of his life laying a foundation for a 3 1/2 year ministry.
We know Jesus was born, we saw him at 12 years of age in the temple, but we know nothing of his life up until he was 12 and we know nothing of his life after 12 years old until he started his open ministry at 30 years of age.
What was Jesus doing in all those silent years?
He was building; he was laying the foundation for his ministry.
Jesus was teaching us how to build our lives.
Mat. 6:1-8 He taught us to do our praying in secret in the closet, to do our alms between ourselves and God, to fast secretly unto the Lord, not seeking attention from others.
This is the foundational life, (Then he says, when you have done these things secretly, Your father, God, will reward you openly).
The wise men dig down deep.
The wise man is willing to invest time and effort in building a good foundation.
Jesus reveals that the reason one man’s house was destroyed by the storm, and the other was not, was all because of the foundation.
Laying the foundation for a successful life is hard work.
Anybody can shout, dance, run, speak in tongues, but it’s hard sometimes to shout and dance, to run and holler when you’re digging and hitting rocks and roots and getting things out of the way that are unstable, undependable, shifting and loose.
The wise man digs down deep.
You have to dig past feelings, emotions.
Dig past popular opinion.
Dig past religious pedigree.
Dig past head knowledge.
You have to dig past second hand revelation, in other words you can’t build your life on who everyone else says Jesus is.
You’ve got to know him for your self.
There are storms in life that are unavoidable.
There are storms that take us by surprise.
There are storms are supernatural in design and origin.
But the revelation that Jesus brings to us is this.
If the house has the right foundation it will still be standing when the storm is over.
Tell you’re neighbor: I’ve had my share of storms, but I’m still standing.
You see me standing up here tonight, and it looks like I got it all together, but that don’t mean I ain’t ever been through a storm.
You hear me up hear speaking words of encouragement and blessing, lifting you up, but that don’t mean I ain’t never been down.
I don’t have time tonight to talk about all the storms I’ve been through in my life, some I could have avoided and some I couldn’t (but the message I want to get to you, is this: I’m still standing.
Tell your neighbor: I’m still standing.
I took a good hit, but I’m still standing.
It was a bad storm, but I’m still standing.
It tore up stuff all around me, but I’m still standing.
I lost some stuff I thought I couldn’t live without, but I’m still standing.
It blew some people away that I thought were my friends, but I’m still standing.
Sometimes it felt like the storm would never end, but I’m still standing.
Man of God: How, how do you make it, how do you survive?
Others didn’t make it.
How do you make it through the storm of sickness? how do you make it through the storm of the loss of a loved one? how do you make it through broken relationships? through the storm of divorce? through heartbreak? through financial disaster?
How do you make it when everything you love and hold dear is taken from you?
So many people give up, so many people fall, so many people quit.
What is the secret?
The secret is: You have got to find the rock, dig past everything and everbody else.
Dig past church, dig past religion, dig past emotions, dig past feelings, dig past opinions and hit the rock.
I’ve weathered storms before.
I’ve felt the rain as it pounded on my life, I’ve heard the thunder roll and seen the lightning flash.
I felt the hand of fear as it tried to grip my heart, (but I kept digging and finally) I hit the rock.
Tell your neighbor: I hit the rock
When I felt the rock under my feet I knew I was safe.
When I felt the rock under my feet I knew I was going to make it.
Because nothing can move my rock.
Tell your neighbor: Nothing can move my rock.
2Sa 22:2 And he said, The LORD is my (rock) and my fortress, and my deliverer;
Ps 62:6 David said: He only is my (rock) and my salvation: he is my defense; "I shall not be moved".
In One of my favorite verses in the bible David said:
Ps 40:2
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and "set my feet upon a rock" and established my goings.
Tell your neighbor: Nothing can move my rock.
Ps 46:1-3 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
What David is saying in this verse is: It doesn’t matter what comes my way in life, I am going to make it, cause nothing can move my rock.
Earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunami’s, hurricanes, volcano’s, fire, floods, or famine or pestilence.
{Nothing can move my rock}.
Somebody here listening to this message right now, you are in the storm of your life.
We’re not even concerned today with whether it was avoidable or not.
We’re not asking you today if you caused it, or not.
The point is: You are in a storm, and stuff is shaking all around you, and you need help and you need it now.
Everything you’ve been holding on to is shaking and falling apart.
But I heard David say:
Ps 61:2 When (not if) but (when) My heart is overwhelmed lead me to that rock that is higher than I.
I came today to lead you to that rock that is higher than you.
That rock that is higher than your storm, the rock that is higher than the fight you’re in, the rock that that is higher than the fire you’re going through, higher than the enemy that is Warring against you.
I don’t want to hold you to long, but I got to talk to you about my rock for a minute.
In Exe 17:6-7 Water came out of the rock and quenched the thirst of between 1-3 million Israelite s.
In Judges 6:21 Fire came up out of the rock and consumed Gideons offering.
In Job 29:6 He said: The rock poured me out rivers of oil.
In Ps 81:16 He said he would satisfy with honey from the rock.
In 1 Co 10:4 It says: There was a rock that followed the children of Israel all through their wilderness wanderings, and then it says (and that rock was Christ Jesus).
Thats the rock I’m talking about:
It’s the same rock that Jesus said (Upon this Rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it). Mat 16:18
Thats the rock I came to lead you to today:
He is the rock that never rolls.
He is the foundation that never shifts.
He is the friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
He is the captain that never lost a battle.
He is your shelter in the time of storm.
He is your fortress, and your high tower.
Everything in your world may be shaking right now, the wind and the rain may be beating on your life, and it may look like there’s nothing and no one, you can depend on, but I came to lead you to that rock, and if you’ll step up on on the rock, you’ll make it.
I can’t promise you the storm will stop, I can’t promise you that all the problems will disappear, but I can promise you, that you will make it (cause nothing can move my rock).
I wish you’d touch three people right now and tell them: Nothing can move my rock.
world government is shaking, the worlds economy is shaking, the religious world is shaking, the family structure is shaking, everything around us is shaking, Except the rock
Now tell your neighbor: Your going to make it, you’ve made it to the rock, You’re going to make it.
Come hell or high water you’re going to make it, because you made it to the rock, and nothing can move my ROCK.
If you’re building on this worlds religious system you’re going to fall, If you’re building on this worlds economic system you’re going to fall, If you’re counting on the government to take care of you, you’re going to fall, If you’re faith is in social security, or welfare, or government housing, you’re going to fall.
If you’re counting on your ability to play the stock market, you’re going to crash.
There is only one thing you can depend on in this world today, there is only one foundation that is sure, and it’s not the Rock of Gibraltar.
It’s the ROCK OF AGES and his name is Jesus Christ, and if you build on any other foundation, the bible calls you a fool.
Look at your neighbor and tell them: I believe I’ll build my house on the Rock, Cause nothings going to move my Rock.
