The sermon introduction uses the metaphor of sinkholes to illustrate the importance of building one's life on the solid foundation of Jesus's teachings, as per Matthew 7:24-27.
In May of 1981, Muffin was barking ferociously in the yard. Mae Rose Williams thought she was chasing a squirrel and came out to quiet her down. She didn’t see a squirrel. Instead she found a sinkhole opening up in the front yard of her Winter Park, Florida, home. It kept opening until it swallowed up Mae Rose’s entire home. But it didn’t stop there. It continued to open until it engulfed the local community pool and did about $4 million worth of damage. Nearly thirty years later in Guatemala as Tropical Storm Agatha swept across Central America, a sinkhole opened up in Guatemala City and swallowed up a three-story building.
Keep those two images in mind as I read Jesus’s words in Matthew 7:24–27: “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. 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. 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. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Building our lives on the rock of God’s Word is the only sure foundation. Every other foundation is shifting sand. As I look at the turmoil in our world today, it seems like culture is taking it a few steps further than a shaky foundation. I’m afraid some of the ideas and seeming “truths” that are guiding our world today may look like a decent foundation, but in the end they are more like a sinkhole that threatens to swallow us up.
When Jesus talked about those two builders, you’ll notice it wasn’t a matter of if the rain would come. It was a matter of when. The rain did come. The waters did rise. The winds did blow, and they did beat against the house. I don’t want to scare you, and you don’t have to worry if you have the right foundation, but the storm is going to come. The rain, the waters, and the wind will come into your life and my life. It probably has already come into your life a number of times before. And the foundation of your life is the difference between a life that stands firm and a life that swallows itself up.
Every day you and I are laying down bricks in the structure of our lives. What we are living today is the result of what we were building yesterday. Every day at work, every weekend, every interaction is part of the structure you are building called your life. Whether you’re an atheist, agnostic, or a Jesus follower, most of us build careers. We build families. We build friendships. The main difference is found in the foundation that undergirds all that we’re building.
What is undergirding and shaping everything that’s built in your life? Is the career you’re building standing on your desire to know, follow, and glorify Jesus or is it built on your desire to get what you want? Those who have built it all on Jesus can lose it all, yet they still possess everything. And those who have built on the desire to get what they want can lose it all and . . . they’ve simply lost it all.
Building our lives on the rock of God’s Word is the only sure foundation. Every other foundation is shifting sand.
Did you notice what Jesus said about how we build the foundation? He said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a man who built his house on the rock” (verse 24). While this building is intimately linked with our salvation, I don’t think this is a saved or not-saved passage. You can believe in Jesus, sneak into heaven, and waste much of your time on earth with nothing to show for it when it’s all over.
Paul talked about this in 1 Corinthians 3:11–15 when he said, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.”
I believe Jesus’s words in Matthew 7 are more about being wise or unwise in the way we live. I believe He’s showing us the difference between a life full of joy or a life full of misery. He’s pointing out the way to a faith that endures and overcomes no matter what comes against it compared to a faith that crumbles and collapses with the slightest resistance. And Jesus said that it all comes down to two things: first, “You hear My Word”; second, “You live My Word.”
There is no way around the authority and the importance Jesus put on the truth of the Bible. In John 10:35, Jesus said, “The Scripture cannot be broken” (nkjv). In His ministry, Jesus pointed back to and affirmed the accounts of Abraham, Isaiah, Moses, and Jonah. He quoted the prophets and the law when He drove His points home. One of the major reasons we believe in the authority of the Old Testament is because Jesus testified to it.
At least twenty times in the four Gospels, Jesus pointed to the Old Testament when He said, “It is written ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium
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