What Are You Building Your Life On

Thank you for being that firm foundation. We know, Lord, that there are many storms and floods and trials in life that you’ve called us to walk through. But what you promised is that you’ll never leave us. You’ll never forsake us because you’re with us as our good shepherd. That truth would resound in every heart here this morning.

That because of Jesus, we have a king who has gone before us, who walks with us. We pray that we would hear from his word faithfully and truly. We pray in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Well, once again, congratulations to those of you who got baptized this morning.

What a gift to see that as a church family. And the rest of us, we can head to Luke’s gospel. New Testament goes Matthew, Mark, and then Luke. Luke chapter six. We’re coming to the end of a powerful passage.

This has been the last four weeks or so have been in the sermon on the level is what it’s called. And it’s a passage where Jesus has been walking through what it looks like to live in the kingdom of God. He’s saying, I came to bring a kingdom. That’s what he said from the beginning. And now he’s been walking us through what it looks like to live life in this kingdom and how he changes us from the inside out.

And it always begins with the heart. There’s no external conformity that has to come first in Christianity. It’s always Jesus comes and he gets ahold of our hearts and he changes us from the inside out. And that is what brings this later fruit that people will see and the light that shines from within. And he uses these illustrations in this passage.

We’re going to see about a tree, two different kinds of trees and also this foundation needed for two different kinds of houses. Many times we read passages like this or we read the sermon on the mount and our first gut level, if we’re honest, reaction is how am I ever going to live like that? This standard that Jesus is calling me to seems impossible. Love and pray for your enemies. Go out of your way to care for those who you have no association with.

He calls us to keep an eye on the log in our own eye before we look for specs and someone else’s eye. And the question that comes up is, how am I supposed to live this way? How am I supposed to be all that Jesus calls me to be? What does that fruit come from? What’s the power that would allow me to walk in this way?

We think about all the ways that maybe we struggle with impatience or we struggle with spending habits getting out of control. We just don’t know how to control our temper and we wonder why is it still happening? How can I change and be who God’s made me to be? And in this passage he walks us through what that looks like using these pictures of trees considering what are you building your life on? He says it all comes down to this.

It’s not based on have you met certain standards because of what society says or because of what your family said. What it comes down to is have you built your life on me? Or have you built your life on something else? Some other thing that is shifting sands that can’t hold the weight of significance of your life. So he wraps up his sermon in this section.

And Jesus says I’m not looking just for those who can talk a good game. I’m not looking for those who can say call me Lord and go to church on Sundays but for the rest of the week they just obey me. He says I’m not looking for that kind of easy believeism. I want people to put their faith fully in me. I want them to commit their lives to me so that every day of the week is a day of discipleship.

So if you would please stand for the reading of God’s holy and perfect word. In Luke chapter 6 beginning verse 43. And here’s the big idea we’ll see this morning. Jesus’ radical call to discipleship is about building your life on the firm foundation of his words. So here’s what Jesus says.

Verse 43, Luke 6. Why do you call me Lord? Lord and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them. I will show you what he’s like.

He’s like a man building a house. When the stream broke against it immediately it fell and the ruin of that house was great. Thank you. Maybe seated. A pro golfer was once invited to play golf with several other famous people.

Jack Nicholas, Gerald Ford, the then president at the time, and the evangelist Billy Graham. And after he had played with them and came back to the clubhouse a friend of his ass. Hey, how was it playing with the president and Billy Graham? And the pro just unleashed this flurry of curse words and stormed off in a huff. And he followed him.

He was wondering what’s going on here. And he followed him to the practice tee and he saw this pro just smashing the golf balls in anger. And so after a couple of minutes he said, you know, I guess Billy was pretty rough on you out there, huh? And he let out an embarrassed side and he said, no, he didn’t even mention religion. I just had a bad game.

Billy Graham had not said a condemning word. He had not looked at him sideways. He had not done anything to appear at all judgmental. And yet he felt judge just being around Billy because he knew Billy was widely known as making this public commitment to Jesus. He was living for God and he had this holiness he was committed to and he had this joy about him.

And that was the only judgment that was there. Now that was the fruit of Graham’s life. No one would say he was perfect, but those who knew him best and those who were around him would say, yeah, that was what Billy was like. This pro golfer on the other hand had different kind of fruit. When things didn’t go his way, things showed differently.

And in this section, Jesus says, we’re all a bit like trees. Jesus loves to use metaphors and parables. He loves to give us these word pictures because he understands that if we just talk about spiritual things in this theoretical realm, it won’t sink in. It won’t become real. And so he says, look, there’s two kinds of trees and each kind of tree produces a kind of fruit.

He says, So here’s what Jesus is saying. Our attitudes, our actions, our lifestyles, what people see on the outside, it’s really the overflow of what is in the heart. If we have a proud, critical, selfish heart, that will bubble up. That will show up. We’ll have a critical attitude.

We will be selfish in how we act. We’ll be proud. And so the root determines the fruit. In your notes, our lives reveal the true condition of our hearts. When we talk about the heart, the Bible is talking about the control center of your life.

When you think about what you most value, what you treasure, what matters most importantly to you, your desires, that all springs from the heart, from within. And whatever you truly treasure will be that will be more obvious by how you live. And Jesus says, there’s a good tree and there is a bad tree. Steve Jobs once said, as individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups, though.

This is a very common perspective, isn’t it? Societies, they’re messed up. Societies have all kinds of problems. People, on the other hand, individuals are basically good. This is what people like to believe.

A criminal’s mom might say, yes, my son has broken the law countless times, but you know, he has a good heart. And the Bible would say, no, no, no. The reason, he doesn’t have a good heart. The reason he’s doing all these evil things is because it’s springing from his heart. That’s what needs to be changed.

Jeremiah 17, 9 tells us the heart is desperately sick and beyond help. In other words, it doesn’t matter how many self-help books you read or how many self-help seminars you go to, self-help can’t change the heart. At the end of the day, you need something far deeper, far more powerful than something that you can work towards or you can bring about by your own effort. And only Jesus can do that. Before that, in Jeremiah, God says, you know, the leopard cannot change his spots.

And so why would you think that you’re able to do good when you are accustomed to doing evil? There’s a scene in the kids’ movie, Ralph, where it’s a gathering of all these video game villains. And then they form the support group together. And Ralph, who has always been a villain, says, you know what? I think maybe I could be a hero for once.

Maybe if I really work at it, I could try to do something good for once. And all the other bad guys say, no, no, no, no. You can’t mess with the program. You’re a bad guy. That’s how it is.

And then they say they’re bad guy affirmation, which is, I am bad, and that’s good. I will never be good, and that’s not bad. And I think in a sense, we can all relate to Ralph a little bit, can’t we? We all have this sense where we know we’re supposed to be good. In a sense, we all know we’re supposed to be some kind of hero.

We know that there’s a greater purpose to our lives. We’re not just here to exist and then go extinct, and that’s it. We know that we’re called to something better. And yet, time after time, we find that whether it’s our flesh or whatever you might call it, what we know is wrong. Roman seven, Paul expressed the same struggle.

He said, I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. Am I the only one that can relate to that? Now, this is the problem. We know the right thing to do, but time after time, we find we’re doing what we know is wrong.

And inside, we wrestle with this. We wonder, what is that? Why does that keep happening in my life? I know the right thing to do. It’s not a question of, it’s a question of the will.

It’s a question of the power within. Jesus explained that really it’s the problem with our nature. That’s why he uses these illustrations of two trees. He says, one tree by nature is always going to produce good fruit because it is a good tree. The other tree, it’s going to produce bad fruit every time because it’s diseased.

And then he uses this other illustration. He says, verse 44, I like the tomato plants, the blueberries, the raspberries, that kind of thing. But you can imagine how ridiculous it would be if I hoped, prayed, and even expected that my tomato plant would produce strawberries. You don’t need a degree in horticulture to know that that is not going to work. You’re going to be disappointed every time because tomatoes come from tomato plants.

Blueberry plants produce blueberries. That’s how it works. The nature of the plant produces the fruit you get. And some people think that becoming a Christian is about becoming moral. Finally, I’m going to turn over a new leaf.

I’m going to do this. I’m going to be a good person. I’m going to get religious. I’m going to learn how to do all the right Christian things. I’m going to learn how to pray right.

I’m going to learn how to go to church. I’m going to learn how to say all the right language. I’m going to avoid all those things like drugs, alcohol, sex, partying. I’m going to act like a Christian. And then maybe God will accept me because I look like one.

But the truth is, no amount of behavior modification can change who you truly are. You need to be made new. That’s the message of the Bible. No amount of self-effort. No amount of diligent religious devotion can change the heart.

That’s what we’re stuck with. It’s only a supernatural power that can bring about the change we need. Now, today is Mother’s Day. And I’m thankful for moms. Moms, they are amazing.

Amen? They do so much. And I would say this, moms today need to hear the message that God is a God of grace. And God is eager. To show them grace.

Because we live at a time where there’s lots of cultural expectations, and there’s lots of Instagram posts, and all these kinds of things that put it forward and say, you’ve got to be basically flawless with your attitude. You’ve got to be perfect in your parenting. You have to have a spotless home all the time, or you’ve failed. And then they have what’s called mom guilt. Well, why would they have a phrase like that?

Unless it was something real that we put things on people. And all the times, moms, I think it’s just how moms are. Is their nature to want to do these things for others. And they take on this guilt because they realize, in this area, I failed. In this area, I failed.

Striving to live up to certain standards and be good enough. That’s a shaky foundation for life. And I know it’s not moms alone that struggle with this. We all can have this tendency to think, if I just do this, if I just accomplish this discipline, if I buckle down and actually get this right in life, then maybe. Maybe I’ll have a good foundation for life.

Christianity says, what matters is not meeting the expectations of others. You’re always going to let people down, no matter what way you slice it. There’s people that will be let down. What matters is that your heart is rooted in Christ. But you get your identity from Him, that you look for your acceptance and approval and justification from Him.

Because Jesus says, whatever is inside of you, you will come out. It’s like a sponge. Whatever that sponge has been soaking in, when you put pressure on that sponge, whatever it’s been in, will come out. If you find yourself being impatient with others, well, the key isn’t just to focus on, I need to be patient. I need to be patient.

The key is, think about how patient God has been with you. Think about how much He has loved you. You have struggle forgiving others. You need to reflect on who God is. Don’t focus on what other people are expecting of you or how badly you need something.

Focus on who God is, how much grace and forgiveness He’s shown you. Because, as Jesus says, the root determines the fruit. The nature of the tree will determine what kind of fruit you get. And for that to happen, we need God to transform our hearts. We need Him to go in deep all the way at the heart level and to get us at the root to make us new.

The Bible says that God does this when you come to faith in Jesus. What happens is there’s this supernatural work, the Holy Spirit takes that stony, deceitful, hard heart and pulls it out and replaces it with a heart that is submitted to God, that is renewed in His love. They call this regeneration. Being made alive, born again to God. And suddenly, when you’re born again with this new heart now, you suddenly desire things that you never cared about.

Suddenly, glorifying God, your maker, matters to you. You want to live for Him. You want to honor Jesus because you know what He did for you. You want to live a holy life. None of that mattered before that change of heart.

So we have to understand that even as Jesus calls us to follow Him as His disciples, that act of calling us to follow Him is an act of love. He’s saying, this is what you need. You need me to make that change. You need me to go in there and change your very nature. It’s easy to think, you know, Jesus will want some version of me in the future.

He doesn’t love me now, but he’ll love that future version of me. That’s how we tend to think. And Jesus says, no, I love you right now as you are wherever you are, but I love you too much to leave you where you’re at. And so that’s why change needs to happen. The fruit of the Spirit.

You notice it’s produced by the Holy Spirit. It’s not the fruit of effort. It’s not the fruit of the flesh. It’s not the fruit of human ingenuity. It’s the fruit of the supernatural Holy Spirit who comes within you.

It’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And it’s a good idea to go through that list and just do a self-examination. How am I doing in these areas? Does this show up in my life? Love.

Am I loving others? Am I putting others first? Joy. Am I showing a joy in the Lord? Am I celebrating who God is?

Or am I constantly grumbling? Am I always upset about my situation? What about peace? Where do I look when I have worries? Where do I go for peace?

Am I taking my worries to the Lord in prayer? Because Jesus says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So if you find yourself erupting in anger at others, well, the question is, where are you looking for peace? Or if you find yourself telling lies, you should look at that and say, you know, there’s something going on in my heart. I am looking for approval in something, or I’m finding my identity in something other than Christ, because Christ is the God of truth.

Sometimes we try to make excuses for our behavior. You know, we say, yes, I lashed out at so-and-so, but I was under pressure. But again, just like that sponge, whatever comes out under pressure shows what was always there. The real fruit test is not about when life is easy. It’s about what kind of fruit shows up in your life when you’re under pressure, when things are not going well, when you’re walking through that trial, where have you based your life?

God is always concerned first with the heart. It’s not this showy surface level obedience or this religious activity that he’s interested in. He wants your heart. And so grace works inside out. In your notes, true salvation is inside out, not outside in.

We’ve established you and I need a whole new heart. And the gospel provides a solution to our biggest problem. Now, most people would say, my biggest problems in life are these troublesome people that have to deal with, or they’re these situations that I’m up against, or it’s this health crisis, or it’s this financial crisis. It’s all these things. In other words, my biggest problems are outside of me, but they’re affecting me.

And Jesus says, our biggest problem is within. He says, it’s out of the heart that comes all kinds of evil. He says, it’s the heart that needs to be transformed first. That we are born with, that we come into this world with is bent on self rule. It says, I want to run my life.

I want to be in charge. I don’t need anyone telling me how to live my life. The new heart that Jesus gives us is all about submission and delight in God’s rule. It loves to be under his kingship. The Bible calls the gospel the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

So the message itself carries a power to transform us from the inside out. And so if you want that fruit, you want to be changed, you want your life to look differently, you don’t go back to all these disciplines of self effort, you go to the gospel. You see that your old sin nature was nailed to the cross with Jesus. It died. And because Jesus rose from the dead, you have been raised to new life.

That’s where the power comes from. And sometimes we see the bad fruit in our lives like anger or burnout, anxiety. And we think that what we need is more rules, more religion, more discipline. And somehow we’ll fix ourselves. But what you’re doing really is it’s like someone who has a diseased apple tree and he sees those sour apples that keep getting produced.

They’re all worm filled and gross and disgusting. And it’s like taking all those rotten apples off and going to Costco, buying a whole bunch of fresh new apples and then stapling them to that bad tree. And assuming this is going to work. But of course those new apples after time, they’re going to start to rot too. Why?

Because the problem isn’t so much the fruit first. It’s the root. The root has to change if you want the fruit. That is good. And what we need to see is God really wants a relationship with you.

That’s what this is all about. That’s why Jesus said, Abide in me and you will produce the fruit. If you know my love and you let my love come in and change things on the inside, you will be changed. Your life will look differently. You’re going to have new fruit springing up.

It’s going to be healthy and good and right. You’re going to see the fruit of the spirit in your life because you’re rooted in who I am and what I’ve done for you. The gospel isn’t just Jesus died for you. Now get your act together and obey him. It’s Jesus died for you so that he can now live through you.

He didn’t just take care of your old sin debt and then leave you to go on your own. Now he comes inside. The Bible talks about this over and over in different ways. The Holy Spirit takes up residence. We are temples of God where he lives within us.

And it’s that presence and power of God himself that makes that change and produces new fruit. That’s why Jesus said on the cross, it is finished. He said, it’s all been done. There’s nothing more for you to do that’s going to add to your salvation. It is taken care of.

He says, what you need to do is you need to see that you are already loved with an everlasting love. You are already accepted through faith in me. You are already righteous in Christ. And so now you get to live through faith. You live out of that new identity.

You’re not earning anything. You’re living from the truth of who you truly are in Christ. Religion worries about fixing the fruit all day long, cutting that bad fruit off and getting the new fruit stapled. But the gospel says, change the root and the fruit will take care of itself. It’s not trying harder.

It’s abiding in Christ, trusting him for everything. And then Jesus asks this piercing question. He says, why do you call me Lord? And not do what I tell you. It’s interesting, isn’t it?

Even in the first century, Jesus could look at this crowd of people and even his disciples close by it. He could say, you know, some of you, you’re already calling me Lord outwardly. You look devoted. You look like you want to follow me. You want to submit to my rule.

But in reality, I see through it all. It’s superficial religion because at the end of the day, you’re still not obeying me. He says, you need to obey from the heart. Some people can use all the right language, Lord, Lord, that they can use some amazing religious things. But at the end of the day, they’re not loving Jesus from the heart.

That’s the problem. So in your notes, calling Jesus Lord Lord without obeying his word reveals a heart that does not yet love Jesus. Jesus said, you want to know if you love me, if you’re living in love for me, then obey my commandments. If you obey my commandments, that is proof positive that you love me. You can’t say you love me and then go do your own thing.

That does not work. Some of the greatest damage to the faith has been done by people who claim to be Christians, but they’re just nominally Christian. They claim to follow Jesus, but in reality, they live this double life. They don’t actually care about Jesus. Jesus maybe has benefited them, helped them get a certain job or helped them, you know, have a certain family or whatever might be, but they don’t really love Jesus.

Jesus in their minds is a means to an end. And he’s saying, this is what Jesus is saying with this final illustration. He says, if you want to weather the storms of life, if you want to not be washed away with the flood that is sure to come in life, because you live in a fallen world, terrible things happen. If you want to weather that storm, you need to have your life founded on the rock. Of me, the rock of me and my words.

Trials reveal the true foundation in your life. See, feelings come and go. We can always say certain things based on emotion. What matters is the truth. Where are you rooting your life?

Verse 47, And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built. When Whitney and I were in Greece, you know, there’s ancient ruins all over the place. And, you know, one example is the Parthenon. It’s amazing. This massive structure was built roughly 2400 years ago.

And of course, it’s been damaged over that time, but what’s amazing is how much of it is still standing after all that time. And the answer, the tour guide, I’ll explain to us is, you know, there were lots of structures built like it down below. They’re no longer there. They’ve been washed away. Over time, erosion, shifting ground, they’re gone.

They didn’t last. The other ones, they were built on limestone. And so they’re still here. We get to enjoy them today because they were built on rock. And Jesus is using this exact picture for us.

Notice he says, there’s only two houses. Only two. One that’s built with foundation and one without a foundation. It’s interesting how often Jesus says, there is no middle way. You know, he says things like, he who is not with me is against me.

There’s no squishy middle with Jesus. He doesn’t say there’s also this third house that, you know, is partly based on me and partly based on other things. It’s a little compromise, but it’s gonna last. Now, he says, you’re either founded on the rock, the foundation of me and my words or you’re not. And you’re not gonna last.

Either Jesus is the absolute Lord of your life and he gets to call all the shots. He is in total command. You belong to him. He owns everything. You are his or he’s not.

He’s not your Lord. He’s actually more like a inspirational speaker or he’s more like a good advisor, a good counselor at times. You need him, but he’s not your Lord. Either you’re building your life on the authority of his words, where his word is the foundation for your life or you’re building your life on the shifting sand of relativism, which is always changing ’cause your personal preferences change, your personal beliefs change, your viewpoint changes. Jesus says, you need to come to this conclusion.

Either you’re gonna base your life on me and my words and nothing else or the floods will come and your house is gonna fall. He’s very clear about this, but he says, first, come to him. That’s faith, coming to Jesus. And he says, here, when I’m telling you, hear these words, which is an important reminder for our age because we live in a very distracted time, digitally distracted, so many things that wanna pull on our attention and get our focus off of Jesus and what he’s told us. And so we can be misled simply through being distracted today.

And Jesus says, you need to come to me and you need to hear what I have to say to you. You need to listen because I have truth for you. Sometimes we assume we already know what’s best for our lives. We think of the good life or the ideal life is maybe having this certain kind of career or being in control or maybe it’s making the exact amount of money or maybe it’s something more noble like being the perfect mom or being in a perfect marriage. We build our house on this foundation of what we consider the ideal life.

And we even give Jesus a room in that house. Yeah, he can be there, of course, but we don’t realize that we’re building our life on sand. It will not last the storms because the only foundation that will keep your house up is the foundation that will last forever. And that’s Jesus and his word. Jesus says, I don’t just want a room in that house that you call your life.

I wanna be the foundation of everything. I need to be the foundation of everything. And when your life is rooted in your relationship with me, that’s when you’ve built your house on who I am, not on what you’ve accomplished, but on what I’ve done for you. And to have that solid foundation, Jesus says, dig deep, digging deep as I read it can be all sorts of things, but it certainly is digging deep into his word, making this word real in our lives, obeying what it says, listening and obeying. It’s learning the foundation of your faith.

Maybe you’re here and you’re wondering, how can I know Christianity is even true? There’s so many religions out there. I mean, it’s like this massive menu of options. How do I know what’s true? Well, the Bible would say test everything.

Go to the sources, investigate. Do what Luke did when he wrote this gospel at the very beginning of his gospel. Luke, by the way, was a pagan, came to Christ, began following Jesus, but he says, you know what I did? I went to the sources. I looked at the evidence.

I talked to eyewitnesses. I examined the truth for myself. I dug deep. And for those interested, I encourage you to grab a copy of More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell out in the foyer. Josh has an amazing story, and in that little book, it’s a short read, he talks about some of the historical evidence for Jesus, how you can know that what he says is true.

It matters that you dig deep and know why you believe what you believe. Because here’s what Jesus says, but the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it immediately, it fell and the ruin of that house was great. It’s interesting that Jesus is using this illustration of constructing a house. That’s your faith.

That’s what you’re building your life on. In recent years, many former evangelicals have done what they’ve called deconstructed. They’ve left the faith. This is nothing new. Of course, that’s a trendy new term, deconstructed.

But this idea of apostasy has been around from the very beginning. Paul talked about this guy, Demas, who I want to one point, he was a fellow servant in the Lord, and then later on he says, you know what? Demas abandoned me because he loved the world more than he loved Jesus. It showed up in time. The fruit became apparent.

I have numerous friends who have deconstructed from the faith, and it’s always a sad thing. But the thing that is almost always true is that it comes down to this rejection of what Jesus has said. It’s a rejection of biblical authority. It’s substituting something else to be underneath the Bible as the foundation. Something else underneath Christ as the solid foundation, so it seems, of where they base their life.

There’s a reason why the very first question in the Bible is Satan expressing doubt over God’s word. He says, did God really say? Are you sure that’s what God really meant? Because it’s very simple. It will not last when the floods come.

When the flood of cultural pressure, personal crisis, intellectual challenge, any of that comes along, that faith collapses, that house that looks so beautiful at one point, it just comes down because the flood has swept it away. It was not founded on the rock of Christ and his word. So shallow faith that is based more on feelings than objective truth will not weather the flood. Lastly in your notes, only a life built on Jesus and the Bible will survive the coming floods. Author Randy Alcorn once interviewed a man named Robert Rogers who experienced his own personal flood and crisis.

He was driving through Kansas when a flash flood came out of nowhere and swept the family van off the road. All of his family, his wife, his four kids all drowned in that event. Rogers alone survived. Now up until that point, Robert and his family had lived the Christ-centered life. They would read the Bible together with family devotions.

They would go to church together. They prayed together. All that time, they were storing up the treasure of God’s word in their hearts. He was encouraged by other men in the church to be a disciple of Jesus, to follow the teachings of Jesus. And in the worst moment of his life, Robert did something that nobody expected.

He worshiped. Just like Joe before him, he started praising God in that moment, knowing he is the one who is sovereign over everything in his life. He was crying. And weeping, but through his tears he was clinging to the only anchor he had left, which is Christ. The years of digging deep through faithful obedience to Jesus and his word had laid this solid foundation.

He had founded his life on the rock. And so when that literal flood came in his life and swept everything away that he held dear, he still had Jesus. He still had the rock to build his life on. Jesus only gives us two options because either you will live under his rule as king or you will appoint yourself as the ruler and king of your life. There’s only two options.

Only two houses, only two trees because Jesus is clear. There’s only two ways to live your life. You will build it on him or you will build it on what you desire, what you think is best. It comes down to self-rule or submission to Jesus. But Jesus promises that with this new heart he gives you.

And it founded on the rock of truth, the rock of Christ, you will be able to weather all the storms in life that are coming because those floods as they come, everybody has to deal with them. Everybody has to decide, what am I going to bank my life on? If it’s not Jesus, what will it be? I’ll leave you this final question here. If an angel was taking notes on your life, what would he conclude?

What would he say? This is what this person is building their life on. Based on the way they live, based on the attitudes and actions they’re showing, this is what they have made their foundation. Let’s pray together. Father God, I thank you that you are a God who meets us in the storm.

You meet us in the floods of life. You don’t abandon us when things get hard. You don’t leave us alone in tragedy. You pursue us. And because of your love, Lord, we have a foundation that can stand every flood there is, every storm in life.

I pray that that would be the foundation of our lives, that we would build our life on Jesus and not in the things of this world, not in the things of our own imagination, but in the hope that is secured in Jesus alone through his life, death, and resurrection for us. May this in his mighty name. Amen.

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 6,329 words.