Sermon Notes 9.24.17

Stories Jesus Told - Part 1: Great Mistakes
“You Built Where?”
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Luke 6:46-49 (The Message) “Why are you so polite with me, always saying ‘Yes, sir,’ and ‘That’s right, sir,’ but never doing a thing I tell you? These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on.  48-49 “If you work the words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who dug deep and laid the foundation of his house on bedrock. When the river burst its banks and crashed against the house, nothing could shake it; it was built to last. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a dumb carpenter who built a house but skipped the foundation. When the swollen river came crashing in, it collapsed like a house of cards. It was a total loss.”

Foundation:  the underlying base or support upon which a structure is built.

How important is a good foundation and what makes a good foundation?  In an article on “Foundations” by Max Alexander in the popular magazine, This Old House, Max says:  A proper foundation does more than just hold a house above ground. It also keeps out moisture, insulates against the cold, and resists movement of the earth around it. Oh, and one more thing: It should last forever. No wonder builders like This Old House general contractor Tom Silva take foundations seriously. "Without a good one," he says, "you're sunk."  A foundation is forever, so it makes sense to pay attention to the details that ensure it will remain dry and crack-free for as long as it has a house to hold up. 

For Tom, "good" means steel-reinforced foundation walls and footings made of poured concrete. But a good foundation requires a lot more than digging a hole and pouring some concrete into forms. It must be tailored to its site like a custom suit, taking into account soil conditions, water tables, even the quality of the backfill. And as with a custom suit, every detail must be perfect: the base properly compacted, the formwork set up right, the concrete free of voids. Neglect even one of these, and the most carefully poured foundation can fail. 

The Leaning Tower of Pisa - The Leaning Tower of Pisa is a freestanding bell tower located in the city of Pisa in Italy. Like its name suggest, it actually does lean to one side. The tower started to lean during construction because the foundation was built on soft ground that had difficulty supporting the weight. The lean became worse as construction continued for several decades. The Leaning Tower of Pisa took 344 years to build, beginning in August 1173.  It began to lean in 1178 once construction on the second floor had begun.  The lean was due to one side sinking into the ground.  Interestingly though, the people of Pisa said they would rather see it fall to the ground than to make it sit right – after all, why would people come to the the Leaning Tower of  Pisa if it wasn’t leaning?
People are like that – maybe their foundation is solid enough to keep them upright and they know their foundation Is weak but they’re okay with leaning.

Other weak foundation examples:

• A trailer jack-stand with no base – you begin to raise your trailer and as the weight on the jack-stand increases the shaft of the jack-stand simply begins to sink into the ground.
• A mail box, not properly set in concrete succumbs to the dirt softening around it and it begins to lean and can fall over at the application of an outside force.
• Trees without proper root structures fall when the winds blow.
• Buildings and houses sink when they don’t have a proper foundation.

What happens to you when the winds of adversity blows and challenges apply pressure to your life?  Here are some possible scenarios:

1. You feel the pressure and your life begins to weaken.  You get battered and you begin to lean.  You feel the pressure increase and you fall.  The problem?  You have a weak foundation.
2. You feel the pressure and you are battered, you are scarred, you are wind-tossed and “messed-up” but you stand strong because you have a strong foundation.

Why are there so many people who don’t have a strong foundation?
Simply put, they have their life “ladders” leaning against the wrong walls.  They believe that if they have the things the “world” deems as necessary for happiness, that everything will be great.  So, they pursue the possessing of those things at all costs.  Their foundation is determined by the world’s standard.  The problem is, that when the winds of adversity howl, they lean and often fall.  Why?

People don’t have the proper foundation!
I Corinthians 3:11 (NLT)  “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 2:20 (NLT)  “Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.”

​Where are you constructing your life’s building?  You basically have three choices:

1. You build on foundations other than Jesus Christ?
2. You build occasionally on Jesus Christ and sometimes not?  Stepping on to the Foundation, but stepping off just as much or more?
3. Placing your whole life squarely on the Foundation, Jesus Christ.

Facts to consider:

1. Satan will try to get you to build with faulty materials and you will listen to other sources he uses to build your life.  He will fool you into believing that you have a firm foundation – a “fool-proof” plan, but he’s wrong – and you’ll pay the price.  How brilliant is it to choose faulty materials and methods a construct a less than stable foundation?
2. God gives us His Word to instruct you on how to build your life on the Foundation of His Son, Jesus.  Anything less than total trust in God’s building plan will result in total disaster.
3. Even if you make through this life experiencing all the fun available according to the world’s standards, your life built on any foundation other than the Lord Jesus Christ, still results in an eternity apart from God, dwelling in a place that God never intended for you to spend eternity.

Building a good foundation takes a huge investment.

1. You must forfeit your grand schemes and plans.
2. You must recognize Christ as the owner of all you possess.  You are not the owner of your life and your possessions, but you are the manager.
3. You must trust and obey His Word.

 
Ravi Zacharias told about doing a lectureship several years ago at the Ohio State University. As he was being driven to the lecture, they passed what was then the "new" Wexner Art Center. The driver commented, "This is a new art building for the university. It is a fascinating building designed in the post-modernist view of reality."  Zacharias described this fascinating building. He said, "The building has no pattern. Staircases go nowhere. Pillars support nothing. The architect designed the building to reflect [the post-modernist view of] life. It went nowhere and was mindless and senseless. Zacharias said, "I turned to the man describing it and asked, 'Did they do the same thing with the foundation?'" And the man laughed [and answered]: "You can't do that with a foundation."

A Lady named Brenda Warner had this to say: “As a young girl I put God first in my life, when my biggest concern was how to fix my hair. As I grew into an adult my concerns became much greater. I lived through my oldest child’s severe head injury, a broken marriage, poverty, and both my parents’ tragic deaths in a tornado. Although I do not understand it all, I have held onto my foundation- Jesus. I continue to realize that God IS faithful. He loves me and I need him to be first in my life.”

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.”
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