“What are you building your life on?"

 

It's much deeper than simply “be a good Christian.” 

Ask yourself,  “What are you building your life on?” Because the storm reveals the foundation—not the appearance of the house.  Jesus gives us this picture in Matthew 7:24–27, 

“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.” Jesus then describes another person who builds his house on sand. Both houses look fine—until the storm comes. Let's break it down on a personal level.

Jesus lesson: Your “house” isn't a building. It's you. Your life:

Your relationships.

Your decisions.

Your beliefs.

Your values.

Your character.

What you trust when you're frightened.

What you do when nobody is watching.

Realize, every day you're building something. But the real question isn't whether you're building. The question is: “What are you building on? A wise person doesn't merely hear Jesus.

Jesus says they BOTH HEAR AND DO His sayings. That's important. Why? You can know Scripture and still build on sand, you can attend church and still build on sand, you can call yourself a Christian and still build on sand. See, the foundation is revealed by what you actually trust and live by! The rock is putting your trust in Christ and allowing His words to become the foundation by which you live. It's not perfection .. it's direction. When you fall, you return to the Rock. When you don't understand, you seek the Rock. When the world tells you one thing and Christ tells you another, you have to decide which foundation you're standing on.

Are you building your life on sand? Sand represents anything we build our lives upon that cannot ultimately support us. Like what? It can be money, success, other people's approval (that's a big one), possessions, pleasure, power, a relationship, our own wisdom, religion without a changed heart, even our own feelings. And here's something really important .. Sand isn't necessarily evil!  That's what makes the illustration so good. THINK OF IT! Money isn't evil. Having a family isn't evil. Having a career isn't evil. Enjoying life isn't evil. No, the problem occurs when something temporary becomes the foundation of something eternal, because you can have money without money having you. You can love someone deeply without making that person your god. You can enjoy the world without making the world your foundation. BUT THEN, a storm!  Jesus says: “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew…”

Notice something fascinating. The storm came to BOTH houses! 

The wise man's house wasn't protected from the storm.

The foolish man's house wasn't protected from the storm.

Christianity doesn't give us a storm-free life. The difference isn't: “One person had trouble and the other didn't.” The difference was: One had a foundation that could withstand the trouble.

That's huge. Sometimes people think, "If I really trust God, why am I going through this?" But Jesus never promised there wouldn't be storms. He showed us what happens when the storms arrive. What can we consider storms? They can be almost anything loss, grief, betrayal, financial hardship, Illness or disease, loneliness, disappointment, fear, temptation, failure, and death.

But sometimes something even harder takes place .. when everything you believed gets shaken! For a Christian, that's the worst kind of storm because that's when the foundation becomes visible. And because when everything is calm, sand can look just like rock.  You don't really know what you're standing on until something shakes you. A person can say they trust God but

then something terrible happens. Suddenly they discover they trusted their circumstances. Examples:

1. Someone says: “My family is everything.” Then they lose someone.

2. Someone says: “My success gives me security." Then they lose their job.

3. Someone says: “I know exactly how God works.” Then something happens that they cannot explain. And suddenly… the foundation is exposed. The storm didn't create the weakness. The storm revealed it!

Now to the house that alls. Jesus says the foolish man's house: “fell: and great was the fall of it.” Notice that He didn't say the foolish man didn't build anything. He built a house. It probably looked perfectly respectable. That's an important lesson too because a life can look beautiful on the outside and still have a terrible foundation underneath. You can have the house, the career, the marriage, the church attendance, the reputation, the money, the accomplishments, the appearance of having everything together. But underneath it all can be sand. 

The wise man, however, did something different. He didn't merely admire the Rock. He built upon it! That's the difference. You can admire Jesus. You can believe Jesus existed. You can read His words. You can talk about Him. But Jesus asks something deeper: “Will you build your life upon what I have told you?” That's what makes the foundation real.

When you ask yourself, “What am I building my life on?” Don't only ask, “Am I religious?” Ask: “What do I run to when I'm afraid?” “What determines my decisions?” “Where do I go when life falls apart?” “What matters most to me?” “What would still be standing if everything I owned disappeared?” And perhaps the deepest question: “If everything I currently depend upon were taken away, would I still have Christ?” If the answer is yes, then you have discovered something the world cannot take from you regardless of storms!

This is important ..

Being built on the Rock doesn't mean you'll never make mistakes. It doesn't mean you won't sin. It doesn't mean you won't question. It doesn't mean you won't cry. It doesn't mean you won't become frightened. It doesn't mean you won't sometimes feel like your faith is hanging by a thread. It means that underneath all of that, there is something deeper holding you. You may stumble. But you have somewhere to return. You may fall. But the foundation hasn't moved. You may lose almost everything. But the Rock is still there.

 So perhaps Jesus' question to us isn't really: “How beautiful is your house?” It's: “What is underneath it?” Because eventually every person's life encounters a storm. And when the rain falls, the flood rises, and the winds beat against the house, the storm will tell you what your foundation really was. And that's why Jesus says: “Hear these sayings of mine, and do them…” Not merely hear. Hear and build. Because you can build an enormous life on sand. Or you can build a humble life on the Rock. And when the storm comes… the Rock will still be there. 

Until HeComes,

-Pat-