How Solid is Your Foundation?”

Matthew 7:24-27

The Wise and Foolish Builders

24 “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. 25 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.26 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. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Dear Friends in Christ and especially you, the Confirmation Class of 2017,

I’d have to say that this has been one of the more interesting years of Confirmation that I’ve ever had, not because of the impeccable behavior of the students, nor because of the perfect attendance we had at church and class each week, nor because of the incredible job that everyone did on their memory work each week.  Rather, what made this year so interesting was that one never knew who was going to win the knockout basketball games that we often times played before each class.  Now in case you don’t know what knockout is, it’s a fast-paced, high energy game that involves shooting from the free throw line.  All the participants line up single file, each behind the other, and then the first player shoots, immediately followed by the player right behind him.  If the first player makes his shot, he rebounds the ball and passes it to the third one in line who then shoots.  If the first player misses his shot and the one behind him makes it, then that first player is knocked out.  And on and on it goes until there is only one player left.  That person is then the winner.

Now I’ve played a lot of knockout with a lot of Confirmation classes over the years, and not wishing to brag, I’ve won my share of games.  But not this year.  I don’t know if I’m just getting older or the kids are just getting better (actually I think it’s a combination of the two), but there were no guarantees who was going to win each game this year, the competition was that strong.  Consequently, we had a wider variety of winners than what we’ve ever had before, including – and I’m not wishing to sound like a male chauvinist here –including even girls.

But you know, it’s one thing to win at knockout.  It’s an entirely different thing, however, to win at life.  And that’s really what I want to spend my time talking about this morning on this Confirmation Sunday as we consider the theme “How Solid Is Your Foundation?” using as the basis of my message this familiar story that Jesus once told.  Interestingly, this story marks the conclusion to his famous Sermon on the Mount found in the 5th through the 7th chapters of Matthew’s Gospel.  After Jesus had spent his time in that sermon teaching his listeners some very important and practical truths to live by, he ends with this story about 2 men who were hard at work building houses.  The one was wise, Jesus says, and the other was foolish.

Now Jesus was no stranger to building projects.  You may recall that his earthly father Joseph was a carpenter.  And since sons back then typically followed in the footsteps of their father, it’s more likely than not that Jesus had learned that trade from Joseph and may have actually had some experience building houses.  Therefore he understood the importance of the foundation.  And we do too.  I mean, can you imagine attempting to construct a home without a foundation, just laying some pieces of plywood on a level plot of ground and trying to build a house on top of that?  Even the most inexperienced person would know that such a house would not stand for long because there would be nothing to support it.

Makes me think of an experience I had way back when I was in college.  I woke up one Saturday morning during my summer break with this bright idea that I was going to build a set of shelves for my stereo.  Now before I go any further with this story, you need to understand a few things about me.  First of all, I had never built anything by myself up until that point in time.  Secondly, I never took a shop class in high school and never learned how to construct things out of wood.  And thirdly, I never learned from my dad how to build anything because he was not real gifted in that area.  Therefore I really didn’t know what I was doing.  But I thought, “How hard could it be?”  So I sketched things out on a piece of paper, figured out how large I wanted it to be and how long and wide each piece should be.  Then I went to the local lumberyard, purchased all the wood and nails, drove back home and went to work.  And when I finished, let me tell you, I had the weakest, wobbliest set of stereo shelves ever built.  If you just barely touched them, they would sway back and forth, simply because I had failed to include in my plans the extra supports that it would need to make it strong, solid, and stable.  To this day, my dear wife will not let me forget that rather inept attempt at carpentry, but at least it taught me a good lesson: the importance of building with supports.

Apparently the foolish man in our story didn’t understand that principle very well either for he chose to build his house on the sand, which would be about as un-solid and unstable a foundation as you could possibly find.  And not surprisingly Jesus tells us that when the winds and the rains and the floods came and beat against that house, the inevitable happened.  It simply collapsed and crumbled because it lacked support.  It lacked a firm foundation.

And it’s sad to say, but there are many people today who are building their lives upon very sandy foundations – things like alcohol abuse, drug abuse, sexual immorality both before and during marriage, over-working to the point where they have no time for their families, an all-consuming desire to get rich or to get ahead even if it’s at the expense of other people.  And on and on it goes.

But my prayer for all of you here today and especially you confirmands is that you will ignore and avoid those sandy foundations and instead, follow in the footsteps of the wise man who built his house on the rock.  But what exactly is meant by the rock?  Well, most Christians would probably answer that question by saying that Jesus is the rock.  And in a sense that’s true.  We even sang that in our hymn before the sermon: “On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.”  But in a sense it isn’t true for notice how Jesus puts it in our story.  He says, “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 rock then is really the words of Christ; the principles of Christ that he has laid down for us in the Bible on how to live life his way rather than the world’s way.

And I cannot emphasize enough to you how important it is that we do this, my friends, because living life the world’s way is one of those sandy foundations that will give way beneath you sooner or later.  And if you don’t believe that, all you have to do is look at our own country to see an example of what I’m talking about.  You know, there was a time when we as a nation actually strived to build on the rock-solid foundation of Christian principles.  Now in all likelihood you’re not going to read that in our history textbooks anymore and you’re not going to hear that in most of our public school classrooms.  But it’s true.  Just listen for a moment to a few quotes from our founding fathers.  George Washington, the father of our country, once said:  “It is impossible to rightly govern without God and the Bible.”  James Madison, who is called the chief architect of the Constitution, said:  “Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must first be considered as a subject of the Governor of the universe – religion is the basis and foundation of government.”  John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, once said:  “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is a duty as well as a privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians to be their rulers.”  And on and on it goes.  Our founding fathers recognized the importance, the advantage, the necessity, and the benefit of building upon the solid foundation of Christ and his Word.

So what happened?  Well, a little over 50 years ago, back in the early ‘60’s, the Supreme Court began to see things much differently.  Terms like “separation of church and state” and “wall of separation” began to be bandied about even though such terms are found nowhere in our Constitution, our Declaration of Independence, or any of our other founding documents.  And thus began the systematic removal of our nation’s foundation from our government, from our schools, and from other areas of public life.  And what do we have to show for it today?  Well, whereas America was once considered the world’s leader in many good and honorable ways, we are now among the world’s leaders in many less-than-honorable ways – in areas like violent crime, most people behind bars, divorce, teen pregnancy, voluntary abortion, illegal drug use (one source I found said we are tied with Spain for first place when it comes to cocaine use) – all because we abandoned the rock that our founding fathers built this country upon and have opted instead to build on sand.

I plead with you confirmands and everyone else here today and those listening in on the radio.  Don’t make the same mistake.  Build your lives upon the solid foundation of Jesus Christ and his Word and his principles, and I guarantee you will never live to regret it.

But let’s get a little more specific here.  What are some of the rocks that the Bible says you should build upon?  Well, how about the rock of hard work?  Colossians 3:23 says: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.”   Understand, especially you young people here today, that nothing in life ever comes easily if it’s gotten honestly.  So be prepared to pay the high price of hard work for the rewards that I’m sure you hope the future holds in store for you.

And speaking of honesty, that’s another great rock to build on.  Unfortunately, right now it seems as though there is a crisis of honesty in our society.  Many people think nothing at all about lying or cheating, especially if it’s going to benefit them somehow.  But that’s a sandy foundation that will crumble sooner or later.  For the Bible says:  “You may be sure that your sin will find you out.”

And then one more rock I would encourage you to build on – in fact I would call this the most important rock – is faithfulness to God, no matter what.  Notice in the story that we’ve been looking at today, Jesus says that when the wind and the rains and the floods came and beat against the house that was built on the rock, it stood firm.  The forces of nature that Jesus alludes to there are indicative or symbolic of the problems that will come your way sooner or later.  They may come in the form of financial problems, family problems, health problems, school problems, work problems, temptation problems, or in a host of other ways.  When they come, though, the last thing you want to do is give up your faith for that may be the only thing you have to sustain you.  Be like Job, then, who in a very short period of time lost just about everything he had, including his wealth, his children (and he had 10 of them), and his health.  And yet at one point he said, “Though the Lord slay me, yet will I trust him.”  Please understand, my friends, that nowhere in the Bible does God ever promise us an easy road through life.  But he does promise us his faithfulness, his presence, his strength when the storms come.  And at no other time in the history of this world do we see a better example of that than at the cross where he sacrificed his own Son so that we who are sinful and imperfect could enjoy eternity in his sinless and perfect presence.  So never let go of him and he will never let go of you.

In closing then, let me share with you a thought that you may have heard at some time or another, but that speaks so well to all of us, especially to you confirmands on this important day of your lives.  It goes like this:  “Your life is God’s gift to you; what you do with that life is your gift to God.”  So take that gift and use it for his glory and for the good of others.  Go forth from this place today more determined than ever to build on the solid foundation of Christ and his Word so that you can make a positive difference for him in an otherwise negative and hurting world.

Amen