Building on the One Foundation

In Matthew, in the book of Matthew, chapter 5, begins one of Christ's longest sermons.

It's the Sermon on the Mount as we have come to know it. Through the sermon we have captured the attitudes or the traits that we are to be developing in our lives. We have the instructions that we are to be a light to this world. In the same sermon, he goes on to say that he has not come away to do away with the law, but to fulfill it and goes on to expound on the law. In it, we have captured the model prayer in chapter 6. But it's the end of chapter 7, how he closes out his sermon that I'd like to focus on today. Matthew, chapter 7, and verse 24. Matthew 7, and verse 24. Here Christ closes out the sermon by saying, Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house. And it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall. As we have each experienced physical storms of this life, out in the weather, maybe out on a lake, they come and they go. Sometimes these physical storms can come on very quickly. I've been on water before, and you're in a boat, and all of a sudden the storm's clouds arise, and sometimes it's difficult to get back to shore before it happens. This past year we were at Florida for the feast. Some of you were there, and the hurricane was about 120 miles down the coast. But prior to that day, or prior to that storm blowing, and it was a sunny day. The wind picked up, which was great for flying a kite, but it was a nice day until that storm blew in pretty quick. We've all seen the images of beachfront houses and these huge storms. A lot of times down in Florida when those hurricanes roll in, those beachfront homes that the waves and the wind, it's just beating on them. And as the continues, we see the images of the sand being washed out from underneath those foundations. And it's an eerie sight to see a full-size house with half of it nothing underneath of it. And we know in time what's going to happen, and a lot of times it's caught in those videos that half of the house breaks off, or the entire house topples over and just goes into the surf. But to contrast this image, sometimes in those same videos, we've seen those homes that were built on solid pillars. Those pillars driven deep down to sometimes bedrock down below them. And those homes took a beating. Sometimes they lost shingles, or maybe they got a broken window. But after that storm left, that house was still standing. It was placed and built so well that it was on those pillars, and it was still standing when that storm got done. Jesus Christ gave us this physical analogy so that we could relate it in a spiritual way to our lives today. So I have a question for each of us that we should ask ourselves. Is my spiritual house grounded on the secure foundation of Jesus Christ?

Is my spiritual house grounded on the secure foundation of Jesus Christ? And as we think about this question, there are a few things I'd like us to consider in regards to the Scripture from Matthew 7. The first is to be a wise planner. Referring back to Matthew 7, Jesus said, I will liken him to a wise man, the person who builds their house upon the rock. This is that person who builds their life on the foundation of Jesus Christ will be considered a wise person. They are someone who sees the world around them, who recognizes how they fit in, recognize the role that they play. When thinking about society and how we work in it, how I personally work in it today, a Scripture comes to my mind often. It's Matthew 10, verse 16. Let's go ahead and turn to Matthew 10, 16. It's just a couple chapters ahead.

Matthew 10 and verse 16, where Christ again says, Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. This is a way that we relate with God's word here, is that we are sent out. We are to be a light to this world. We are to be an example. And as we do that, though, we can read from Scripture that we can do it in a way of being wise and be harmless at the same time. God desires that we live in part of this world and how we handle ourselves is vitally important to our spiritual development. The wise person sees for themselves for who they are, and especially who they are in relation to God. They recognize their weaknesses, where they have been tripped up before, and they recognize how temporary and fragile life is, and that they realize in the blink of an eye, everything can change, kind of like the damage from a storm. It can happen quickly and be over. As a wise Christian, we must also see into our future and recognize that storms and trials will come, and we must do what we can now to prepare for whatever comes our way. The following is an illustration I found about being wise in our planning, and it's credited to Wilbur Nelson. Mr. Nelson says, when I see the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge, I remember that an engineer must take into account three loads, or stresses, while designing bridges. They are the Dead Load, the Live Load, and the Wind Load. The Dead Load is the weight of the bridge itself. The Live Load is the weight of the daily traffic that the bridge must carry, and the Wind Load is the pressure of the storms that beat on that bridge. The designer plans for bracing that will enable the bridge to bear all of these loads. He concludes the illustration by saying, in our lives too, we need bracing, which makes it possible to carry the Dead Load of self, the Live Load of daily living, and the Wind Load of emergencies. When we place our trust in Christ, He gives us the strength we need to withstand these various stresses. It's a pretty neat now or illustration that we agree with factors into our life today. We do have the Dead Load of ourselves while we work to overcome. We struggle. We try, but we aren't perfect in this life. We have our Live Load, which is life itself, which at times is tough. It's a weight that we must bear and work through. And then we have our Wind Load when the trials or challenges come upon us and try to knock us off our foundation. None of us are immune to any of these loads. Being prepared and ready means building a sure and secure foundation on Jesus Christ. What does this look like? What does this look like for you and me? It means growing in grace and knowledge every day. It means working hard at casting off the old man that tries to pull out her sleeve or out her pant leg. It means never quitting in our walk with God. If you're not yet baptized, it means at some point in your life coming to a time where you want to commit yourself fully to this life that you're living here and why you're here on the Sabbath day. Every day we must all, whether we are baptized or not, wake up to study God's Word and to build a stronger and a deeper relationship with Him in prayer. If we do these things, then our foundation is strengthened and secure upon Jesus Christ. A second way is that we must realize that no matter how much or how little we have planned with our foundation, storms will come. Storms will come. In the beginning of James chapter 1, the apostle starts... actually, it's the brother of Jesus... starts right off reminding the readers of his letter that trials will come. This is in James chapter 1. James 1 and verse 2.

Here the brother of Jesus says, My brother, impound it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

Another storm analogy we have recorded here. We've seen the wind create huge waves at times. I even hear on the Great Lakes up here that you can get some pretty good waves from the wind and from storms. But James also says, if you lack wisdom, if you're struggling with wise decisions, if you have trials that are coming up, things that are weighty, things that are heavy, ask for wisdom. God will give it to you. And so we do have trials that come into our lives. It's hard at times to be joyful.

It doesn't sound like it fits. Be joyful for trials. But we know that that is what helps us to grow. That is what helps us to overcome. As we have witnessed, both physical and spiritual storms can come on very quickly at times. They can catch us off our guard. And if we're not prepared, they can shake us to our core. It's during these storms, when we're in the midst of them, that we most need that solid foundation. But in the middle of these storms, if we were to have a coastal front house and the storm's coming on us right now and we said, oh no, my foundation isn't very strong, do we have time at that point to go out and build a foundation to strengthen it?

It's too late at that moment to develop and to build a new foundation. It's not hopeless, though, because new foundations can be built in time. But when that storm hits and our foundation is not secure, we run the risk of coming through the storm with wear and tear. There's another illustration, this one by Dave Brannon, from the book, Our Daily Bread.

And in it, he says, we were snorkeling in the Caribbean Sea. The boat that had taken us to the deep water for better sites had gone back to shore, and I began to feel panicky about being in the open water. Finding it hard to control my breathing, I asked my son-in-law and a friend for help. They held my arms while I searched for an outcropping of coral close enough to the surface for me to stand on.

Once I had a place to stand, even though surrounded by deep water, I was okay. He concludes to say, are you feeling a bit panicky about the events in your life? Maybe it seems as if you're surrounded by the open waters of relationship problems or money woes or simply an inability to put your life in order.

Perhaps you feel as if you're drowning in a sea of trials and trouble. Then rest your feet on the only solid foundation in life, Jesus Christ. Maybe we are having difficulties at times with things going on in our life. Maybe at school or college, your values, your character is being tested. Maybe at work, especially this time of the year, you're having some tough conversations with co-workers about the holidays and why you don't keep them. We can be tested.

We can have times of life where it seems like we're the one sticking out from everyone else. In 1 Corinthians 3 verse 11, though, we have another reinforcement of this foundation that is in Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 11. Here Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 11, For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. No other foundation. Not a, well, this is a pretty good foundation, or this is a pretty sturdy foundation.

It'll hold up for a while so you can save up your money and then invest in a good, solid foundation. No, there's no other foundation. There's one foundation anyone can lay in that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. There's no other foundation. No college degree, no technical training, no apprenticeship that can build a solid foundation like Jesus Christ.

There's no material possessions, not enough money in the world. Even if you owned it all, wouldn't be enough for that solid foundation. No trust in fellow humans to be that solid foundation. While some of these things do provide comfort and they provide stability that we need to work with in life, solid relationships, healthy relationships, a good job, education, while these things are okay, we can't ever let them let us think that that is now our foundation, that we're replacing a foundation built on Christ with these things from a physical world. There's only one foundation, and that is in Christ. He is the foundation that has already been laid, just waiting for you and I to build up on.

Imagine that you show up to a job site, you're in construction, and you're to build a house, and you show up, and that foundation is already there. Somebody came before you, laid a solid, strong foundation. It's level. It's going to hold this house forever. It's not going to crack. It's not going to fail in time. It's not going to have problems. It's not going to be washed out from underneath. All you have to do now is build that house. That's what we're invited to do in this life and today. Our walk with God is to build that house. And we can rest assured that that foundation is solid.

So anything we build upon that, it's not going anywhere. We know that house is still going to be standing if we're building on that right foundation. When our lives are built on the only sure foundation, nothing in this world that is thrown at us can shake us. Earthly trials and storms, they just can't reach the foundation in Jesus Christ. Christ is strong and immovable. We can place our very lives upon Him, and He will see us through.

So when we get down to the crux of the issue, how do we build on the one foundation? Building on the solid foundation of Christ is a choice that we each get to make. No one will ever force us to build on that foundation. People will not come in and inspect your and my foundations. People will, or we are each responsible for the foundation in our own life. Looking back in Matthew 7, both builders built homes. Think about that for a moment. Both wanted a place, a roof over their head. Both wanted the comforts to maybe raise their families in these homes. From the outside, both these homes could have looked quite similar. In fact, they could have been identical. Both were a good place from the outside. Both had hope placed in them. But structurally, the two were very much different. We live in a world that offers many things we can build foundations on. There's many types of false foundations that have existed since the beginning of time. As I mentioned, there's money. There's jobs. There's physical health. There's youthfulness. That's a foundation that I try to build my life on at different points. I can do whatever I want. I'm young. I'm strong. I've got good health. I've fooled myself. It's a false foundation. None of these things, none of them of themselves are necessarily bad. But none of them are foundations. We can receive no lasting comfort, no true peace, no complete satisfaction or protection from anything that this world throws at us if we're counting on these things to be our foundation. Only in Christ will we find the rock, capital R, the rock, the only hope and salvation that we have. Physical things of this life will not stand the test of time. So how do we have that foundation in Christ while we're in the midst of trials or struggles? How do we have that foundation?

It's one point. It's pretty simple. Talk to God. Sounds too simple, doesn't it? Just talk to God. But it is that basic. It is that simple. We all hit moments in life with the stress of things that we are dealing with or that we're trying to deal with just become too much.

You can't wrap your mind around all the details. There's too much effort you're trying to do to get all your eyes dotted, your T's crossed. You can't keep your hands wrapped around all those ducks to keep them in a straight row. Or if you're like me, I like the juggling ball analogy. Oftentimes, I use that just talking to myself. I've got too many balls up in the air, trying to keep them all up off the ground. And it feels like life then throws a third ball, fourth ball, a fifth ball. And I'm struggling, and I know that in time it's all going to come crashing down. I'm working harder. I'm sweating harder. My mind can't get off anything except for keeping all of these balls up in the air. Maybe you've struggled with some of these things yourself.

But it's in these exact moments when we are struggling to breathe that we have to stop everything that we are doing, recognize that still small voice that is speaking to us and that is urging us to go to God. And then we have to go. We have to stop. We have to pray.

It really is that basic. Stop and pray. Make sure your foundation is on Christ. Go to our great God and just talk to Him. He wants that intimate relationship with us. He wants to know what's going on. He wants to feel part of what we're feeling as we talk to Him. He wants us to express the feelings, to express the concern, to just pour it out and then let God talk to you.

We have to allow time for God to talk to us, to remember the promises that we have from Him, and to remember that He'll never leave us. He'll never forsake us. In Deuteronomy, you can put Deuteronomy 31 verse 6. It's one we've looked at before in the New Living Translation. It says, So be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, and do not panic for them. And I like this part, For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you. Again, be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. Do we panic sometimes with the trials? Do we panic with how many balls we have up in the air that we're trying to juggle? It says, Do not be afraid, do not panic, for the Lord your God will personally go before you. He's not going to send someone else. He's not too busy that He has to send His assistant. He's not able to not take our call when we need to reach out to Him. He's there. He will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.

We have to remember the promise that we have received the Helper of the Holy Spirit to be that strength when we feel that we are lacking peace, lacking joy, lacking hope, lacking strength, and then realize that we have to give these struggles to God. These things hand them all over to Him. Let's look at Psalm 55 verse 22. Psalm 55 verse 22.

Psalm 55 verse 22. Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you. He shall never permit the righteous to be moved. We have to cast our burden on the Lord because He will sustain us. He has the strength to carry what we cannot carry. That's that sure foundation that we have to trust. We have to build upon. But the hardest part, after giving it to God, not taking it back. We cast what we should to God, but many times we find we're trying to take them back. I can't count the number of times that I've given something to God. Truly felt like I did, and I think I did. But then later on, I'm starting to try to draw it back closer to me. I'm trying to bring it back because giving them to God brings a peace. If we can truly give our stresses, our trials, our challenges to God, it will bring us peace. And if we at times feel like that peace is fleeting, we're losing that peace, God isn't holding up His part of the deal, think about it for a minute. Are we trying to take back those weights? Often, if I feel the peace is slipping away, I realize, oh, I've been getting my hand back into the cookie jar. I've been trying to reach across and grab that steering wheel again because I think we need to be a little bit to the left, God. So at those times when we feel that peace fleeting, we have to again pause and ask ourselves, are we taking the difficulties and those challenges back on ourselves? And so then we may have to repeat the process above and to regain that peace of giving it again to God. Say, yep, I took it back. That was my fault. I need you to take it because your shoulders can bear this load. You can carry this weight. And then often we have to repeat, kind of like the writing on that shampoo bottle. To say, wash, rinse, then repeat. Sometimes we have to do the same thing when we are giving our struggles over to God and we feel we've taken them back. We have to repeat that process. Go back to Him in prayer. Remind yourself that you can't carry this weight, that He can. He does, and He does provide that peace. Are there trials that require that we physically do things in this world? Do we have our part to play? There are. If it's a health trial, yep, you've got to go to the doctor. If it's the finance trouble, yeah, you may have to look for a job or look at your budget and figure out how do we ratchet this down a little bit. There are physical things that we do have to sometimes deal with with our trials. But when we build on that sure foundation, when we let Christ be the center of everything that we're doing, we will have a different strength, a different approach than we had before. And the Holy Spirit will be that strength that we can listen to and allow to be our guide. And then we will be able to see the salvation of the Lord. When I think about going to God and being still with Him, being in prayer and having that still moment, there's a passage from Exodus 14 I normally think of. So let's start looking back to Exodus 14.

Because in the midst of severe trials, what do we normally do? Are we still in quiet or are we sometimes busy rushing around trying to solve our own difficulties? Here in the account we are about to read, Israel was instructed to be still, to be still here in Exodus 14 in verse 1.

Verse 1, Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before Phihiroth between Migdol and the sea, opposite of Baelzephon. You shall camp before it by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are bewildered by the land, the wilderness has closed them in. So this is, of course, after Israel had left Egypt through God's hand. Verse 4, Then I will harden Pharaoh's heart, so that he will pursue them, and I will gain honor over Pharaoh, and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. Now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have you done this? Why have that we have let Israel go from serving us? So he made ready his chariot, and he took his people with him. Also he took six hundred choice chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, with captains over every one of them. So Pharaoh got all of his boys together. He's going to go back and take back this possession that was his, that he felt was stolen. And he's going to go after the Israelites here, with a massive army, that the Israelites have no chance of withstanding.

But in verse 8, And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel. And the children of Israel went out with boldness. Again, remember, when they left Egypt, they plundered Egypt. They took gold, they took precious metals, they took animals. They went out with a high hand when they left Egypt. They went out with boldness in the Lord. In verse 9, So the Egyptians pursued them, and all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them, camping by the sea beside Faihirath, before Baal-Zephon. And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Suddenly, the weight of everything that they're doing, the weight of leaving Egypt, Egypt, became too much. All of a sudden, there's an army, and they're not trained for warfare. They don't have the tools. They're probably out there with their families, and all of a sudden, just like if you were out on a picnic on a nice sunny day, and trouble came, how would you feel? Would you be scurrying, trying to get your kids together? What are we going to do? Where are we going to run? Israel had to feel this way, because they said to Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians, for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians, that we should die in the wilderness? All this commotion is probably going on before Moses. People are probably cursing at him, saying these types of things to him. Others are probably running around, grabbing their kids, grabbing their possessions, trying to solve this for themselves. What are we going to do? And Moses said to the people in verse 13, do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians, whom you see today, you shall see no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.

In verse 15, and the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. So Moses said to be still. Evaluate what we're supposed to do. Stop the commotion. Stop running around. Be still. And then the Lord gave him directions, just like we have to do often in our lives. It's not just be still and then don't do anything. Sometimes we have those types of problems that we can't fix, that God has to take. But often we have a part that we have to play, and so did Israel here, where the Lord said to Moses, tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

But is this all that God did for them? Is this the end? Be still. Now go. Actually, in verse 19, we see something else magnificent that God did for them. Verse 19, And the angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud went from before them, and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night.

Wasn't it just that he said, Be still. I'm here. Now go forward in your trial and your challenge. But he said, I've got your back. God went around the back of Israel to protect them, to say not just to say, I've got this, but to show them I've got this. To be that wall, to be that defender, so that Israel didn't have to worry and keep looking over their shoulder. But what if God doesn't do it? But what if God doesn't fix my challenge? He says, I've got your back. I'm behind you. You don't have to worry about the Egyptians creeping up on you. You don't have to be fearful of always looking around. He had their back. And that is the same God that we serve that so many times in our trials and our struggles that not only when we are still so that we can listen to God, and then we have to go to that doctor appointment. We have to make that tough decision. But then he's there with us even at that moment. He's still with us. He's still leading and guiding us when we are built, when we've built our lives on that sure foundation. There would be no way that Israel would overcome Pharaoh and his army. There's just no physical way. But we don't have a God that deals in the physical as we do. We have a God that time is nothing for him. And as we heard a couple weeks back, day and night are alike to him. Darkness doesn't slow him down. Darkness doesn't make him lose track of where we are at in life. There's nothing that separates us from the love and the care of God. We know this from Romans 8, verse 35. Let's go ahead and turn there next. Romans 8, verse 35.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? You name it. Fill in the blank. What's going on in your life that can separate you from the love of Christ? In verse 37, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither night or death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor heights nor depths nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is nothing great. There's nothing small. There's nothing big. There's nothing invisible. There's nothing that can separate us because we have our foundation built on Christ. We are to place our feet on the rock that is God and Jesus Christ. We are to place our feet on the solid promises that can't be shaken, that can't fail, that solid bedrock. My older brother is a civil engineer and so he's built bridges and roadways and parking lots. And when those things can't move, can't fall, can't tilt, can't shake, they build on the bedrock. They go all the way down. If it's 100 feet, if it's 200 feet, they go wherever they have to to build on the bedrock. Is it a lot of money to go that deep? Is it tricky at times to do that? We have people who've worked in construction here. It is. It can be tricky. It can be time consuming. It can be expensive. But when you're building a bridge that people's lives are dependent on, you can't have it shift a foot. You can't have it drop off and then cars go off the end. We got lives that people are dealing with when they're building these bridges, these civil engineers. So they go all the way down to the bedrock. Yet we have our own spiritual lives that we're dealing with. God is helping us. We must build on that bedrock. Solid bedrock of Christ.

But we could be tempted to view the way that God spared Israel from Pharaoh just as one of the many miracles that he performed in working with his physical nation. We may be wondering why isn't God performing a miracle in the way that he's working with us today and our challenge? Maybe you're struggling to see the miracles God is performing in your life today.

But regardless of what we can see, God is working in our lives today in a miraculous way. He always has and he always will. The prophet Elijah also hit a point where he struggled to see God under the weight of his trials. In 1 Kings chapter 19, we have Elijah fearing for his life.

1 Kings chapter 19, the weight that Elijah felt, what did he do? This huge weight, this pressure, what's he going to do? He's fearing for his life. He runs. He actually runs. 1 Kings chapter 19. We'll start reading verse 1.

And Ahab told Jezebel, 1 Kings 19 verse 1, all that Elijah had done and how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. Previous, if we were to look back, you have to remember that Elijah and the other prophets had just killed 450 prophets of Baal. Remember when the altars were built? To see whose God is greater and the prophets of Baal couldn't summon their God to devour that altar that was set up. They even got to the point of cutting themselves. And Elijah said, maybe your God is asleep. Wake him up. Yell louder. Do all kinds of crazy things. But then we saw God come and devour that other altar. And all that was done in the name of the Lord.

So Elijah had just witnessed this by God. He had just delivered what witnessed and by his own hand and through God's strength of delivering these prophets of Baal into his hand. And now what is going through his mind in verse 2, 1 Kings 19 verse 2, then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. Wow! That's drawing a line in verse 3. And when he saw that, Elijah, talking about Elijah, he arose and he ran for his life. This is an analogy. This isn't a, well, he just had a momentarily lapse in judgment. He literally arose and ran for his life and he went to Beersheba, which belonged to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die and said, It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my father's.

God, I can't deal with this trial. This is too much for me. Take my life. And then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat. Then he looked and there by his head was a cake baked on coals and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel, Lord, came back the second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat because the journey is too great for you. So he arose and he ate and he drank and he went on the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights as far as Harab, the mountain of God. And there he went into a cave and he spent the night in that place. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him and he said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? What are you doing here, Elijah?

I'll pause for a moment. We can speculate on why Elijah felt the need to run, but have we ran from God before in our own lives, sinking in comfort in things of this physical world, things that we felt could maybe resolve our problems, fix, provide solutions? Have we ran? I've ran at times. But running has never solved our challenges, have it?

Any time that we felt we had to run to one thing or to the next instead of running to God, has that ever solved our challenges? I've sometimes thought before, how could Elijah find himself in this situation? How could he have this frame of mind? Did he forget that he was fed for three and a half years by ravens sent from God? Did he forget the other miracle when he was instructed to go to the widow's house and said, Feed me, make something for me to eat? And she said, the drought that we're going through is too much. I'm not even going to live much more than a week. Very little time do I have left in my life because I'm out of food. I'm out of a meal and I'm out of oil. So I can't even make myself food much less feed you. And yet Elijah told her it would never run out until the drought was done, until the rains came. That meal and that oil would never run out.

Did he forget the miracle of her son, the same widow's son dying, and then God resurrecting him back to life? All these things, I think, back at times. How could Elijah find himself in this place?

God knew what was in Elijah's heart, and yet he did not keep him from running. He let Elijah run and run and run. Over 200 miles, he let Elijah run. He was north of Judah, could have stopped there in Judah, which would probably have been safer for him, away from Jezebel. But he said, that's not safe enough. I got to keep running. 200 miles, over 200 miles, Elijah ran. He didn't pass go. He didn't collect his 200 hours. He just kept on running 40 days and 40 nights. What this shows us is that regardless of how God is working in our lives, we still sometimes find ourselves under the weight of mighty trials in our lives today. These are those storms that beat against us. And as we read in Matthew 7, this doesn't make us weak. It makes us human. It really makes us human. But God in our weakness makes us strong. We know that from 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 9. 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 9. We are human. We struggle with the weight that sometimes comes on our shoulders in this life.

It's a human element of being part of a physical world. But again, God in our weakness makes us strong. 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 9. And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness, in your weakness, in my weakness. His strength is made perfect. What does God do with Elijah during this weak moment in his life? What does God do? We see this back in 1 Kings. I should have told you to keep your finger there. I should have done the same. But in 1 Kings chapter 19, let's quickly get back over there. 1 Kings chapter 19.

In verse 10, because what does God do with Elijah during this weak moment in his life?

He speaks to him with a still, small voice. In 1 Kings 19 verse 10, just previously, God had asked a question, what are you doing here, Elijah? And here in verse 10, we see Elijah's response. And this is my view of it. I think Elijah is speaking pretty boldly to God in his answer. And you'll, I think, agree with me as you read through this.

I think he's speaking kind of directly, kind of loud. Because in verse 10, after God says, what are you doing here, Elijah? So he says to him, I have been very zealous for the Lord, God of hosts. For the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life. And then he said, and this is God saying again, then he said, Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, and behold, the Lord pass by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains, and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord.

But the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a still, small voice. So it was when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and he went out and he stood at the entrance of the cave, and suddenly a voice came to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah?

What are you doing here, Elijah? So in all these miraculous ways, these things that God wasn't part of, the challenge, the thing right before Elijah, this presence of power, of might, these supernatural, physical ways that God wasn't in, he comes here and speaks again to Elijah. And I feel Elijah now realized that God doesn't reveal himself only in powerful, miraculous ways to look for God in only something big, maybe to miss him, because he's often found gently whispering in the quietness of a humbled heart.

When we will humble ourselves and go before God, sometimes we hear that small voice, that quiet speaking to ourselves, that in the midst of all this wind, of all the trials, of all the struggles going on, you can't hear a single thing except for that noise. But God's not in the noise. I think Elijah's tone may have been very different the second time around in answering the question when God says, after all of this, what are you doing here, Elijah?

I find it funny in verse 14. He repeats the same exact words, but I have a feeling that this time it would have been spoken in a much more humble, much different way. In verse 14, he says, I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel has forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword.

I alone am left, and they seek to take my life. Immediately, God doesn't address the problems that Elijah referenced, but he gives him work to do, just like you and I often have in our trials and challenges. We have work that's before us. Verse 15, we see that God gave Elisha physical work that he was to do.

As we've referenced several times now, we in our lives have physical work that we are to do, often in our trials. But God also addressed Elijah's concerns with him. He didn't leave him hanging. This concern that he repeated twice to the Lord, he addressed for him. In verse 18, he says, Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel. All who knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that have not kissed him.

Again, as the pillar in the cloud went behind Israel, to reassure them, to let them know that he was there, God wanted Elijah to know that he's not alone. Yeah, your concern is valid. I understand that that's how you feel, but that's not the truth. That's not the case. So he didn't just leave him hanging and give him marching orders and go do this, but he said, I'm going to address your concern.

I want you to know you're not alone. So many times, God does that with us. We have our trials. We have our challenges. We have those balls that we're juggling, and it feels like if one more gets thrown in, they're all going to come crashing down. And that's these moments when our heart starts beating harder, that our hands get wet, that we can go and say, you know what? I've got to stop. I can't carry this.

I can't fix this, but God can. And it's those times where we can go and talk to him, let him know our concerns, pour it out, express our feelings, and then let him talk to us in that quiet, still voice. And then, when we're seeing that there's things we have to do, go and do them, knowing that God will be with us.

When we feel the weight of our struggles in life, which we will, there are countless examples of God's Word that show that we aren't the first people in this world to struggle. But God works on our lives the same way that he worked with Israel and with Elijah. He may allow us to run, just as Elijah did. But when we're exhausted from our running, he'll then allow us to pause, and then to speak to us in a still, small voice. He will ask us to stand still, and then he will stand between us and our challenges, and then we'll know what it is that we are to do. And then we'll get up and we'll proceed in that direction that God leads.

This is that amazing God, this powerful God that we have working so intimately in our lives, from the biggest trial to the most minute detail, a time where something seems so simple that we're struggling with. And he goes, yeah, it is simple. Let me fix it real quick for you. You lost your car keys. Yep, you got to get to church. You got to get to work. Let me help you with that. Two of those big things that we just don't have the answers for, but he does. This is that wonderful, awesome God that we get to serve and that works so intimately in our lives. As I wrap up today, I'd like to present one caution, though. Watch out for washout.

Watch out for washout. This is a lesson that we must each take to heart for the rest of our lives, because physical things of this world can be sneaky. There are times when earthly things can slide into our lives, and without us really even knowing it, they have started to feel like what is a foundation underneath our lives. We may not realize we have gradually started leaning more on the physical things or even some of our blessings. These things can make us feel stable or secure in an earthly sense, but we have to remember, even if they are positive things, they are false foundations, because as we read earlier, Jesus Christ is the only true foundation. There is some level that we've spoken to also today of having a good feeling to have these securities in life, to have things going well, to have a job, to have an education, to have a strong family. These things are good to have in our life, but we have to be careful that these blessings don't try to become a substitute for the one foundation of Jesus Christ.

Getting back to Florida and disasters, that's why I'm glad to be in Michigan, we've also seen in the news that sometimes sinkholes develop underneath homes, especially down in Florida where they have a limestone rock base underneath the whole state or a large portion of it. And the salty water is washing away, corroding some of that bedrock, and homes will, in a matter of seconds, collapse right into that sinkhole. Sometimes with people in them, sometimes people sleeping in their beds. They feel comfortable. It's a good foundation. I built this house. There's no cracks in the drywall. It's not settling. But then all of a sudden, that foundation is washed away. That house had a weakness. Underneath it, it's disappearing, but nobody knows it. When we build our lives on sometimes these foundations that creep in, we can have a sinkhole be developing underneath our lives that we don't even realize is there.

This is that time of the year when many of the busy things of the summer have come to an end. The Feast of Tabernacles was over, and we've settled back into our normal lives. This is a time of the year that we have maybe a little bit more peace in our lives, a little more quiet. We're spending maybe a little bit more time at home, and that we have an opportunity to evaluate, to pause, and to inspect our foundations in our lives. Are we beginning to lean more on those physical things, our physical blessings? Are we leaning and start? Has our foundation shifted a little bit? Maybe even a little bit more than a little bit?

If we find weak points, we can regroup and make sure our foundation is resting securely on Christ. Now is the time to do that before that sinkhole gives way. Now is the time to do it before that next storm comes to reinforce our foundation, to shore up our home, our spiritual lives.

We've all seen those news videos of those huge mansions, palatial estates, million-dollar homes that you would think, you and I would think, if somebody's going to invest the time into that much property and pour their money into it, they're going to make sure it's going to withstand anything that comes its way. Yet it falls. That foundation fails. It's destroyed by the strength of storm and sea. So let us remember Christ's words in Matthew 7. Again, I'll read Matthew 7, 24 through 27. As we finish up today, let's consider these words and the power that's in them.

Therefore, whoever hears these saints of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain descended and the floods came. The winds blew and they beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these saints of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell. And great was its fall. We don't have to be the person that built on the sand, but we can be that person that's building on that sure foundation, which we know from 1 Corinthians 3, verse 11, for no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. That sure foundation, no other foundation, can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.