Building on the One Foundation

Wow! What a wonderful blessing to be saying to us today. We are a body. We are a family. We are in a building. We are a church. And it's wonderful to just think on those words that you sang as we consider who we are and the importance that we play as a family and the importance we are to God. So thank you. Thank you for that. Matthew 5 begins Christ's longest sermon. His Sermon on the Mount is what we have come to know it as by name.

Through the sermon, we have captured the beatitudes or the traits that we are to be developing in our lives. We have the instructions that we are to be lights to this world. In the sermon, he also says that he has not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it. And then he goes on to expound the law. In it, we have the model prayer captured in chapter 6. There's vats that we have in this sermon from Christ.

But it's the end of chapter 7 where he closes out his sermon that I'd like to focus on today. This is Matthew 7, verse 24. Matthew 7, verse 24. It says, Marching orders, his final exclamation mark on this wonderful sermon and all that he shared with his disciples.

Here in Matthew 7, chapter 4, Christ says, 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, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.

As we've each experienced, physical storms come and go in our lives as far as weather, physical weather storms. And they don't just stop. They come again from time to time. And at times, the physical storms can come quickly. All you have to do is to be on the beach someplace and to see a storm coming in from the ocean this year while we were in Florida, that hurricane that was about 120 miles away, the day before, it was bright and sunny.

And then the winds picked up. I ran out there with our kite. And then before we knew it, it was overcast, and the winds started picking up even more, and the waters washing further up onto the beach. All of a sudden, we had a storm. And it kind of came out of nowhere. Had we not had radar and the modern technology that we had, we could have been caught off guard. Storms can come quickly. We've all seen the images of a beachfront house during a hurricane or a tropical storm.

The multi-story house, big house, might even be a grand house that is in the middle of these storms, and it's taken a beating. And what happens? Well, the ground underneath it starts washing away. And more of it washes away. And we've seen on the evening news, this huge home, that half the foundation is gone, and then what eventually happens? The whole thing just topples over. It's gone. Something huge, something that was sturdy suddenly is destroyed. We've seen these images. To contrast this image, we've also seen in those same storms at times, that beachfront home that had pillars driven down to the ground.

It was kind of on its own little stilts. And the same storm, might even be a neighbor's home, took a beating. But because those pillars were driven deep down into the ground, sometimes as far down as to the bedrock, that storm did not topple at home. It stood there. Maybe it lost a shingle, minor damage, but that home withstood that storm. Jesus Christ gave us this physical analogy so we could relate to it in our own spiritual lives.

So I have a question for each of us to ask ourselves today. Is my spiritual house grounded on the secure foundation of Jesus Christ?

Is my spiritual house grounded on the secure foundation of Jesus Christ? As we think about this question today, there are a couple of things I'd like us to consider in regards to this scripture here in Matthew 7. The first is that we are to be a wise planner. We need to be a wise planner. Referring back to Matthew 7, Jesus said, I will liken him to a wise man.

This person who builds their life on the foundation of Jesus Christ is a wise person. They are someone who sees the world around them for what it is. When thinking about society around me, often the scripture in Matthew 10, verse 16 comes to mind. Since we're close, let's just flip ahead to Matthew 10 and verse 16. Because to be wise, we have to recognize the world that we live in. We have to recognize the differences that we're called to be that light on a hill. Here in Matthew 10, verse 16, Christ says, Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. I often think about that aspect of being wise as serpents, but we also have to be harmless as doves. We have to be careful. We have to be discerning. God desires that we be wise living as part of this world and how we handle ourselves. The wise person also sees himself for who they really 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 realize that in the blink of an eye, everything can change. As a wise Christian, we must see into our future and recognize that storms and trials, just like in physical life today, they're going to come, and we must do all that we can now to prepare for whatever comes our way. The following is an illustration I found about being a wise planner, and this one is credited to Wilbur Nelson. He 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. These are the dead load, the live load, and the wind load.

The dead load is the wind, or 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 the 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 strength we need to withstand these various stresses. It's an interesting way to look at ourselves, to look at life. We have our dead load of self. While we work to overcome, we aren't perfect in this life. We have the dead load that weighs on us of our own nature. We have the live load of, just at times, life is tough. We have things that come up in our lives of daily living, of dealing with non-emergencies, of taking our kids to school, dealing maybe with a bad attitude from time to time. We have our live load, and we also have our wind load when those trials and challenges of life come on us. None of us are immune to any of these loads. Being prepared and ready means building a secure foundation on Jesus Christ. What does this look like? It means growing in grace and knowledge every day. It means working hard at casting off the old man that tries to pull at our sleeve or hang on to that pant leg as we try to walk away. It means never quitting in our walk with God. If you are not yet baptized, it means seriously weighing out your life, where you see it going, where you see God fitting into that, and seriously weighing out the importance of having Him and committing your life to Him in baptism. Every day we must all, whether we are baptized or not, wake up to study God's Word and to build a stronger, deeper relationship with Him in prayer. If we do these things and our foundation is strengthened and secured upon Jesus Christ, a second aspect we must consider is we must realize that no matter how much or how little we have planned, storms will come. Regardless of how much or how little we plan, storms will come. In the beginning of James 1, Christ's half-brother starts right off reminding the readers of his letter that trials will come. This is in James 1, right off the first few verses.

James is hiding in my Bible. I just found it. James 1, 2-6. James says, I like the aspect where he says, if any of you lack wisdom, I believe that's relating to those trials, the difficulties that come up in life, the confusion sometimes, the, what's the next steps that I'm supposed to make? If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. But do it in faith, because as another storm analogy, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. We've seen those waves. We've seen big waves. We've seen the currents that are created by the winds pulling those waves and throwing those waves around. There's power in that. 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, we can be shaken to the core. It's during these storms when we're in the midst of them that we are most in need of a solid foundation. But in the middle of these storms, it's too late to start building a new foundation. Imagine the homeowner with that house on the coast. He sees a storm blowing in, and all of a sudden he says, you know what? I don't know. I'm built on the rock. I better go out and really fix this quick. It doesn't work that way. To rebuild and to strengthen a house takes time. It takes weeks. It takes months. It's too late. That storm is going to hit, and this person is not going to be prepared. It's not hopeless, though. 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, and this one is by Dave Brannon, from his book, Our Daily Bread. And in it, he says, we were snorkeling in the Caribbean Sea. The boat that had taken us into the deep water for a better sight 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 waters, I was okay. That feeling of knowing that his feet was on solid ground took away a lot of the stress, the anxiety that he was feeling about being in that much open water. He concludes by asking, are you feeling a bit panicky about events in your life? Maybe it seems that if you are 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 are 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 with things going on in our life. Maybe it's at school or at college where our values that we believe are being challenged. Maybe at work our character is being tested. Are you going to work on the Sabbath? Are you going to lie? Because we need the client to think that we didn't make a mistake. We have been tested, and life comes our way. But there is no other foundation that we can lay other than that which is in Christ Jesus. We read this in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 11.

1 Corinthians 3, verse 11.

It's straightforward. It's to the point. There's no disputing what it says.

1 Corinthians 3, verse 11. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. There's only one foundation. There's no other. There's not a better. There's not a backup. There's not a, if you can't afford it, there's another option. There's only one foundation.

There's no college degree or apprenticeship or work training that can be a solid foundation. There's no material possessions that we can acquire in this life that would be a sure foundation. There's no trust in fellow humans to be a complete and solid rock in this world.

There's only one foundation, and that is Christ.

Christ is the foundation that has already been laid, just waiting for you and for me to build upon. It's like showing up to a job site. You're in construction. You show up to build that house. And when you arrive, that foundation has already been laid. And the people who did it were craftsmen. It's a sure foundation. It's level. It's solid. And all you have to do is build your house. Imagine the comfort, the satisfaction you get in that, the knowing that this house is going to stand. It's going to be strong. That foundation is not going to crack down the road. It's not going to be washed out later on. And you're about to build your house on this sure foundation. That's what we have with Jesus Christ. We can place our very lives upon Him, and He will see us through. Christ is strong. He is immovable.

So when we get down to the crux of the issue, the question that we have to ask ourselves today is, how do we build on the one foundation?

How do we build on the one foundation?

Building on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ is a choice we each get to make. No one will force us to build on a solid foundation. People will not come in and inspect my foundation. You're not going to come into my life and say, well, what's the foundation that Mike is building his life on?

We are each responsible for the foundation in our own life.

Thinking back to Matthew 7 and the aspect that there were two homes being built.

Two people were building homes to have their lives in. Both had common goals in their life. Both wanted a good place to protect themselves and their families.

From the outside, both appeared quite similar.

But structurally, both were very much different.

We live in a world that offers many things we can build foundations on. There are many types of false foundations that have existed since the beginning of time. There's money. There's jobs. There's physical health. There's youthfulness. And there's those material possessions that we all try to go after, me included.

None of these things in and of themselves are necessarily bad. It's good to have a college degree. It's good to have work training, to be an apprentice, to know how to use your hands, to fix things. It's good to go to school.

It's good to have money to pay for your food and for your home and for the things that we need in this life.

None of these things in and of themselves are necessarily bad. But none of them are true foundations. We can receive no lasting comfort, no true peace, no complete satisfaction, and no protection from anything this world offers if that's what we have as our foundation.

Only in Christ will we find the rock, and that's what the capital are, of our hope and our salvation. The rock of our hope and our salvation. Physical things of life, they just won't stand the test of time. Buildings deteriorate. Money's gone. Things break.

At some point, our lives come to an end. So that knowledge that we had, that training that we acquired, so that we could have a job, or so that we could work with our hands and do things. Upon our life coming to a close, it fades away in the dust as well.

So how do we turn to Christ in the midst of trials or challenges in life? Because this is what we need to do. When we have our solid foundation on Christ, we have to be building this foundation. We have to be strengthening our relationship. We have to make sure that we didn't build the house a foot over off that foundation, thinking that we have it on there, but actually we're off. We're not on a foundation at all. We have to make sure. So how do we turn? Because sometimes we're going to hit those trials in life. Those storms are going to come, and they're going to batter us around. How do we turn to Christ in the midst of trials or challenges that we have in life?

Talk to God. Sounds too basic, right?

It is simply that easy. Talk to God.

We all hit moments in life when the stress of things we are dealing with, or trying to deal with, that's what usually happens to me. I'm trying to deal with these things, but they just become too much.

You can't wrap your mind around all the details of something that you're trying to tackle. You can't wrap your mind on what order you need to have all your ducks in that row. Which one's first? Which one's fifth? You can't wrap your mind around how to dot all your I's or cross all your T's.

You're juggling so many balls, and this is the analogy I always think of in my own life, and it feels like more are being thrown into the middle. So you're juggling them, and you're feeling like you're managing it, and you're not comfortable with it. You know that you can't keep this up forever, and then all of a sudden you've got more balls getting thrown into your juggling act. And it's getting tougher, and you get that feeling in your stomach that it's all about to come crashing down. What do I do?

It's these exact moments when we are struggling to breathe that we have to stop everything that we're doing, recognizing that this still, small voice that is speaking to us, that is urging us to go to God, and then we have to go.

Stop and pray. It is that basic.

Stop and pray. Go to our great God and just talk to Him. Express the feelings. Express the concern. Pour it out. Then let God talk to you.

Remember the promises that we have from Him that He will never leave us. He will never forsake us.

In the New Living Translation of Deuteronomy 31, verse 6, it says, So be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous as we approach God in our prayer. Be strong and courageous to say, you know what? I don't have the answers. I can't keep juggling all these balls.

Be strong and courageous to recognize that and go to God. Deuteronomy 31, verse 6 continues, So be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. Don't panic before your trials. Don't panic before your waits. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. I love that aspect. He will personally go ahead of you. He won't send someone else. He won't say, I'll get back to you in a month.

The Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you. That's the God that we serve. And that's the God that we can have this prayerful relationship with. Remember the promises that we have received the Helper of the Holy Spirit to be that strength when we feel we are lacking peace, lacking joy, lacking hope, lacking strength.

And then realize we have to give these struggles, these things, to God.

Let's turn to Psalm 55. It's one scripture. It's another one that we should internalize and remember. Psalm 55, verse 22.

Psalm 55, verse 22.

Here David says in 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 need to remember these promises. We need to read even a small verse like this to remember that we are to cast our cares, cast our burden to God. His hands can handle it. His arms are strong. His shoulders are broad. He can handle every single weight that we have in our life. But we have to give it to him. We have to cast it to him, and then he shall sustain us.

He has the strength to carry what you and I can't.

And then the hardest part? Don't take him back. Don't take him back. I can't count the sheer number of times I've given something over to God only to find me taking it back. Because giving them to God brings us a level of peace, internally, a level of peace. And when we feel that peace is fleeting away, that peace is not to be found again, what's going on? Think back. Am I trying to take this back? Am I trying to bring it back into my mind? Am I trying to take control of this issue again? Because more times than not, that's what's going on.

Instead of leaving it where God can manage it and leaving it in His hands, we end up trying to take our problems back, these difficulties. So we have to pause again and ask ourselves, are we taking the difficulties back on ourselves again? And we may have to repeat the above process of simply going to Him in prayer, weighing out and letting Him see everything that we have on our mind and our life, and then giving Him over to Him. What is it? The shampoo? Wash, rinse, and repeat? Sometimes we have to go through the same aspect in prayer and giving our trials and our difficulties over to God. And the Holy Spirit will be a strength that we can listen to and allow to be our guide. And then we shall see the salvation of the Lord.

When I think about being still, there's a passage from Exodus 14 I normally think of. Let's go ahead and turn to Exodus 14.

In the midst of severe trial or difficulty of challenges, what do you and I do?

Here in the account we're about to read, Israel was instructed to do one simple thing at the beginning, one simple thing, and that was to be still. Exodus 14, 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 Baal-Zephon. You shall camp before it by the sea. So this is that huge sea that they've just walked over to, and little do they know if Pharaoh's armies are about to close in on them.

For Pharaoh will say to the children of Israel, They are bewildered by the land, the wilderness has closed them in. 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 have fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants were turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this? That we have let Israel go from serving us. So he made ready his chariot, and 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.

Pharaoh got all his boys together, and they were going to round up these Israelites. This is not going to happen. This is not going to happen on Pharaoh's watch. 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.

Remember, previously to this, they saw the hand of the Lord. They went out with boldness. They plundered Egypt. They took with them gold. They took with them livestock. They took with them whatever they wanted.

They went out with boldness. And now what's about to happen?

Verse 9, So the Egyptians pursued them, and all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and overtook them, camping by the sea, beside by Hyroth, 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.

Today's terms, the weight of what was going on around them suddenly became too much. It became, what's going on? Maybe they were out doing things. Maybe they were playing a game with their kids. And all of a sudden, everything changes in a blink of an eye. Danger is at hand. Challenge is at foot.

And in Exodus 14, verse 11, Then they said to Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us? So dealt with us, to bring us 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, than that we should die in the wilderness. How quickly they forgot the hand of the Lord was what brought them out. And in verse 13, the key aspect, Moses said to the people, Do not be afraid. Stand still. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. I imagine in the rush of the Egyptians showing up, everybody gets nervous. Everybody starts freaking out. Everybody starts, What are we going to do? We don't have swords. We don't have an army. We can't fight. We're not organized to fight. And they're all clamoring to Moses, Look what you've done to us here. And they're probably saying, Hey, you run over there and you grab your things. I'm going to go over and find my family and there's just commotion going on. How does that feel when we have this type of a commotion going on in our lives? The weight of how are we going to manage X? When are we going to do Y? I don't even know how to start Project Z. And it's when these things happen and we're just running to and fro and the focus isn't where it needs to be. Similar to Israel.

And Moses said, Stand still. It's that opportunity that when we feel that weight, when we feel that stress that we can say, You know what? Stand still. Get on our knees and let's talk to God. And continuing on in the end of verse 13, For the Egyptians, who you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace. No more running around, no more trying to grab your kids, no more trying to figure out what are we going to do? Can we pick up rocks to throw at the Egyptians? No more! No more feeling out the weights of our trials. No more saying, This challenge is here and as soon as I get this one tackled, this next challenge comes up. No more! The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace.

And the Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. This is the second part. But lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the children of Israel shall go on to dry ground through the midst of the sea. But then what else did God do for them? Wasn't it just enough to open a doorway and say, Now go and flee?

What else did God do for them? In 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 it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night.

I'll never forget the first time I read that and it hit me what actually was going on. That it wasn't just that God opened some door and made the sea part, because he could have, but he paused. He did not give them freedom from that trial right away, but what did he do? He went around behind them. He says, I've got your back.

He first said, Moses said, stand still. Contemplate where you're at. Contemplate what we should be doing right now. And then God says, proceed, as the water would part at that point. They had their part to do. They had to physically walk on the dry land in the sea. But prior to that, he said, I've got your back.

I'm not just going to leave you here. I'm not just going to blow open a door. But I want you to know, I've got your back. I'm going to go between you in this trial. I'm going to go between you and these people and provide you a level of protection so that you can stay here for a little bit longer. I'll give you that support, that help that you need. There would be no physical way that Israel would be able to overcome Pharaoh and his army.

It's just impossible. There's no physical way. But we don't have a God that deals only in the physical, as we do. We have a God that time, for him, time is nothing. Time is nothing for God. And as we heard last week, day and night are alike to him. Darkness doesn't slow him down. Darkness doesn't keep him from being able to see the challenges that we face.

There is nothing that separates us from the love and care of God. There is nothing. That's scriptural. That's in Romans 8. We are in Romans 8 for the sermonette. We're going to go back and find a different verse this time. Romans 8, verse 35. You feel like the foundation, your footing on that solid foundation of Christ is slipping. It's like that brook that runs through and the rocks in the water get slimy.

You're trying to grab a foothold and it's shifting on you. And you're feeling like, I'm about to go right into this water. When we're feeling that way, we feel like we can't stand firmly on that foundation. We feel like maybe that foundation isn't even there. Remember 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 or fill in your blank. What shall 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 death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor death nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are to place our feet on that rock that is God and Jesus Christ. Place our feet on the solid promise that cannot be shaken and can't fail. Solid bedrock. My brothers, a civil engineer, when they draw up plans for bridges or for roads, things that need to be sturdy, can't fail, they go all the way down to bedrock.

They will drill as deep as they have to to get to bedrock because if they don't, that bridge is going to sag. It's going to topple. It's going to tilt. It's not going to be sturdy enough. So how much money does it take to get to bedrock? Well, it depends on the land. But it doesn't matter. Part of the project is you build on that bedrock. There's no other option. You figure out how to get to that bedrock. You figure out a better place to build that bridge.

That's what we have to do here with Jesus Christ. Place our feet on the solid promises that can't be shaken and can't fail. That solid bedrock. That's what we have to build on. But we could be tempted to view the way that God separated Israel from Pharaoh as just one of the many miracles that God provided for his physical nation that he was working with.

We could say, well, that's just a miracle. God worked in that way. And you may be thinking, why isn't he working in miracles in my life? That's not how God works in my life. So it's a great story, but I don't see it today. Maybe you're struggling to see the miracles that God is performing in your life. But regardless of what we can see, God is working in our lives today in a miraculous way. The prophet Elijah also hit a point where he struggled to see God under the weight of his trials.

In 1 Kings 19, we have Elijah fearing for his life. And what does he do? He runs. He runs.

1 Kings 19 I mean, if we're going to look at it from a human standpoint, you're fearing for your life, yeah, maybe we should run. There's a lot more to this story that we're going to dive into.

1 Kings 19 1 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. Remember, prior to this is when Elijah and the other prophets had just killed the 415 prophets of Baal. Remember, they had the altars. They set theirs up and the prophets were praying to their God all day. And he says, maybe he's asleep.

Maybe you need to wake him up, cheer him out. And they cut themselves and did these horrific things, trying to appease a false God. And then we know that Elijah prayed about it and fire came down and consumed the altar, fire from heaven. And that's when he told the other prophets with him, seize them. Not one of them is to get away alive. So he had just done this. He'd seen this miracle.

And all of this was done in the name of the Lord. He didn't do it on his own authority. He did it in the name of the Lord. He had just witnessed this by God delivering them into his hand. And now what is going through his mind? 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.

It's a death threat. And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life. And there went to Bathsheba, which belongs to Judah. So he was up in the northern tribe area of Israel. And so now here he is running down to Judah, which belonged to Judah, and he 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. 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 he drank and lay down again. And the angel of the 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, and the strength of that food, forty days and forty nights. We've heard that a few different times, right? Once with Moses, while he was in God's presence, forty days and forty nights, Jesus Christ fasted, not long.

He or Elijah went on food for forty days and forty nights, as far as Herb, the mountain of God, Sorry, the mountain of God. And there he went into a cave and 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? We can speculate on why Elijah felt the need to run, but have we run from God before, trying to seek our own comfort and trying to resolve our problems ourselves?

Have we ran? I've ran. But running has never solved my challenges. Has running ever solved any of your challenges? I thought before, how could Elijah find himself in this frame of mind? Did he forget that he was once fed by ravens for three and a half years? That doesn't just happen to you and me, but he was fed by ravens for three and a half years. For the miracle of the multiplication of the widow's cornmeal and the oil, he went to her home.

God told him, She'll feed you. And she says, I don't have enough. We're in a famine right now. It's going to run out and we're going to die soon. It's not like next week or next month. We've got days left. And he says, Don't worry. It'll be multiplied. It will not run out until this famine is over. That was another miracle by God.

But then what happens at the same widow? Her son dies. But then God resurrects her son. Did Elijah forget all these things? Do you and I sometimes forget the ways God has worked powerfully in our lives? God knew what was in Elijah's heart, but yet he did not keep Elijah from running. He let him run. And run and run. Did you know it was over 200 miles that Elijah ran from Jezebel?

This is not cars. We're not driving on the freeway. He ran over 200 miles in his desire to run away from her, run away from his difficulties. He didn't even stay in Judah, which would probably have kept him safe. He passed go. He didn't collect his $200, and he just kept on running. 40 days and for 40 nights. What this shows us is that regardless of how God has worked in our lives in the past, we sometimes find ourselves under the weight of mighty trials in our life today. These are those storms that beat against us as we read in Matthew 7. This doesn't make us weak. It makes us human.

But God, in our weakness, makes us strong. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 12. Hold your fingers here in 1 Kings 19, though. We're coming back. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9. Because we've got to see how the story ends. I can't just end it there. It's a powerful story to watch it conclude. But in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9, we have to remember in God our weaknesses are made strong. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9. He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. We could insert there, His strength is made perfect in my weakness. We could personalize this right here. Therefore, most gladly, I would rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I may boast that I've got my struggles, because you know what? Christ is with me. I'm going to be okay with the weight of this challenge. Why? Because Christ has got this. God has got this. Christ has got this. I just have to endure. I have to keep going. My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I would rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. What does God do with Avijah during this weak moment in his life? What did God do? Let's flip back to 1 Kings 19.

Similar to what Moses instructed Israel, here God spoke to him in a still, small voice.

Here in 1 Kings 19. I envision that Avijah was asked the question, What are you doing here, Avijah? And I envision that he's speaking pretty boldly in his response here to God, explaining to himself. 1 Kings 19 verse 10. So he said, I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts. For the children of Israel, I forsaken your covenant, tore down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life. He probably was speaking pretty boldly at this point in answering God. Why have you ran for 200 miles? Let me tell you why I've ran for 200 miles. That's probably what I would have been thinking.

Verse 11. Then he said, Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, and behold, the Lord passed 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. That's not where God was at. 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 in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, again, a voice came to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah?

I feel at this point Elijah now realizes that God doesn't reveal himself only in powerful, miraculous ways. Can God? Of course he can. He's God. He can do whatever he wants. But in this instance, and in so many times in our lives, he doesn't answer us. He doesn't do these things for show before you and I. But in that small, still voice, he talks to us.

God doesn't reveal himself only in powerful, miraculous ways. To look for God only in something big may be to miss him because he's often found gently whispering in the quietness of a humble heart.

I think Elijah's tone may have been different answering the question the second time. Imagine seeing these great earthquakes, the rocks blasting against himself, the fire.

That'll humble you pretty quick to realize the strength that we don't have, but God has it.

And so I think the second time that Elijah was asked a question, What are you doing here, Elijah? He had a different tone in his answer. It's humorous in verse 14 that he gave the same exact response. But I think his tone would have been different. He says, I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts because the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, tore down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left and they seek to take my wife.

Immediately, God doesn't address the problems that Elijah references, but he gives them work to do. Notice this. He goes ahead and gives them work to do. Verse 15, Abel and Mahola, you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall be that whoever escapes a sword of Hazazel, Jehu will kill, and whoever escapes a sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill.

God gave Elijah physical work that he was to do.

We all have trials and challenges, and many times it requires that we do physical work for them too.

Maybe it's the doctor visit you have to go to. Maybe it's that surgery procedure. You have to sign the paper saying, yep, I'm going to allow you to do this. I need to get it done.

Maybe it's finding that job on Monday morning because, you know, companies are open.

Job's not going to just fall into your lap. You have your part. You have to play in finding work.

We many times have physical work that we are to do with our trials as well. But God, in his love, also addressed Elijah's concerns with him. And so many times, God does this with us. We try to keep all those balls up in the air. We try to keep our hands wrapped around our challenges and our trials.

And then when we pause and we talk to God and say, I can't do this. I can't manage this.

You have to take it. And then he says, I will take it. But I need you to go apply for that job.

And look what he says. But he addresses our own concerns as he does here with Elijah in verse 18. God says, Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that have not kissed him. He assured Elijah, You aren't the only one. I know that's how you feel. You're not. I don't have to show you the people. You have to trust me on this.

So he took his concern and consideration. He didn't just blow it off and say, well, you weak little human being thinking that you can come and talk to me the way you do. Let me show you the power I have. He did still address the concern that he has. And God knows our hearts. He created us. He knows that we're human and he knows the difficulties we have. He knows when we stub our toe how bad that hurts. He knows the feeling when we lose a job. He knows what it's like and he's going to validate our feelings. But he says, Come to me. Talk to me about it. Let me know what's going on. Let me know your thoughts. Be still and watch me open this door for you.

So many times God does work on our lives this way.

When we feel the weight of our struggles in life, which we will, there are countless examples in God's Word that show that we aren't the first people to struggle. But God works on our lives the same way that he's worked with Israel and that he's worked with Elijah. He may allow us to run, just like he allowed Elijah. But when we're exhausted from our running, he will 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. Then we'll know what it is that we are to do and we'll get up and we'll proceed in the direction that God leads. This is the amazing God that we have working in our lives, that he intimately knows you and me.

As I wrap up today, I'd like to present one final caution. Going back to our house analogy and storms. This last aspect is, watch out for washout. Watch out for washout. This is a lesson we each much 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 even realizing it, they can start to form what feels like a foundation in our life. We may not realize that we have gradually started leaning on physical things more and more in our life. And even some of our blessings that God has given us can become a fake foundation of swords. 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 one and true foundation in our life. There is some level of security that we feel in having a good job or a healthy life, a roof over our head, or even a solid relationship with others of like mind. But we have to be careful that these blessings don't try to become a substitute for the one foundation of Jesus Christ. We've seen the new stories of homes that fall into sinkholes, especially down in Florida where there's a lot of limestone. The whole neighborhoods are built on areas that have dissolved underneath them. And the people who live in these homes, they don't have any clue that there's a huge sinkhole developing underneath their home. Until when? It finally gives way. The house collapses, falls, topples in, sometimes with them inside of it. That's this worry that we watch out for washout because maybe you have that beachfront home and maybe the sand is slowly washing away from underneath it. You're going on with life because you feel pretty okay. Things seem to be good. You've got a job, you've got this house, things are good. But what we don't realize is that our foundation, we may not have our foundation on Christ and it may be washing out from underneath us. The sinkhole may be opening up underneath us because we feel okay. On the outside, everything seems fine. We feel secure, but the sinkhole is opening right up underneath our house because it's not on a solid foundation.

So we do need to watch out for washout. This is the time of the year when many of the busy things of the summer have come to an end. The Feast of Tabernacles is now over. Those big Thanksgiving dinners that you had to plan and coordinate. That was last week. We have an opportunity now to pause and to take some time to inspect the integrity of our foundations. We can look for cracks or instability, and if we find weak points, we can regroup and make sure our foundation is securely resting on Christ. Now is the time to do this before the next storm of life hits. We've all seen the news videos that I've mentioned. There's huge mansions on the coastal front, expansive and grand. And yet it fails and is destroyed by the strength of storm and sea. Let us remember Christ's words in Matthew 7, verse 24.

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 builds on the sand. Let's be sure that we are building on that sure foundation. For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Foundation on Jesus will not fail.