How Firm A Foundation

Introduction

Several years ago there was a new housing project being built in Mesquite, Nevada. It’s a beautiful project, beautiful homes, expensive homes. But there was one problem. Several months after the families have moved in, serious cracks began to develop in the driveways and uh in the roads, and uh pretty soon people began to smell something kind of weird, and it turned out it was methane gas that was coming up from the ground. Well, as a few more weeks went along, some of the people began to develop uh cracks and shaking in their in their living rooms and uh in their homes. And when they discovered what had happened, that the builders of subdivision had built eight homes directly on top of a landfill. The landfill was only about 20 feet beneath these living rooms, and it got so bad that the rooms not only begin to shake and the walls crack, but finally these homes begin to sink into the ground.

Well, obviously, someone had forgotten to think about the importance of building on a good foundation. We understand that building a house or any structure on a solid foundation is important, but it’s also important when we think about the building not only the house, but the home and certainly the church and of course our lives. Tonight the shepherds have asked me to begin a weekend series with you on how firm a foundation, which I understand is your theme here at South Bumby this year. And so tonight we’re going to really just begin with a keynote address and talk about how firm a foundation. I appreciate so much the invitation to come back and to be with you all again. And for those who are able to be out on a Friday night, I know there’s so many things that vibe for our time and attention, but you’ve chosen to be here, and I appreciate that very much.

And uh, you know, I know all speakers say it’s good to see you. I mean, he just, but it really is. If you had seen me about 12 hours ago, you would have questioned whether I would have seen you tonight. But uh, the Lord’s been good, and here we are, and so hopefully we can kick this off in a way that is helpful and uh will lay a foundation for the further lessons that we want to think about this weekend. We’ve already indicated here the importance of good foundation, and Jesus talked about that in his famous mountain message in Matthew chapter 7. And he concludes this message with these familiar words. 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 upon that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone that hears the 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 upon that house, and it fell, and great was its fall. This speaks to the importance of building a foundation. But Jesus here, and you understand in parabolic form, is not talking about building a literal home so much, but making a spiritual application to those who build upon him upon the foundation of his words and what he was teaching at that time.

Everyone is building a life. Now, there are many books and seminars and videos and blogs and recordings and programs that can teach you how to live a good life. Through the years, I have availed myself of some of these opportunities. Sometimes they’re called success seminars. And I learned that you can gain a great deal from some of these men from a secular standpoint. One of my favorite leadership authors is John Maxwell. Some of you may have read some of John’s works. We’ve had the privilege of meeting John, spending some private time with him and attending his seminars. And it’s good material. And John would talk about this concept of building a life and building upon that which is solid and secure and is going to last a lifetime.

Everyone is building some kind of a life. But everyone is building their life on something. And so the question comes what are we building our lives on? What values are we building our lives on? What are our priorities? What are the principles that we ascribe to? What are the morals that we have? On what foundation are you building your life? What is the basis of your life? Now, in looking around this evening, I can see that there may be a few people that are of my generation that grew up in the late 1950s and 1960s. And you know, you think back to that time, there were a lot of things that we were in agreement on in culture that our culture is no longer in agreement on today.

And what people are building their lives on today has changed drastically from what it was 50 or 60 years ago. And just like Jesus talks about in the parable, there are two kinds of builders. Not just in this parable, the home, but builders of life. There are those that are wise builders, and they build on a solid foundation. They build upon a rock that is going to sustain them through difficult and challenging times and is going to help them in their journey through life. And then, of course, there’s foolish builders. And these builders build on the shifting, unstable sands. And so what we want to do this weekend in these five lessons is talk about the firm foundation on which we can build our lives. But I felt like it was important in this keynote address for us to take a few minutes and for us to talk about the unstable and shifting sands on which many people today in our society are building.

And that’s the two words truth decay. The people today don’t value truth.

And as I suggested a moment ago, there were a lot of things when it comes to morals and ethics and honor and honesty and values, and even such simple things that what the home was supposed to be about, that it was a man and a woman, a husband and a wife. Well, our culture didn’t agree on that anymore. In fact, we’ve gotten so crazy we can’t even agree on who is a man and who is a woman. Truth decay has affected our culture today. And there’s at least three areas that I want us to think about a little bit. Because here’s here’s the reality, ladies and gentlemen. We live in a culture that has an impact on us. We go to work, we go maybe uh work out at a health club or the YMC somewhere.

We were involved in social activities, we take vacations, we shop. We’re involved in the world. We turn on the television and we hear the news and we go to places of entertainment, and we’re just impacted by that. And while we try to not be conformed to this world, but to be transformed, not to become like the world, or as J.B. Phelps put it, not to let the world squeeze you into its own mold, there is a challenge that that can happen to us. And certainly, if not some of us that are here tonight, maybe our children and grandchildren and those within our families. So think with me for a few minutes here about three areas in which there is truth decay, and people are building on unstable and shifting sands.

1. Individualism: I Am My Own God

One of those is the idea of individualism. And individualism says that I just live for myself. And a person that looks at it from their standpoint, they look at themselves as being the standard. And you hear people talk about that I can only judge what is really true and what is really right for me. And you hear this expression a lot of times today. Well, that’s your truth. But my truth is this. Like there’s different truth. And in their minds, I guess it is, because they’re living on a standard of individualism. Individualism really is another way of saying that I am my own God. You know, in years past we have seen television shows where a parent might be discussing with their teenager about becoming sexually active.

And I remember one such sitcom a number of years ago, and this certainly has not changed, it’s gotten worse, that the mother said to her teenage daughter, honey, you will know when it’s right for you. And that’s the attitude today. Not there’s a matter of right and wrong, not what does God say, not some unchanging standard, but an individualistic standard. You will know when it is right for you. Several years ago, Newsweek magazine had two words sprawled across its cover with a question mark. Whose values? And the magazine was dedicated to this issue of values that were changing. There was a young lady by the name of Sheila who was interviewed by Dr. Robert Bila for his book Habits of the Heart. And in the book, Beeler records this conversation that he had with Sheila.

And she said to Dr. Bila, I believe in God. I just can’t remember the last time I went to church. But my faith has carried me a long way. It’s Sheilaism. Just my own little voice. Now that’s to me pretty bold and brash for someone to say that. But she, I think, was probably being honest. And there are a lot of people that if you look at their lives and the choices they make and the foundation or the lack of the foundation on which they’re building, they’re building on the sand, or that way. But you know, this is nothing new. Judges chapter 21 and verse 25, during this period of the judges said that everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And so that’s individualism.

Or the wise man warned in Proverbs chapter 21 or verse 2 that every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts. And so I begin by suggesting to you that this idea of individualism is not a solid foundation. It is building on the sand.

2. Secularism: God Is Unnecessary

Secularism can be identified with three words. God is unnecessary. And so the secular person may not necessarily repudiate their ide the idea of being a supreme being, or that there is a God, but that we can get by pretty good without him. That we can chart our own course and live our own life and just live basically a secular kind of life. And so you think about the past 40 or 50 or 60 years or so that we have systematically been removing God from every area of public life. From our schools, from government, from media, from newspapers, and sadly, in some cases, from churches across our country. America has become a very secular society. When I was a kid growing up, more people went to church than didn’t.

Now it is reversed. And so you think about where do people get their morals and their ethics? Well, maybe from television or from other people that they associate with.

But Springer would have some of the most bizarre things that you could ever think about. And some of the most bizarre people. And you wonder, where does he get these people? And they would come on and talk about this crazy crazy lifestyle, and people would sit in the audience and just holler and hoot and applaud and all of that sort of thing. And it occurred to me one time that when you portray that sort of thing, and there’s a lot of other things, probably even that are worse today than Jerry Springer’s show. But it but at any rate, the folks get the idea, well, that’s just the way life is. That’s the way other people live. Everyone thinks that. You know, the homosexual community today would have us to think that maybe half of the population is homosexual.

Certainly you would think it’d be 25 or 30 or 40 percent almost, wouldn’t you? But it’s not. It’s a minuscule percentage of people that engage in that lifestyle. And yet, our culture tries to sell us on the idea that that’s the way it is, a secular point of view. And yet, as I was thinking about this, it occurred to me once again that this is not new. Because when you read Paul’s letter to the Roman church, in Romans chapter 1, he talks about really what I would call secularism. And in Romans chapter 1 and verse 20, he says, For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, even his eternal power and divine nature, so that they are without excuse.

Because they knew God, although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful. They became feudal in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creepy things. Therefore, God also gave them up. Let me stop there. I’ll never forget just a few years, short years ago when I was a student of Florida College. Well, a lot of years ago, all right. Roy Cogdall, in fact, was preaching here in Orlando at the time, and the college had him drive over and uh teach a couple classes on Tuesday and Thursday. And I studied the book of Romans under Brother Cognall.

And he made a point out of this chapter that I’ve never forgotten. He said, mankind has reached a pretty sad state when God gives up. Three times in this chapter one, it said God gave them up. They become so morally depraved and gotten so far away from God that he gave them up to uncleanliness and the lust of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forevermore. For this reason, there it is again. God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchange a natural use for what is against nature. Likewise, also the men leaving the natural use of the woman and burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

Even and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting.

I think as I was just coming in from the meeting with the elders that Ken was saying something about my blog that I do. And if he wasn’t, he should have, because uh you everybody here should be reading my blog, The Preacher’s Word. It’s it’s on your sermon notes there, and you can check it out later. But ever so often on my blog, I will write something about the sin of homosexuality. And I can almost guarantee you that when I do, I’m gonna get some blowback from it from people that don’t agree. And I’ve I’ve been surprised even a time or two from someone that’s a Christian or calls themselves a Christian that I’m too hard, that I’m too harsh, that I’m judging, and I shouldn’t be saying some of these things, and we don’t understand the some of these people.

3. Relativism: No Absolutes

Well, that part is probably right. I probably don’t understand some folks. But I’m just reading to you what the Bible says. And when I look at my Bible and I’ve I’ve highlighted some of these words here about this sin. Vile passions, against nature, burned in lust, shameful, error, debased mind. That’s what the Bible says about that. And that is a secular point of view. Well, the third area that it’s an unstable shifting stand is relativism. Now I’m not talking about bad relatives. We all have a few bad relatives, I suppose, that are lurking somewhere. But the idea of relativism can be summed up in two words. No absolutes. And it comes back to this notion of what’s truth for me may not be truth for you, and what’s truth for you may not be truth for me.

And that way there’s no guilt. And there’s a lowering of the bar so that I can clear it and I can feel good about myself. And so you come up with phrases like this. It really doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re honest and sincere. Now we’ve heard that for many years in the religious world. Or another phrase is there are no absolute truths in life. Now, a number of years ago when I was preaching in Tampa, we had a lot of college students that attended the congregation over there. And they weren’t all Florida college students. We had a lot of FC students. But we had a number of students from the University of South Florida. In fact, when our FC students at that time, a lot of them were transferring to USF, they would make friends with some of the kids on campus, and we would begin to have visitors to our college class.

And I learned that almost all of these young people that came from USF didn’t have any religious background. They hadn’t been to church, but they they were interested. Just as a sidebar on this, not my theme this week, but there was a pretty good evangelism principle that I learned there. One young lady, I asked why she was coming, and she mentioned two of our young ladies who were Christians, and she said, I saw how they lived. That they weren’t like the other students. They didn’t go out Friday night and party and drink, and they didn’t dress in modestly, and they were different. I like I like that. And I wanted, I wanted to find out what they had that I didn’t. Isn’t that interesting? So when we’re different from the world, people noticed that.

And we had a number of people that were young people that were converted just from the influence of our students that went over there. Well, one young lady, and what would happen often is they would come for a few weeks or however long, and and I’d side up to them and I’d say, Boy, I really like you. You’ve been coming here a lot. I I really like you coming. They’d kind of giggle. And I’d say, Uh, have you ever thought if the preacher would come by to see you, maybe you have a question about something that I preached or something’s taught in class, or and they said, Well, yeah, most all of them would say yeah. I said, Would you like to get together and study the Bible?

And they’d always say yes. Well, one young lady that we were studying with, and she had no religious background. And so the first thing I always do, and I’m sure Ken and Mark do this. I learned a long time ago, you start by talking about a standard of authority, like we’re talking about tonight. Because if you don’t establish that, you’re going to get down the road three or four lessons, find out they don’t even agree. The Bible’s the word of God. So we start out with that and talk about the standard of authority. And I said to her to illustrate this, I said, Have you got any philosophy classes at USF? And she said, Yes. And I said, uh, have you ever had a professor tell you there’s no absolutes?

She looked at me like, how did you know? I said, Well, I just kind of know what goes on over there a lot of times. She said, Yeah. I said, Have you ever thought about that statement? There’s no absolutes. That’s an absolute statement. She looked at me, she says, I guess it is, isn’t it? I said, You know, I’m sure your professor is a brilliant man, probably a very likable professor, but he’s wrong about that. There are absolutes. And that’s what I want to talk to you about, those absolutes. And that’s why we’re going to talk about this weekend, those absolutes. Building upon the solid foundation. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.

John 14, 6. So that leads us to where we’re going tonight. Now don’t get concerned that this has just been my introduction, okay?

4. Jesus Christ, the Foundation of the Church

Okay, it’s all good. It’s all good. But Jesus Christ is our foundation in our text is 1 Corinthians 3, for we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field. You are God’s building. According to the grace of God, which was given to me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And so Jesus Christ is the only sure foundation. Earlier in chapter 2, Paul said, Brethren, when I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or wisdom, declaring you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. And so it is obvious just from these early passages in the book of Corinthians, that Paul is speaking of Jesus Christ as the only sure foundation. It’s building on the rock that he talked about in Matthew chapter 7. And so let’s think about a few ways in which he is the only sure foundation. The most obvious way to begin with, he is the foundation of the church. Very familiar passage, and I think probably Ken has already touched on this in the beginning of the year on your theme. But let’s look at it again, Matthew 16. Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah, Jesus said to Peter, for flesh and blood is not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven.

And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. And the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Now, this is a picture, and I don’t know how good this comes out. As you can see, that’s a massive boulder. And that is a picture that I took when I was on a Bible lands tour of Barry Britno and Caesarea Philippi. And some of you have probably been to that very spot and maybe taken such a picture. Now, we don’t know 100% that that’s a spot where Jesus stood. But when you start looking at the geography of things, it is possible that it was, or maybe on the other side of the boulder or somewhere around there. And I think Jesus is making a point.

Now he’s not literally saying, I’m going to build my church on this boulder, because this boulder had to do with a with one of their deities. But I think, in contrast to that, when Peter, you remember prior to this passage that we just quoted, that Jesus asked the question, who do men say that I am? And some say, well, some believer John the Baptist has come back from the dead or Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said, Who do you say that I am? And Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And so it’s to that that Jesus responds, and he says, it’s on this rock, the rock of Peter’s confession, the rock of the foundation of who Jesus is, that he’s going to build the church.

And so Barry suggested to us when he’s taking this tour that here you had you had a visual aid of Jesus making the point that what I’m going to be building on is not some deity that is looked at there at that rock. But what I’m going to build on is who I am. I am the Son of God. I am the Messiah. I am the chosen one. And it’s on that that the church is built. And so when we think about the work and the worship and the organization of the church, it must be based and built upon Jesus. The church is not built upon a preacher or some special method or a doctrinal dogma of some sort. But it’s built on that, on him who will stand the test of time.

Jesus Christ is the foundation of the church. Let’s stop and think about this.

5. The Foundation of the Home and the Workplace

Turn your Bibles if you would. I didn’t put all this on the PowerPoint. If you’d like to read along with me, very familiar passage to us in Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5 and the first part of Ephesians 6 speak of God’s plan for the family. And in this passage, in fact, it already occurs to me when I start verse 22, already another not politically correct statement. Wives, submit to your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is ahead of the wife, as also Christ is a head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as Christ is the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything. Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but they should be holy and without blemish.

So husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself and see that the wife respects her husband.

And yet Paul says here in the text that what I’m really talking to you about is Christ and the church. The relationship of Christ and the church. So we’ve already talked about how he’s the foundation for the church itself. But here he’s really speaking of the idea of the family. And so we notice this. He said, husbands love your wives. How? As Christ loved the church. And so just as he is the foundation on which the church is built, so is the relationship that I have with my wife. That I love my wife, how? As Christ loved the church. Well, what about wives? Wives, submit your own husbands, we just read, as unto the Lord. And so just as surely as Christ is the foundation of the called-up people that we call the church, he is a foundation for those very people who are building their homes.

And then we could go over in chapter six and read the first four verses. About children, obey your parents in the Lord. In the Lord. And so all of this speaks to Christ being the foundation for the family. Through the years as I have visited in people’s homes, I’ve often seen this plaque. Christ is the head of this house, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation. And that’s a good plaque to have. That’s a wonderful sentiment. It’s a scriptural sentiment. But you know what’s even better than having that plaque in your family room? It’s following it. It’s the living by it. It’s building your home upon Jesus Christ. Well, Jesus Christ also is the foundation for the workplace. And so we can go back here to chapter 6 in Ephesians.

And he talks about those that were bondservants in verse 5. And he says, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, and in sincerity of heart. That’s verse 5. Verse 6, not with eye service as men pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill during service as unto the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he’ll receive the same from the Lord, whether it’s slave or free. And you masters do the same to men, giving up threatening, knowing that your own master also is in heaven, and there’s no partiality with him. And so workers are to work, not as men pleasers, but sincerely with sincerity of heart, how?

As to the Lord. As to the Lord. And so we need to make sure in our jobs and professions and occupations that people can see Christ in us. And the principles by which we are living and working in the marketplace are Bible-based. Several years ago, I was preaching in a congregation in uh, I don’t think I ought to name, definitely don’t want to name this because this is being live streamed, right? But I was preaching in a congregation where we had uh see if I can explain this without giving this away too much. We had a situation where a number of people were Christians that worked for this company. And a fellow that’s member there came to me and he said, Ken, and he mentioned the guy’s name.

He said, He’s got a bad reputation in the community. And he was in the sales department of this company. And he told me some things. And uh I said, Well, have you talked to him? He said, Well, no. I said, Well, you need to talk to him. So he went and talked to him, didn’t get anywhere with it. So he came back to me and asked me to go with him. So I went with him. And so we sat there, and of course he knew why we were there, and we got to the business pretty quickly. I never never forget what this fellow said. Member of the church. In fact, uh, at one time he was the deacon, a deacon in the church there. But a salesperson for this company.

And when the other brother brought up some of the practices that he was engaged in, you know what he said? He said, that’s just business. That’s just business. In other words, I out here in the business world, it’s dog eat dog. And yeah, I may I may have to kind of stretch the truth a little bit to sell my product or service. That’s just what that’s just life. And he justified. And I I wonder, I wonder how many people that claim to be followers of Christ and maybe come to church every Sunday, and maybe a deacon. I don’t know. Or an elder or a preacher. Can go out into the business world and not be honest and above board. And allow Jesus to be the foundation of what they do in the marketplace.

6. Foundation for Societal Harmony and Life’s Storms

Jesus Christ is the foundation of the church. Absolutely. But he’s the foundation of the home. He’s the foundation of the workplace. And then, of course, he talks to masters here, we just read, and they’re to treat their employees right and to be fair. How? With a view toward their master in heaven. And so if you own the company, or if you’re an employer or supervisor, you got people working for you. How do you treat them as Christ would? Because Christ is the foundation of all that you do. Well, Christ is the foundation for societal harmony. Have you thought about that? We have alluded to that earlier in our lesson about how things have changed in our country today, and whether or not really people thought about our morals and ethics being based upon a Judeo-Christian ethic or not.

They were, actually. And Christ is the foundation for society operating effectively and harmoniously and getting along, people getting along with one another. The golden rule, Matthew 7, 12, treat other people the way that you want to be treated. What if everybody just did that? Wow, what a different world we would live in. Or how about the second great commandment in Matthew 22, 39? When the question was asked, what is the greatest commandment? Thank you, I appreciate that. I actually have water here, and we’re not even using it. Thank you. What is the greatest commandment? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. But the second, he says, liken to it, to love your neighbor as yourself. And so, if we really understood what love is from a biblical perspective and applied that in our relationships with other people in the world, what a difference it would make.

Or how about being a good Samaritan? And Jesus, of course, that’s one of his most famous parables. You know, about the man that fell among thieves, and the priest and Levite passed on by him and didn’t help him, and his Samaritan who was looked down upon by Jews in that time stopped, and he’s the one that attended to the man’s need and took him to an end and took care of him, the Good Samaritan. I was thinking tonight, and I waited too long to research this, although I guess I could have Googled it, maybe find the answer immediately. I don’t know. I wonder how many organizations have the name Good Samaritan in them in our country. I mean, everywhere I’ve ever lived, there is something that is a good Samaritan, whether it’s a hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital, or maybe uh Samaritan’s Purse, or something that speaks to Good Samaritan.

I mean, there’s just tons of organizations. And where does that come from? Right here in Luke chapter 10. And it reminds us that Jesus is the foundation for societal harmony. He’s a foundation of the church, the family, the workplace, and for society. And he is the only sure foundation when life storms beat up on us. And so Isaiah would speak as Jehovah spoke through him. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, and I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Or how about this passage from Hebrews chapter 4? We do not have an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was on all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

We sometimes, and we will hear it more in this political year, of politicians assuring the populace, I feel your pain. I feel your pain. I know how you feel. I highly question that in most cases, that they really do know how the average person feels. But we have someone in heaven that knows how we feel. Jesus knows how we feel, because he lived as a man, as a servant of men, and he suffered the things that you and I suffer. Whether it was hunger or thirst or pain or problems or rejection, whatever, whatever we commonly do with temptation, he suffered it all. The various trials of life. He knows how we feel. We can go to him, the Hebrew writer says, is our great high priest.

And so he says, Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. He is our foundation when life storms beat upon us. And so Jesus would say, Come to me, all you who are labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I’m meek and gentle, meek and gentle and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Jesus Christ is our foundation. There are a lot of metaphors and analogies. We think about Jesus. We’re going to look, though it’s similar, it’s a little different tomorrow at the cornerstone.

And so the cornerstone is a little bit different thought. But as I was working on this lesson, I had to think of all the different ways that Jesus Christ is described. And I’m not sure who the author of this Anonymous is tributed, uh, having written it. You know him, he’s written a lot of church bulletins and he and his cousins selected. But uh Anonymous wrote this describing the greatness of the one to whom we are speaking of tonight, the character of Christ. And he said to the artist, he is the one altogether lovely. To the architect, he is the chief cornerstone. To the astronomer, he is the son of righteousness. To the baker, he is the living bread. To the banker, he is the hidden treasure.

To the biologist, he is the life. To the builder, he is the true cornerstone. To the carpenter, he is the sure foundation. To the doctor, he is the great physician. To the editor, he is the good tidings of great joy. To the educator, he is the great teacher. To the farmer, he is the sower and the lord of the harvest. To the florist, he is the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley. To the geologist, he is the rock of Aegis. To the horticulturist, he is the true vine. To the judge, he is the righteous judge. To the juror, he is the true witness. To the jeweler, he is the pearl of great price. To the philosopher, he is the wisdom of God. To the servant, he is the good master.

Conclusion

And to the student, he is the incarnate truth. To the toiler, he is the giver of rest. And to the sinner, he is a lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. To the Christian, he is a son of the living God, the Savior, our Lord, and our Redeemer. Jesus Christ. We close our service tonight and sing the song that has been selected. If you owe a duty to God tonight, and there’s something that’s amiss in your life, we would love to be able to serve you and help you through that. Maybe you desire the prayers of the church family here. It could be in an audience of this size that there’s one or more that’s never obeyed the gospel. And you’ve been building your life upon shifting sands.

They’re going to collapse. Your building is going to collapse if you build on the shifting sand. We would invite you tonight to come to him who is the rock, who is the sure foundation, Jesus Christ. And through faith, repentance and baptism, to give your life to him and to become a child of God. We can serve you or help you in any way with your spiritual needs. We invite you to come as we stand and while we sing the