When Storms Come

Introduction

Well, it is the first Lord’s Day of a brand new year. And new years bring new beginnings. Sometimes they bring new resolutions that we know we won’t keep. But they bring new challenges, a new calendar, and it almost feels like that it’s a restart or a reset. That we get a brand new, untouched and unblemished calendar of 12 months in which to conduct our lives. And it’s a time of transitioning, and it’s certainly that for a congregation as well. You may remember that in 2023 we did as our congregational theme, we are family. And I don’t know about you, but I’m almost sad to see 2023 pass by because we’re not going to be able to look at that family photo album anymore. Some changes have been made to that photo album.

If we were doing this again in 2024, we would have to update that photo album. But it’s been good to be able to look and to recognize as a congregation that we are family. We emphasize that through this past year. You know, because we talked about it, that as Christians we’re known by different designations and different relationships. We’re citizens in the kingdom of God. We are a part of the body of Christ. But by far, we’re most often referred to as family. Think of just the references to brothers or sisters or brethren in the New Testament. We are family. And we talked about that throughout this past year. Just a reminder of what we talked about in the first quarter of 2023. We talked about how our family praises God.

We have as our Father, our Heavenly Father. And a part of our responsibility as a family is to respect, to reverence, to worship, and to praise our Father. And we do that. In the second quarter, we talked about that a family is supposed to love and what that looks like when a family loves. What it looks like when a spiritual family loves one another. The third quarter, we talked about how that we are to seek to restore our brothers and sisters in Christ. And we talked about that spiritual encouragement and admonition and restoration that must take place among families. And then we wrapped up this quarter and this year by talking about growth, how a family is to grow. And we talked about how that the family, our earthly families, are really the bedrock of growth, that we are to grow.

We’re to grow as husbands and wives. One of the purposes of family is to just grow the family in number, having children and grandchildren, so this family can continue. And so we talked about the different forms of growth that we’re to experience as a family, that we’re to grow spiritually, we’re to grow in our knowledge and our wisdom and understanding of Scripture. But we’re to grow in our number as well. And so we talked a lot this last quarter of this last year about the idea of evangelism, of spreading that love and that relationship to others. But since this is the first Sunday of this new year, then this is the time for us to introduce our new theme. You’ve already seen it on the slideshow before you.

Our theme for 2024 is how firm a foundation. And so I hope you like that song, because you’re going to be hearing it a lot this year, I’m going to predict. How firm a foundation. We’re going to talk about the foundation and the importance of having a firm foundation and what all that means. And we’ll go ahead and give you a precursor of the four quarters. This first quarter, under the theme of how firm a foundation, we want to talk about Christ as the cornerstone. He is identified, we’re going to see in this morning’s lesson. He’s identified throughout the New Testament as our foundation, our bedrock, and specifically as the cornerstone of that foundation. And so in these first three months of this year, we’re going to be talking a lot about Christ and our foundation.

And not just, you know, theoretically about Christ, but we’re going to be talking about how we can build upon that foundation. What does it mean that He is our foundation and what that looks like? Then in our second quarter, we’re going to talk about the foundation of our faith. We’re going to talk about those foundational principles of Scripture that are our bedrock, that we base up our lives and our faith in our foundation on. Then in the third quarter, we’re going to talk about being a living stone. That of course is borrowed from Peter’s passage. That we’re a part of this building, part of this temple, Christ as the chief cornerstone. And what does it mean that we are living stones in that building? A building in which God is honored and to be glorified.

And then lastly, in about a year from now, we’ll be talking about building on that foundation, the principles of growth, and how do we are to build upon that Christ, our solid rock, and what it means to grow in this relationship and being a part of this building. And so I think it’s an excellent theme. How firm our foundation. We want to shore up our faith, strengthen the foundations upon which we are building our lives and our faith and hopefully our hope as well. And so we’ll start that this morning with the idea of how firm a foundation. But I want to start, surprisingly, with a question, actually, two questions this morning. How many of us could name ten songs? But hang on. Ten songs that are often sung in a children’s Bible class.

Could you name ten of those? Now, it’s not fair, it doesn’t count if you’re in currently in a children’s Bible class. And so the kids are out, the teachers who teach in those Bible classes that teach those songs, you don’t count either because that’s that’s cheating. You of course you know ten of them. But but those of us who don’t teach the children’s classes, who haven’t been in a children’s class for a long time. Can you recall ten of those songs? I don’t know that I could. Maybe I could. We grew up with those songs, didn’t we? The second question then is if you can name however many you can name, whether you can name ten or like maybe me, short of that number. What’s the best children’s Bible class song?

Oh, now that’s a question. To some of you, it may be those memorization songs. Some of you learned the books of the Bible or the apostles through those songs, and so maybe it’s those because it’s your favorite song because let’s be frank, you still have to sing the song if you want to name the apostles or the books of the Bible, and so maybe that’s your favorite song. I know a favorite song probably ought to be Jesus Loves Me or Jesus Loves the Little Children because of the sentiment of that, but that’s not the best song. The best children’s Bible class song by far is I’m in the Lord’s Army. You remember that one? And that’s the best song because I just got to shoot things and fly in a plane when I sang that song.

And so that certainly I think would be the best children’s song of all time. But I want to talk about a different song this morning. And here’s a little bit of trivia. Just think to yourself and answer to yourself. There’ll be no stars awarded in for this right answer here. But what song might I be thinking of if I’m thinking about children’s Bible class songs? And our theme is how firm a foundation. Now we would sing the song we sang this morning, How Firm a Foundation. But if we were going to use a children’s Bible class song, what song would we sing? Can you do the hand gestures? Yeah, you can. The wise man built his house upon the rock. And so let’s go to that text and look at that as the theme for our sermon this morning.

How firm a foundation. That text is in Matthew chapter 7. It’s a part of the greater treatise known as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. And in the midst of that sermon, I find it interesting that in that Sermon on the Mount, oftentimes Jesus spoke of things in terms of two choices. There’s the wide way versus the narrow way. Here the two choices were upon which our foundation is made. And so let’s look. Let’s read this familiar text. Matthew chapter 7. And let’s begin reading in verse 24. Matthew 7, verse 24, Jesus 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 words and sayings of mine and does not do them will be like the 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.

Talking about the need and the necessity of foundations, because as Jesus tells us in this text, that the purpose and the distinguishing factor in regard to a foundation, whether it’s a good one or a bad one, is demonstrated when the storms come. Jesus says that two men built the house.

1. The Storms of Life Will Come

And the storms came. And so let’s talk about when the storms come. The storms of life and what bearing that has on our foundation. The first thing we need to recognize is the reality of life is they will come. I don’t mean to be a skeptic this morning. I generally don’t think of myself as a pessimist. But the reality is, if I were to ask you today, how’s life going for you? How are things? And if you were to generally say, well, right now things are pretty good, Ken. Things are good. At home, everything’s alright in the family dynamic. That seems to be going all right. At work, everything seems to be going good. I got that end of the year bonus last year. I was able to pay for Christmas, and things seem to be going all right at work.

I think they’re alright with that. And generally speaking, everything’s going pretty good for me. My health, I just had that checkup at the doctor’s, and everything seems to be alright. Gave me a clean bill of health. And all of those. Everything’s pretty good right now, Ken. We might say, just wait. It’ll get worse.

In fact, they’re miserable. And you just dread going to work, or maybe even worse, you don’t have any work to go to. There’ll come a time when you won’t get that clean bill of health. That the doctor will deliver bad news. Maybe extremely bad news. If not to you, then to a close loved one. And there’ll be times when you’ll just be able to say things really, really stink. That’s the way life is, isn’t it? In his very pessimistic view, but understandable, Job said, life is short and full of troubles. You ever feel like that? Life is short and full of trouble. Storms are going to come. The storms of life are inevitable. And sometimes those storms are severe. And they seem like they’re not going to end.

2. Storms Come to the Good and the Bad

Did you notice there in this story that there are some differences in these two houses? There’s certainly differences in the outcomes, but there are also similarities. The language is identical. The rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house. Is that talking about the house whose foundation was built on the rock? Or is that talking about the house whose foundation was built foolishly on the sand? Both. Storms come to the good and the bad. And you know that’s the same as good things in life. Turn back one page, or at least it’s one page in my Bible to Matthew chapter 5. Jesus would say the good things of life are the same. Jesus in this admonition, Matthew chapter 5, verse 44, I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, and do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that are so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for he makes his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends sends rain.

This time rain is a good thing, rain on the just and the unjust. So Jesus is telling us in this same Sermon on the Mount that the good things of life happen to the godly and the ungodly. God causes the sun and the helpful rain to say, but the storms of life come upon the good and the bad equally. And that’s just the way it is. Now, why is it that way, though? We always want to know why. Well, there’s a couple explanations. Number one is turn over with me to the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter 9. The wise man Solomon in his experiment to try to figure out and to make sense of this life made this observation, and that is that sometimes life doesn’t make sense.

And it doesn’t seem fair. In Ecclesiastes chapter 9, look at verse 11. I returned, Ecclesiastes 9 11. I returned and saw under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill. But time and chance happened to them all. The fastest guy doesn’t always win the race. Something happened that day. Something happened that day, the day of the race. Maybe the fastest guy woke up with a stomach virus, or maybe he didn’t hear the click of the pistol quick enough, and he was slow out of the gate, and he just didn’t win. Although he was the fastest, he didn’t win that day. Well, why not?

3. Do Not Let Storms Diminish Our Faith

Time and chance. That’s just the way life demands that the good things are showered upon the just and the unjust and the bad things happen to everybody. That’s just the way life is. There was no moral lesson or code to be made about the fact that this guy has it good and this person has it bad. That’s just the way life is. Life is going to be full of storms. And we must not let the fact that storms come diminish our faith. Look with me in Romans chapter 9. You know, we may, we may see the storms of life, the difficulties of life, and come to the conclusion that number one, there’s simply not a God. And our atheist friends would certainly be arguing that.

Then how can an all-powerful God allow evil? So you see, there’s just no God, they would conclude. Well, first of all, we need to recognize that that’s absolutely faulty logic. Just because an all-powerful and an all-loving God allows evil and wickedness and storms of life to happen does not argue away his existence. At best on the atheist side, all that argues is that maybe God is a mean God for allowing that to happen. But then here’s the second possibility. That maybe this God is doing things that I simply don’t understand. That He’s not mean and cruel. But I just don’t understand. And so in Romans chapter 9, I recognize that there is a God, but there is a God who allows storms to happen. And what am I to do with that?

Do I allow it to just diminish or destroy my faith in God? Or do I allow it to even strengthen my faith? You know, we use the expression faith or believing in God. And maybe part of this year, when we talk about our foundation and the foundations of our faith, one thing we’re going to talk about is what does faith really mean? What does it really mean when we say, I believe in God? Let’s think about that expression, how we might use it otherwise. Your child may be competing in some kind of athletic endeavor, or maybe a band competition or a speech competition, and they’re nervous before that, and you can see that nervousness in them, and you might reassure them by saying, I believe in you.

And what we’re saying to that child is, you can do this. You’ve practiced this, you know this, you’ve studied this, you can do this. I have faith in you. When we say to God, I believe in you, we’re saying, I trust you. I recognize you to be God, omnipotent and omniscient, and all loving. And I believe in you. I believe you have my best interest in heart. I believe that you know far more than I do how to rule this universe. I trust you, God. Romans chapter 9. Let’s read that text together. Romans chapter 9 begin in verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Now, in this context, he’s talking about choosing. God chose something. Seems arbitrary to us, seems unfair to us that he would choose one child over another, Jacob or Esau.

But is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not. For he says to Moses, I’ll have mercy on whomever I’ll have mercy, and I’ll have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it’s not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the scripture says to the Pharaoh, for this very purpose I’ve raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be declared in all the earth. Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and on whom he wills he hardens. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will? But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, why have you made me like this?

Does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor. Do we really have faith in God? Faith that when we don’t understand and we cannot see why he’s doing this, why he’s allowing this, do we truly have enough faith to look to God and say, I trust you.

Even when I cannot see the way.

4. The Only Difference Was the Foundation

And the only difference in the outcome was the foundation. We talked about the similarities. The storms were the same. The rain was the same. The wind was the same. The storms in their severity were the same between both houses. The only difference was in the outcome. And the difference in outcome was because of the difference in the foundation. And so let’s analyze this parable and break it down and say, well, what’s that? What is that? What are the storms? What’s the rain, the wind, and the storms that blew? Well, that’s obviously it’s the difficulties of life. It may be just the time and chance circumstances of life, of illness, of disease, of hardships, whatever they might be. It might include temptations, even temptations to sin. Anything that is negative in our life, anything that might affect negatively our faith is the storm of life.

Well, what’s the house represent? Says the storms came. One man built his house upon a rock, the other man built his house upon the sand. Well, what’s the house? Obviously, Jesus is not trying to impart unto us some kind of architectural knowledge, some kind of construction knowledge. You’re not talking about literal houses. So what’s the house represent? Well, it represents us, it represents our lives. Life itself, both life lived here as well as our eternal existence. That’s the house, the very essence of who we are, our lives themselves. And then the foundation, the foundation, Jesus would say, was his words. Whoever heareth these words of mine and does them will be likened unto a man who built his house upon the rock. You see, the only difference was the foundation.

Look over at the wise man said in the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 10. Proverbs 10 and in verse 25 makes a very similar statement to what Jesus made in this parable. He says, Proverbs 10 25, when the whirlwind passes by, the wicked is no more. But the righteous has an everlasting foundation. When the whirlwind, when the hurricane, the storm blows by, the wicked are no more. It’s destroyed them. But the righteous has an everlasting foundation. Storms are inevitable. Sometimes brutal storms are inevitable. But if we’ve built our foundation upon Christ and His Word, we can endure those storms. We’ve all made that observation about ourselves or about others in the midst of the storm. That it is our faith. And maybe just our faith that’s gotten us through.

Because in building our lives, our houses upon that foundation, we’ve recognized certain things. Number one, we’ve recognized, as the Hebrew writer would tell us, that maybe these storms serve as the discipline of God. That God, whom we trust and adore, knows what’s best for us. And has allowed us to weather these storms because in his wisdom he sees what is best for us.

Conclusion

And we alone know that the sufferings of this present world are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us. That these storms of life, no matter how brutal, no matter how devastating they might be, they’re not the end. They’re simply God’s means to an end. And that I can endure whatever the storms may blow, because there is heaven. Storms are going to come. The question is, how will you weather those storms? How will you or will you be prepared for those storms? Will you have that faith, the faith and a trust in God who allows those storms to come, a trust and a faith that God will reward you through these storms of life. And again, the only difference was in the foundation.

If we’ve built our faith, our lives, our houses upon Christ and his word, we will endure.

If we can help you in any spiritual way, if we can help you in any way as you traverse this life’s challenges and its storms, then let it be known as together we stand and as we sing.