When Holly and I lived in the Delta when I first started preaching, I’ll never forget something I saw close to nightfall each night.  People would be out each night, with a water hose, watering their houses.

I asked a member of my church that did this each night, why?  Why were they doing that? They told me that the ground in the Delta, when it got really dry, would sometimes cause the foundation to shift or to crack.  To prevent this, you could keep the ground around your foundation moist.  Their foundation mattered!

So each night people would be watering their houses.

I thought of that when I read today’s text from Matthew 7: 24-27:

24Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. 26And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell and great was its fall!

Jesus tells us today that foundations matter.  There will be storms in life.  In this passage, the rain, the storm, they are coming.  It’s not a matter of if we will face troubles, but when we will face troubles.

And when we face troubles, what is our foundation?  What are we built upon?  Where is our hope, what do we stand upon?   Are we standing upon Jesus, His life, death, and resurrection, our belief in Him?

Or is our life founded upon something else?  Here’s the thing about the “something esles” in our lives.  They will fail us. They can be destroyed.  They can be lost.  They can crumble.

Building your life upon them is building your life upon the sand.

But building it upon Jesus, upon His teachings, His life, death, and resurrection, that is the firm foundation that our lives must be built upon, to survive the storms that are coming our way.

Today, what is your foundation?  What is your life built upon?  The rock of Christ Jesus, or some other foundation.  Today, what is your life built upon?

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