Location Matters

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7:24-27

A sound foundation is necessary in building all types and sizes of structures. In our gospel lesson in this blog, Jesus is also speaking about sound foundations. He is telling us that a firm foundation is important in the structure of our faith. He is telling us that location matters. We need to build upon a firm foundation. And that foundation is Jesus Christ and His word.

A story makes us wonder where our foundation is today. Many years ago, a visitor to America stood in the middle of Wall street and said to himself, “Here is the power and greatness of America.” Shortly afterwards, he traveled to Washington D.C.. and stood in the middle of the rotunda of the Capitol and beheld the statues of the country’s greatest statesmen. He said himself, “Ah, here is the greatness of America.” Later, he found himself in the heartland of Iowa. It was noon as he visited a family farm. The bell was rung on the back porch, the rest of the family, plus the hired men came in from the fields. He watched as they washed up by the pump, then they all gathered around the table piled high with food. The visitor saw the farmer reach for the large family Bible. He read from Psalm 90. When everyone bowed their heads in prayer the farmer prayed a simple prayer expressing his love to God his pledge of continuing service, and his gratitude for all of His blessings. The stranger to himself, “Now, I have seen the true greatness of America.” He was reminded of a verse from his childhood from Deuteronomy. where God said, “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul; and you shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house”.

Could a visitor to our land today say that we have built upon the right location, the rock of Christ? In the book, “The Divine Trap” the author says on pages 10 and 11 about this text, he says, ” Jesus says to the Jews with this parable, ’You are doing a good job of building, but your site and location are all wrong. you are building on the Torah and the Law. I have come to give you a new site, a new location to build your lives.’ He came presenting a new teaching. He came to establish a new covenant between man and God. And that new option, new teaching, new convent was Himself and the message he brought. Jesus is saying, ’hear me and my words. Plant your feet firmly on my teachings and you will build a life that will endure.” Jesus says “Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; The Rock is Jesus Christ himself. There is no other.

Our foundation is built upon Christ. We live in an age when we can learn about Jesus from the Bible in many different ways. We can read the Bible, we can hear it read through audio tapes or on our computer. We can watch television and see some great movies about Jesus. Leroy Eims, in his book “The Lost Art of Disciple Making”, tells the story of an experience in a restaurant one morning. He says, “One spring our family was driving from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa, Florida. As far as the eye could see, orange trees were loaded with fruit. When we stopped for breakfast, I ordered orange juice with my eggs. ’I’m sorry,’ the waitress said. ’I can’t bring you orange juice. Our machine is broken.’ At first I was dumbfounded. We were surrounded by millions of oranges, and I knew they had oranges in the kitchen; orange slices garnished our plates. What was the problem? No juice? Hardly. We were surrounded by thousands of gallons of juice. The problem was they had become dependent on a machine to get it.” Then he writes: “Christians are sometimes like that. They may be surrounded by Bibles in their homes, but if something should happen to the Sunday morning preaching service, they would have no nourishment for their souls. The problem is not a lack of spiritual food; but that many Christians haven’t grown enough to know how to get it for themselves.”

Is your foundation secured upon the rock of Christ? Can you and do you read the bible, study God’s word on your own? Do you pray on your own? Do you have a firm foundation in Christ to withstand all the tumult of life? Are you like the man in the following: In a sermon at Northfield, D.L. Moody once said, “We want more Christians like the Irishman who, when asked if he hadn’t trembled during a recent severe storm when he was standing out upon a rocky eminence, said, “Yes, my legs sure trembled, but the rock didn’t and because my feet were on the rock I felt safe.” I felt safe because my feet were on the rock? Were are your feet? Are they on the rock of Christ? Have you built in the right location?