Matthew 7:24-27 ESV – “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 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. 26 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.27 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.”

Observations

1. Listening to Jesus’ words won’t build a strong foundation

2. Nobody escapes the storm

 

Common Foundations

1. Popular Culture

2. Tradition

3. Reason

4. Emotions

 

You can’t pour a solid foundation during a storm.

 

Why Trust the Bible?

1. Because it works
“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.” G.K. Chesterton

2. Because Jesus did

 

Matthew 22:43 ESV –  He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

Matthew 24:35 NIV – Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

John 16:12-13 ESV – I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

2 Peter 3:15-16 ESV – And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

1 Timothy 5:18 ESV – For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”

Luke 3:1-2 ESV – In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

 

“It’s not the parts of the Bible that I don’t understand that bothers me, it’s the parts that I do.” Mark Twain

“The matter is quite simple. The bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world?…..Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.” -Søren Kierkegaard