The Foundation of the Family

Matt. 7:24-27

Welcome to Celebrate the Family here at Mountain View Baptist Church. The family is so important today and there has been a massive attack on the family in our country in this last decade with the rise of gender confusion, woke culture, and re-programing of kids in schools. There are rainbow flags or symbols in many classrooms across the country. The picture of the home is being blurred by an unbiblical society.

If you are a first-time guest today, thank you for attending today. Let me invite you to stop by the welcome center so we can give you a word of greeting.

This year our theme has been Engage in the Cause. The main cause is the Cause of Christ. He is the Savior, the Master, the Messiah, and the only hope of true life. There are several causes under the banner of Christ and we are studying the Cause of the Family.

Two weeks ago: we studied Healthy Family Relationships, last week we studied the Place of Respect, and today: the Foundation of the Family.

It doesn’t take much intelligence today to recognize families are struggling. It seems as though more and more of the problems in our wold are rooted back to the family. Gangs are growing in numbers which are nothing more than a replacement for the family. Members are looking for something to belong to. Absentee parents are causing young people to find a group, a place to belong, and gangs are there to offer them that belonging. There are several in our area the tagging along certain areas in the high desert alerts us to this truth.

Reportedly, there are about 40K gang members in SBC. Here in the high desert there are approximately 6 home grown gangs and transplants of about every gang in San Bernardino and LA.

You may wonder why is this important, because these have a great influence on our families whether it has moved into our neighborhoods, or created an unsafe environment at events, or the allurement that draw our kids away from their homes. It is also a symptom of what is going on in the home.

Jesus is addressing the audience along a beautiful hillside on the sea of Galilee. This was on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. As they came to Him to learn, around them was a watery shore line with sand. Jesus was teaching them about making right decisions in their heart towards God. This particular lesson was on how we build our lives. However, this also applies to our families. How do we build our families?

Jesus teaches principles for the right foundation of a home. This illustration is so clear to them when they walk away, there is no doubt in their mind what He is saying to them.

It is true that everything family chooses how they want to live, there are results of our choices that is seen in our families. A few years ago, a book was written called the Rise of the Nones. It was written in response to questionnaires that are filled out by high school and college students. As high school students are applying for college, the questionnaire asks them about their “religious” or “spiritual” background. It is Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, other, or none. Alarmingly, there is a rise in the none category. The gist of the book is saying the rise of the nones is because families are either indifferent to spiritual matters or have no interest in them.

I could not help but wonder, how many in the first century on that Galilean Lake hearing Jesus is a part of the nones. How many families are a part of the nones? I am not convinced there is such a group of people because human nature urges all of us to be a part of something, a sense of belonging to a group.

Jesus says there are three choices a family makes if they are to build a right foundation.

Choice 1. . .

Listen to God’s Word

It is very easy to hear but not listen when someone speaks. Perhaps it is the noise of a busy world where you hear so many noises that you don’t hear. We have all been guilty of hearing but not listening. It might be called “selective hearing.” The average person hear sounds of 20 Hz to 20, 200 HZ. The individual sounds vary depending on the environment. Studies suggest between 20 K to 30K words daily. Our ear is capable is hearing multiple sounds simultaneously based on loudness and frequency. However, we are limited in which sound we can focus on. Typically most can only focus on one sound at a time. This means we can only listen to one sound in order to understand and comprehend.

Listen to no man who fails to listen to God.

Anonymous; A. W. Tozer

There by the beautiful shore of Galilee where the birds are chirping, the movement of the water on the shore, and maybe even the blowing of the wind could have been distracting. However, they had to choose to listen to what Jesus was saying.

Today, there are many sounds we hear which can distract us from listening to Jesus. It might be the sound of social media, it might the sound of worldly music which goes contrary to what Christ is saying, it might the sound of friend who cares nothing about Jesus, it might be the sound a book condemning what Jesus says or the sound of the news or some movie that drowns out the truth of God’s Word.

This morning, Jesus is calling you to choose who you listen to. I don’t mean what you hear but who are you listening to? Is it that counselor who is an unbeliever that will direct you to follow an unbiblical approach to your family? Will it be the philosophy of a woke culture that dictates the morals of our family. Or will it be the Word of God? Will it be what Jesus tells us here?

Listen less to your own thoughts and more to God’s thoughts.

François Fénelon

There is a definitive choice here you must make for your family? Dad, will you decide for your family that you will listen to what Jesus says? Or are you going to let the pressure and empty philosophy through social media or political movements to decide your moral compass and your family value? Will we as Christian allow the society to decide what our family will do? Will we let them put a rainbow flag over our city hall? Will we tolerate them teaching our children something contrary to our Christian beliefs?

Choice 2. . .

Obey God’s will

To do God’s will makes an assumption that you know God’s will. You cannot do what you do not know. There is a caution to that though, just because we don’t listen, it does not relieve us from the accountability of doing God’s will.

This is where the listening comes into the message. God has given us His Word which is His will. There is no mysterious or mystical knowledge given to a pastor or a Christian counselor. You have God’s Word and God wants you to know HIs will. A counselor may guide you by God’s Word but he should not replace God’s Word in your life. The more you obey God’s will in your life, the more God will illuminate your spiritual understanding.

God’s will is not a duty; it is a delight. The Christian delights to discover the will of God and then obey from the heart. The will of God is his nourishment.

Warren W. Wiersbe

There are basically two branches of God’s will. The first is a general will of God for all of us. This means God wants all of us to know Him as our personal Savior. 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” If you are here today and have not received Jesus as your personal Savior, that is His general or has also been called the “known” will of God for everyone. God wants His people in church, God wants His people to pray, to share the gospel, to read His Word, and seek Him daily. God wants His people to know Him intimately.

The second branch is God’s will for you personally. What does He want you to do? What is your purpose or calling in life? In order to know God’s perfect will for you personally, you must do the general will of God for your life. You are perfectly made and suited for God’s calling on your life

Psalm 139:14 “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Marvellous are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well.”

When you are doing what God has called you to do, you could not be happier and God is honored by what you are doing. When a family does God’s will, the results will be amazing as seen in the lives of the children. Your family will be the most happy when you do what God has called you to do in obeying His will.

Choice 3. . .

Build on God’s truth

God shows us the root or crux of building. Jesus is saying the problem is not a fruit problem but a root problem. It is illustrated by two ways of thinking by two different people. There are those who build their homes, their lives, their value system, their future on either sand or rock. The test of its quality will be when the storms come.

Everyone in the world will go through storms. There are storms of health, there are storms of finances, there are storms of relationships, there are storms of mental or emotional anguish. These storms come many times unexpectedly and what we are building our lives and our homes on will prove its quality. Storms are a part of normal living. We have to decide how we will prepare for the storms. Jesus is teaching a man here how to build His life as he prepares.

10064 If we build to please ourselves, we are building on the sand; if we build for the love of God, we are building on the rock.

Oswald Chambers (Lecturer and Missionary)

A man who builds his life in sand, there will be a great fall. There is the sand of popularity, the sand of money, the sand of time, the sand of youth, the sand of worldly philosophies and wokeness. All of these are sinking sand. Last weekend a transgender competed in women’s long jump in Jurupa Valley for the state championship and won. Really? Not only is it unfair, it is unnatural. I am struggling with parents who would allow their 16 year old son to compete. There is a disrespect to the women who have invested in preparation time.

With their doctrine they build, and with their lives they destroy.

Saint Augustine of Hippo

If we build our family on sinking sand, there will be a great fall. It bothers me how few families will pray, will read the Bible together, take their children to church, and serve in the church as a family. It is foolish to build our families on anything that is built on temporal, sinking sand.

A wise man is one who will build his life and his family on the rock. The rock is Jesus Christ. The storms will also come and his anchor will hold and endure the difficulty. The family who goes to church together, prays together, and seeks God together will know and be assured of God’s strength in those difficulties. A wise man understands during the storms that come to the family, God is always there.

Paul speaks of building on the right foundation which will endure the test of time

1 Corinthians 3:11–15 “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”

Here is a Biblical commentary of what Jesus is teaching us. Your future is uncertain and difficulties await us in life and one day we will stand before God giving an account of what we have built. Will it be upon the right foundation or upon sand which will fall.

Jesus is giving us great truth here. What choices are you making? Have you made the choice to accept Jesus as your Savior? Have you turned to Him? Fathers, mothers, single parents, teenagers, children? All need Jesus. Will make the choice today?

The need of the world is to listen to God.

Albert Einstein

If you are a Christian, will you make the wise choice to build your life and your family on the solid rock of Jesus Christ? It starts with the Bible in the home. Reading and praying together. Will you make the right choice today?