Standing on a Sure Foundation

2 Timothy 2:19 ESV

But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

The word But is a conjunction used to introduce something contrasting with what has already been mentioned.

2 Timothy 2:15–18 ESV

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.

2 Timothy 2:19 ESV

But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

Fix crack in the wall. Fixed 3 times

Get another painter.

The cracks are a symptom of a much deeper problem.

You have a shifting foundation.

Until you fix that, you will forever be doing patch work until….

We have cracks on the wall of our lives because we are not on a solid foundation (personal, governmental, family and church)

What is the foundation of this house?

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. 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.”

Note the similarity:

1. Two men with same dream: Both wanted a house

House can refer to your Life

A life well lived. A life that’s useful

House built on a Rock

House can refer to your family

House of David, House of Saul

No one walks down the aisle planning to get a divorce.

House can refer to the church

You want a growing, vibrant, spiritually-base ministry

House can refer to build a government, a society, a nation.

House of Israel. While House, House of congress.

You want a well ordered, safe and free society

2. They both heard what Jesus was saying.

They both heard sound, spiritual and biblical information (no guessing or wondering because it was coming from Jesus himself)

That’s the living Word, speaking the living Word, so there should be no competing word.

3. They faced the same storm

One thing about storms you can’t control them. They come at you from a whole other realm.

That’s where the similarities end and the contrast begin.

One man was wise and the other was a fool

One man heard and did, the other also heard and did not

Being wise is not contingent upon your academic achievements.

Wisdom the ability and decision to apply spiritual truths to life’s realities

For the fool, it does not matter how rich, educated, healthy, well off you may be.

If you do not apply God’s spiritual truths to life’s realities, if you listen and decide NOT to do God’s will - YOU ARE A FOOL

Both can have a dream. Wise man can have a dream and a fool can have a dream

Both can be in a storm. Wise man can be in trouble and a fool can be in trouble

What’s the difference?

Foundations were different. They did not start in the same place.

Your foundation will always determine your future.

When you build a house were do you start ? – The foundation

Everything else is banking on it

You can change out the windows to make more cold or heat efficient

Repair the roof after a hailstorm

Paint the house to make more ecstatically pleasing

But if your foundation is not right

Characteristics of a Sure Foundation

Build on sand its quick

Build on rock – takes time

Build on sand it’s cheap

Build on rock, it’s expensive

Many folk want God on the cheap. We respect him but we don’t want to rest everything on him

What determines whether you’re on a solid or shaky foundation?

One heard and did, and the heard and did not

Foundation is not just based on information, it’s based on execution also

Until God’s word, God view point, God authority is the basis of decision making and thus action, it becomes useless information for you.

We are living in a world that concentrates on rights and privileges freedom and impulsive pleasure. They may appear to be useful in their place, but they’re shallow. Why, because when the storm comes and you are moored shallowly, the storm will wretch you.

You have to doers of the word not just hears

Romans 2:13 ESV

For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

James 1:22 ESV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

James 1:23–25 ESV

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.