It is always his mercy that shakes our foundations now. Because you understand that at death, we're all going to find out that there's only one foundation that lasts forever. Only one foundation worth building a life on, and that is Christ and Christ alone. Whereas I often love to repeat here, only one life to live will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.
Welcome back to the Summit Life podcast with JD Greer. Did you know that these Summit Life sermons are only one of the ways that you can keep up with Pastor JD's ministry? There's our website, our newsletters, but you can also follow Pastor JD on social media. Just search for Pastor JD Greer on Facebook, at Pastor JD Greer on Instagram, and at JD Greer on X. And definitely don't forget about our YouTube channel.
We not only put these same new teachings each week as videos, but also other podcast releases there as well. Follow along on your favorite social media platforms and stay up to date with this ministry while filling up your timeline with the good news of the gospel. Today's the beginning of a highly relevant teaching series titled In Step. Pastor J.D. is opening the Gospel of Luke to remind us that as we step out in faith, We commit to do whatever God calls us to do and to go wherever He calls us to go.
God doesn't tell us what the entire journey will look like. He simply calls us to take a step of faith. And then another. then another. We're going to learn how to walk in step with him over the next several weeks.
So let's get to the message titled Feet on the Rock. All right, well, if you have come to one of our all-church outdoor gatherings, you probably heard me tell a story that I thought explained what God might be doing with some of us during this season. Let me repeat it just for those of you who either were not at one of our outdoor gatherings or you weren't paying attention, because I really feel like it sets up the passage we're going to look at this weekend as well as the whole series that we're about to get into. It was a very simple story that I told about a lumberjack who had gone out into the woods to cut down some trees. He had his chainsaw, and he was about to take down the first tree when he noticed that there was a bird that was building a nest in the top of one of the trees that he was about to cut down.
Well, not wanting to destroy that bird's habitat, he pulled out his sledgehammer and he began to smack with the sledgehammer the base of the tree. Of course, the bird got very annoyed and the bird flew off and he noticed that the bird began to build the nest in the next tree that was. Right next to that one. And so he repeated the process with a sledgehammer. And the bird moved again to another tree.
This whole dance went on 10 or 12 different times as the bird began to build a nest in one place. And the lumberjack would attack the tree and annoy the bird to get him to move until eventually the bird fled the forest altogether and began to construct the nest in the side of a rock face. I told you, I said, imagine how annoyed the bird was at the lumberjack, wondering what in the world the lumberjack had against the bird. Why is he continuing to attack wherever I'm building my nest? But from our vantage point, we can see that it was compassion, not cruelty, that was making him do this because he knew that if he built his nest, the bird built its nest in the tree, then it was going to be cut down.
And so it's compassion that caused him to attack those trees before they were cut down. And I explained to you that I feel like what's happened over the last several months is that for many of us. There are moments where God seems to be attacking our foundation, but we see that it is not. It is not cruelty on his behalf. It is mercy.
It is mercy because God is trying to show us that all these places that we build our foundation are not really going to endure the chainsaws of judgment. And it is his mercy that shakes us and wakes us up and asks us. What are you trusting in? My question is, has he been doing that with you? Has he been asking you over the last several months, is what you are building your life on going to last?
Listen, I want to say this. It is God's mercy. It feels like his anger, but it is always his mercy that shakes our foundations now. Because you understand that at death, we're all going to find out that there's only one foundation that lasts forever. Only one foundation worth building a life on, and that is Christ and Christ alone.
Whereas I often love to repeat here, only one life to live will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. You realize this? We are all going to die eventually. Rich or poor, we're all going to die.
Republican or Democrat, this whole generation of Americans is going to die. And by the way, if this election season drags on any longer, we're probably going to wish that was sooner rather than later. Amen? Right? But eventually, we're all going to die, and we all need Jesus.
Luke chapter 6, if you've got your Bible with you this weekend and you're home, run and grab it. Turn to Luke chapter 6. We're going to look at one of Jesus' most recognized parables. This parable is about two men. two men who built nearly identical houses.
geographically close to each other, but on two different kinds of foundations. One man whom Jesus calls foolish builds his house right up on the sandy shore. He had a great view of the water, and he was excited about it. Put it right up there in the sand. The other, whom Jesus calls a wise man, pulls back his house a few dozen yards, we guess, and did that so he could build his house on a rock.
I want us to look at this story. In context. Because in context, Jesus is telling it both as a warning and a promise. A warning and a promise. Luke 6:43.
A good tree, this is the context of that story. A good tree doesn't produce bad fruit. On the other hand, a bad tree doesn't produce good fruit. Each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs aren't gathered from thorn bushes or grapes picked from a bramble bush.
Of course not. The kind of fruit that you pick off the tree is consistent with the root of that tree. And if you want to know what kind of tree it is, right, you pick one of the fruits. And if it's an apple, then it's an apple tree. And if it's a, to use Jesus as an allergy, if it's a grape, you're going to know that it is a grapevine.
A good person, in the same way, verse 45, a good person, a righteous person, a godly person with a godly heart, produces good out of the good that is stored up in his heart. An evil person, on the other hand, produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of his heart. Just like the tree produced a kind of fruit, so a person produces a verbal fruit and an action fruit. Verse 46, Jesus continues, Why is it that you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do the things that I say? That didn't make any sense.
Verse 47, I'll show you what somebody is like who comes to me and hears my words and acts on them. This is in contrast to the person who says, Lord, Lord, but doesn't actually do what Jesus says. Verse 48, he's like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood came, the river crashed against that house and couldn't shake it because it was well built. But the one who hears and does not act, well, he's like a man who builds his house on the sand without a foundation.
The river crashed against it and immediately it collapsed. And the destruction of that house was great. When interpreting the Bible, Context is always king. The story of the wise man and the foolish man is in a section of scripture where Jesus is warning us about something. The question you should ask is, what is he warning us about?
Well, if you read backwards in the chapter, you'll see that he is talking to a bunch of religious people, and he is warning them that a lot of people, a lot of religious people think they're right with God. but they're actually wrong. I think it's important for you to note that this passage, in this passage, Jesus is not talking about those people who are flagrantly hypocritical. who live a double life, who fake church on the weekend while sleeping around or doing drugs or cheating on their taxes. No, Jesus' main audience here is, look earlier in the chapter, Pharisees and a bunch of religious Jews.
He's talking about sincere religious people, active people, people who, in our context, go to church and are real involved, but are self-deceived.
So you should ask, what are the qualities that Jesus identifies of the self-deceived religious person? I will give you three of them. The first one's in verse 43. Verse 43, they do not bear spiritual fruit.
Well, they say all the right things and they hang out in all the right places. Man, their house sure looks like it's a good house. It has religious decor all over it, and it looks great. The tree is in the right garden. It's right there among all the other trees.
And man, it looks great. But when you look closely at their lives, Jesus says, you will see that the evidence of an encounter with God is not there.
Now, what am I talking about when I say the evidence of an encounter with God? I've been talking about the evidence of the new birth. A growing love for Jesus, a desire to be with Jesus, a love for Jesus' people, a growing dislike of sin, and an attraction to Christ's likeness. These things don't all appear in you at once, but somebody who is really right with God and filled with God will see evidences of the growth of those things within them, even if that growth is gradual. Just like if you were wondering whether somebody that was unconscious was alive, you would check their pulse and their breath to see if they were actually alive.
These things show you, these kinds of spiritual breath and spiritual pulse show you if there's spiritual life at work within you. One of my favorite analogies that I've used for this. Over the years with you is, well, the wind was really boisterous earlier. Am I right? And a lot of things, my house was without power for several hours.
Say that I was able to locate the place where the power line had been cut, and I noticed that a tree had gut it down, split the wire. And I just turned to you and I say, I wonder if there's still electricity coming out of that wire. And it's a big one. It's like one of the ones that comes right out of the transformer.
So I grab that thing and I'm like, what do you think? And I plop it right in my mouth. And I'm like, oh yeah, I feel it. I feel the current. And I said, I can definitely tell there's electricity still coming through that.
Right, you would look back at me and say, you are a liar. Because if that wire was actually live, if that amount of electricity had just entered your body, Now you'd be different. Right? As of right now, you would look different, you would walk different, you would talk different, you would smell different. Everything about you would be different.
And that would be obvious truth.
Well, In the same way, if the power of God has come into your life, Jesus says, then you're definitely going to look different, walk different, talk different, and everything about you is going to be different.
So the question Jesus is asking you is, does your life show the evidence of God's work inside of you? Are you growing in your love for Jesus? Are you zealous to see other people come to know him? It is impossible to actually believe the gospel and not yearn to see others that you love come to know him. Either your belief in the gospel is not there or your compassion for others is not there if you are not actively telling them about Jesus.
How about this? Are you finding the commands of Christ burdensome? Or are you drawn toward those even when they're difficult? Are you one of those people who are like, oh. You know, there is all this stuff I want to do out there in the world.
Man, I always want to be doing what my other friends are doing, and I really want to be out there, but I'm a Christian.
So, I got to stay in here, and I don't want to break the rules. And I know that that's breaking the rules, but I really, my heart desires to be out there. You're here at church, but are you here for the right reason? That's a way to think about it. Are you here because you love the people of God and because you love the word of God?
Or are you here because you think it'll make your mom happy? Or are you here because I heard that. I'm here because mom Maybe be here, okay?
So, yeah, that's. Pretty good to you about 12 years old, and then it's got to change after that. But are you here because you think it will make God love you more? Is that the motivation that you have for coming? Does your heart show evidence of spiritual life?
You see, the question, listen to this, the question is not whether or not you want to go to heaven or hell. Everybody wants to go to heaven. The question is whether or not God has worked in your heart so that you want God. Everybody I know wants to go to heaven. The question is whether or not you desire to meet God once you get there.
It's a desire for God, not a desire for heaven. That is the evidence of God's work in you. The question to focus on is not whether you've prayed a prayer. The question to focus on is whether God has changed your heart. I've heard it said like this: if you were to set a field on fire, every venomous snake in that field would slither out of that fire.
But the snakes are still venomous even after they fled the field.
So, if you get scared enough that you don't want to go to hell or you don't want the scorn of other people, then you'll go through the ritual to make sure that you're going to go to heaven, but that doesn't mean your heart's changed. And if your hearts really changed. It means that people can see it. If I ask you whether or not you are a Christian, don't tell me about a prayer that you prayed to escape hell. Tell me about the evidence of God at work in your life.
And that's going to show itself in spiritual fruit. Fruit, the people closest to you. Can see. Not fruit you put on when you come to church. I often say it this way: if your friends who know you away from church cannot see plainly that you're born again.
If they would not say, oh yeah, she's different.
Well, then you're probably not born again. If your mom cannot give us clear evidence that you're born again, it's probably because you haven't been.
So, the first characteristic is these people don't show spiritual fruit. The second characteristic, verse 46. They don't do what Jesus says. This one's a little bit more straightforward, but these religious people have turned to Jesus as a fire escape or a helper, a miracle worker, a religious model, a cultural icon, but they're not fully surrendered to do what he says. He said, why would you call me Lord, Lord?
and not do what I says. You know what Lord means? Here's the areas I see this happen most often in our church. happens in regards to somebody's finances. Man, they'll worship Jesus all day long.
But they will not obey him there. Or as it pertains to the surrender of their career or their dreams. You want to be a good moral person. You want to be a religious person, but you want to have ultimate control of the trajectory of your life. Have you ever come to a point where you said, Jesus, all that I am.
all that I have, all that I ever hoped to be. I right now and forever surrender to you. and just put down your life like a blank check before Jesus. If not, I don't care how much Bible you know, how many songs you know, he's not your Lord. Or maybe it's in regards to some relationship that you won't surrender.
You want Jesus, you don't want to be apart from Jesus, but you don't want to give up that relationship. Or maybe it's regarding some other command that you just don't want to obey, offering forgiveness to somebody or owning up to the truth. Jesus says, Luke 6, 46, why would you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things that I'm saying? Think of it like this: these two words. On this little card, these two words never go together.
No, Lord. They just, they don't make any sense together. If you were going to. Right? Say no, it means he's not really your Lord.
So if there's any area of your life right now that you're saying no in, he's not actually your Lord. And if there's any area of your life or when you do say no. To him, or if he is Lord, excuse me. then that means you've taken no off the table. The way my dad used to say it when I was a kid is: if he's not Lord of all, He's not Lord at all.
In every heart, there is a throne and a cross. In your heart, there's a throne and a cross. If you are on the throne.
Well, you got to put Jesus on the cross. But if Jesus is on the throne...
Well, that means that you got to be on the cross.
So right now, he's either Lord or he's not. And if there's a no in your life, it means he's not really Lord. First characteristic, they don't bear spiritual fruit. Second characteristic, they don't. They don't do what Jesus says.
Third characteristic, verse 49, their faith falls apart in the storm. This is where the story really ties into the other two points, and people miss it. Jesus's point. Again, is that the third two houses look alike? From a distance, you would assume they're exactly the same.
It was what was below the surface that was different. One was built on the rock, and the other was built on the sand, and the storm revealed that. The point is that there are people whose lives look alike. You understand that, right? They go to the same church.
They're in the same small group. It might be in the same family. They believe all the same things. They live by the same morals, but one's faith is real. One is not.
And what reveals that? They're a little test Jesus gives you. It's a storm. There are people whose walk with Jesus is fine. Until it gets hard.
Until God doesn't answer some prayer the way they want it answered, or until it gets really unpopular with their friends to do what Jesus wants, or until obedience to Jesus means walking away from something that you really want. I mean, you understand that we love to talk about Jesus, coming to Jesus as fulfillment and peace and healing and salvation, and it's great for your marriage, and it is all of those things. But you understand that at some point, obedience to Jesus is going to take you 180 degrees opposite of the direction that you think you want to go. And in that moment, it will be revealed in that moment whether Jesus is actually your Lord or not. Not in here in this moment.
Here, everybody's house looks the same. Whether or not your hope is in him. Or whether it is in what you think he will do for you, as long as he keeps up his end of the contract for many people. Religious people, I've learned that their hope is not really in God, their hope is in what He will do for them. And the difference in those two gets revealed by the storm.
When God doesn't do, or it's not easy, or it's difficult, you fall away from God because your hope was never in God. It was always in God's ability to keep you in sunny weather all the time. Again, the difference in these two lives is not what they believe. The houses look the same. The difference in these two is how much their lives are actually built on what they believe.
It is the one with the solid foundation. Who is the one verse 47? The one with a solid foundation is the one who hears my words and acts on them. According to Jesus, your destiny is not determined by what you say you believe. Your destiny is determined by what your life demonstrates that you believe.
Friend, I hope you will pay attention to this. Because this is a major theme in Jesus' teaching. Not everybody who calls him Lord is going to go to heaven. The gospel writer Matthew, in his parallel account of the same teaching, Where he records Jesus telling the story of the wise man, the foolish man, and the two different kinds of trees. Jesus adds one other little story.
Let me read it for you. You stay there in Luke. I'll take you to Matthew real quick. Matthew 7:21. Not everybody who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.
It's the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, the final day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, do many mighty works in your name? By the way, if you underline stuff in your Bible, underline the word says. And does. What do they say?
Lord, Lord. And you know what that means? They got the right theology. They know when to say amen. They know when to put their hands up in worship.
They know when they make that spiritual grunt sound that Christians make when they're talking to each other and one of them says something spiritual. They even say Lord Lord twice Which is a Hebrew way of saying I really mean it. Lord, Lord, I mean it.
Well, watch this. Not only do they have zeal in their worship and orthodoxy in their theology, they've got zeal in ministry. They prophesied. which means preached. In Jesus' name.
They cast out demons in Jesus' name and did miracles in Jesus' name. Translation, these are not sideline people. I don't know what kind of church you grew up in, but in my church, if you got picked to be on the demon exorcism squad. You were varsity. You didn't choose the sideline people that showed up, you know.
10 minutes, you showed up 10 minutes late and left 10 minutes early. Right? He's talking about pastors, elders, deacons, ministers, small group leaders, missionaries. That's who's in this, who he's talking about here. People very involved in ministry.
We'll return to our teaching in just a moment. At Summit Life, our mission is to take people deeper into the gospel and to advance the gospel wider into the world. Every week we create resources designed to help individuals grow in their faith. and share the hope of Jesus Christ with others. These resources include daily devotionals, equipping resources that are both digital and in print, and nationwide radio programs.
We believe that everyone deserves access to the life-changing truth of the gospel. This important work is made possible by friends like you. Through your prayers and financial gifts, we can reach people where they are, whether in their homes, cars, or workplaces. Will you join us in this mission? Your partnership, whether through persistent prayer, a first gift, or a regular monthly financial contribution, allows us to share the gospel with more people every day.
Visit jdgreer.com to learn more about how you can get involved. Yeah. Verse 23, and I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart for me, you worker of lawlessness. God, this sends a tremor of terror.
down my spine. These people confess Jesus, but Jesus does not confess them. Why? Literally from the Greek, they always work lawlessness. They never actually surrendered to Jesus.
These weren't people who struggled with sin. We all do that. These were people who never brought their lives to a point of surrender. And though they were around Jesus all the time. And though they built their houses to look like Jesus' houses.
And though they decorated their houses with Christian art, And though they put their tree in Jesus' garden, they never fully yielded to Jesus. Jesus says, I never even knew you. You knew of me. But I never actually knew you, the kind of knowledge that comes from just surrendering your life to me. and hoping in me as your Savior.
Friend, please. Pay attention to this. Not everybody who calls Jesus Lord actually belongs to him. The difference between the saved and the unsaved is not what their mouth says they believe. The difference in the saved and the unsaved is what your life demonstrates that you believe.
You say, Well, I thought we were saved by faith alone, by believing Christ as our Savior and trusting in His work to save us. Yes, that is correct. But the kind of faith that saves... is the faith that reorients your whole life. The kind of faith that puts the roots of your life into gospel soil, and the kind of faith that builds the foundation of your life on gospel truth.
You see, there are two ways to tell what you actually believe. There's what your mouth says you believe. And then there's what your life demonstrates that you believe. Which one do you think is more reliable? The way God sees it.
What your life says about what you believe is way more reliable than what your mouth says. And if what your life says is different than what your mouth says, God's going to take the testimony of your life every single time.
So I ask you again: does your life say that Jesus is Lord? And if I were to ask your best friends who hang out with you apart from church, can they give clear demonstration of the Lordship of Jesus and spiritual fruit? And they've seen you go through storms and they see where your foundation is, why would you call him Lord? And then not do the things that he says. Why would you call him Lord and not do the things that he says?
I remember a poem I heard when I was a kid. And I've never really forgotten. You may have heard this. I don't even know who wrote it. It's as old as the hills, I think.
Why do you call me Lord Lord? And don't do the things I say. You call me the way. But you walk me that. You call me the life, and you live me not.
You call me the master. Do you obey me not? You call me bread, but you eat me not. You call me truth. You believe me not.
You call me Lord and serve me not. If I condemn you. Blame me not. Depart from me. You who work in equity, I never...
Know you. Three characteristics of spiritual impostors. Three characteristics of people in the church who look like they're right with God. Active in the church, but aren't actually right with God. They don't bear spiritual fruit.
They don't do what Jesus says, and their faith falls apart in the storm. Friend, are these true of you? If so, Maybe like uh I think maybe. What do I do? We'll say, that's the good news.
You embrace Christ. You embrace Christ. You embrace that there's nothing that you can do to save yourself or change your own heart. That might have been the problem the whole time is you keep trying to change yourself. You embrace that He's the only one who can save you.
He paid your full sin debt on the cross, and He offers to give you. The sacrifice, the payment for your sins, and then come into your life and make you a new creation right now, where you sit, in your house, in one of our facilities. Embrace that with your heart right now and yield complete control over your life to Him. And if you do, He will come into your heart and He will save you. Listen, I got one other thing I want to do with this passage, but before I get to that last little thing.
I want us to stop right here for just a minute, if I could. I'm going to give you a chance to respond right here, right now to what I just said if you never have.
So, whether you're at home or one of our campuses, would you bow your heads right now with me? Again, I got one more thing to do right after this, but I don't want to wait, and I want to give you a chance to respond. If you're not sure. If you've ever fully surrendered to Jesus and ever received him as Savior. You can do it right here, right now.
It's very simple. Jesus, I can't save myself. I can't be good enough. To earn your favor. I can't be strong enough to live the Christian life.
I receive right now your offer to save me. I receive your offer. to save me. I believe there's a number of you at home or. in front of me that just prayed that.
Maybe watching by yourself online. I want to pray for you. Father, I pray for those that just prayed that prayer right now. God, I pray that you would open their heart. Give them courage to follow through with this and then to do what I'm going to ask them to do next.
Pray to ask God in Jesus' name. Amen.
Now before I close, I want to flip this around because there's a promise that is inherent in this passage. And that promise is that for those of us who build our lives on Jesus, the foundation will endure any storm. Why? Because we got a foundation that'll never crumble. Your foundation is whatever you build your life on.
Your foundation is whatever has to be present in your life for your life to feel secure. For you to have joy. Whatever that is, that's what you serve, it's what you strive after, it's what you turn to in trouble, it's what you can't live without. The bad news? is that every other foundation besides Jesus is going to crumble.
If you'll indulge me, I want to read. Little small section of a new book I just had come out called What Are You Going to Do With Your Life? There's a young woman. In our church, who last year went in for a routine eye exam when she received devastating news. The doctor informed her that she had a degenerative an incurable condition that would take her sight in less than five years.
Up until this moment with the doctor, she had no idea that anything was even wrong. She thought at worst, she was going to need to get a pair of reading glasses. She was in her mid-30s, she had four children. If things go as the doctors predict, she will never see a single one of them graduate. Just a couple weeks, she told me before the doctor visit, she had asked God.
to guide her to a theme verse for the year. Again, not knowing anything was going on. She said, God led me to 2 Corinthians 4, 16. Even though the outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. This light and momentary affliction is producing for us an absolute, incomparable, eternal weight of glory.
So we do not focus on what is seen. We focus on what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal. She told me, she said, I wrote in my journal that day, God helped me to trust in things not seen. Help me to fix my eyes, my thoughts, and affections, not on the temporary, but on the eternal. And she goes into that doctor's appointment.
Here's what she shared with me. As I listened to the news of my diagnosis, I heard in my heart God speak over me the truth. We do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. This is not an affliction God has done to me. It is something He has entrusted to me.
I was reminded of Jesus' words to his disciples when they came across a blind man. This has come to pass so that the work of God might be displayed. God has shown me more of Himself in the midst of this suffering. Looking back on that prayer from January, I realize now that God was preparing me to hear this news. Already, God is.
Use this diagnosis to help me fix my eyes on Him, to help me depend on Him, to grow my spiritual sight. Jesus is far sweeter and more valuable in suffering than when I think I can do life on my own. As painful as it has been, I'm learning what it means that my spiritual sight is far more valuable than my physical sight. I don't bank my hope for any healing for my coming blindness, as there is none. I bank my hope on the suffering Savior Jesus Christ, who is far more precious to me than sight.
More precious to me than my ability to drive, more precious than my ability to walk independently or even to see my children's faces. These things are inconsequential in light of eternity. Shortly after my diagnosis, I was praying when I saw a vision in my mind. Jesus was leading me blindfolded. In the midst of the most beautiful landscape I've ever seen, once I got to an overlook, Jesus took my blindfold off.
In that moment, I realized God was showing me that I can trust my good father even with a blindfold in his hands. I can give up my sight for a short time here on earth. Because I trust my Father knows what's best for me, always working for my good and for His glory. See, what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal. Here's a question.
Could you be like that in a moment of similar tragedy? What's your foundation? Here's another way of asking that. What is there that if. Taken out of your life would make life not worth living for you.
What has to be present for you to feel fulfilled and engaged? A good marriage, close-net family. kids that adore you, reliable job, solid bank account. Can you trust your heavenly Father even when he's got a blindfold in his hands? Whatever you give as an answer to those questions constitutes your foundation.
And bad news, all of them are going to crumble. The good news is that when your foundation is in Jesus, like hers is. In any storm, you're going to be secure. Because he's got the power over the storm, and he will preserve and provide for you in the storm. I saw this picture from a couple years ago.
this house on one of the Gulf I can't remember which one it is. Hurricane Harvey, one of the worst hurricanes ever hit U.S. history. Look closely at this picture, if you will. You see it?
One house. This guy's neighbors on either side got wiped clean.
So this article interviewed the builder. Listen to this, he said yep. I built this house. With this storm in mind. This guy went way beyond code.
He used 40-foot pilings, which is just absurd. He made the house with breakaway walls so that when the winds tore them, there wouldn't be any structural damage. Think about that statement, would you? I built this house. with that storm in mind.
God provided your salvation. He gave you that foundation. With all of life's storms in mind.
So see when you struggle and you fall His death is sufficient to cover and forgive you. When you feel like you've got no strength, his resurrection is sufficient to empower you. When you feel lost His indwelling spirit is sufficient to guide you when you got nothing left and you're running on empty. The riches of his mercy is sufficient to satisfy you. God provided a foundation in Jesus with all of life's storms in mind.
How firm a foundation you saints of the Lord. Is laid for your faith in his excellent word. What more can he say than to you, he has said, to you who, for refuge to Jesus, have fled. My hope is built on nothing less. than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust The sweetest frame, but holy lean on Jesus' name, on Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. So I return to the question I asked you at the very beginning. Has God been shaking you?
Is that what he's been up to? There have been areas of disobedience that have been revealed. Tell you how it works for me. God consistently reveals to me the areas I'm not surrendered to him. I'm making them fall apart.
And when some area that's not surrendered to God falls apart with me, I go into despair. But when an area of my life that is surrendered to Jesus, when it goes through a storm, I'm like, nah, no matter. Jesus, you got this. I'm doing what you want me to do. This area belongs to you and I'm going to trust you to provide and protect.
You got areas that You need to put under risk control. What areas might those be for you? Why don't you bow your heads again at homes and Campuses or whether you buy yourself at your computer. Could you just identify? what those areas might be.
and surrender them to him. Say, Jesus, I'm done with doing it my way. It's not sufficient for the storm. I'm gonna do it your way. Oh Christ, on you, the solid rock I stand.
Train my heart to obey, not just because it's the right thing to do. But God because everything in my life will crumble. God use these storms to awaken people. Thank you for joining us for this first message in the Gospel of Luke. If JD's vision of gospel multiplication stirs you, we've got more.
He just released his new book titled Everyday Revolutionary. all about how ordinary disciples, people like you and me, can live on mission and change the world one step at a time. When you give to support this ministry at jdgreer.com, we'll send you a copy as our way of saying thanks.
So join the movement. Fuel multiplication and get your copy today. See you next time. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries. Um
