Matthew 7:24-29
False Foundations
Suppose I could tell you how to have a happy, prosperous, satisfying
life, would you be interested? I hope so, because I can—or rather,
because Jesus did.
This short simple parable contains the key for a happy, prosperous,
satisfying life. Let me share three thoughts:
I. The Parable Is about A Foundation
A. The world "foundation" is not used in this parable, but that
is the topic none-the-less.
B. Foundations Are Essential
1. I Googled the internet with a question, "What is the most
important part of a building?"
a. The first four returns all spoke of the foundation in
the titles.
b. The fifth one had eleven points, but the first point
of the eleven was the foundation.
2. So there you have it.
a. Google has spoken, but this time, Google is correct.
b. The foundation comes first and every other thing
related to that building will be built on the
foundation.
c. If it is not a solid foundation, the whole structure
is in jeopardy.
3. The Green Pond Baptist Church was not built on the best
foundation.
a. I am not throwing stones at anyone, but stating a
fact.
b. The Green POND Baptist Church is built on the Green
POND.
(1) We have installed a sump pump under the building
to keep the water pumped out.
(2) We have humidity gauges under the sanctuary to
monitory the moisture.
(3) We may have spent as much as $100-150,000 since I
have been the pastor to attempt to redirect the
water away from the water shed that is Green
Pond.
c. Why? Because if the foundation goes, the whole
building is in jeopardy.
C. Foundations are not just important to buildings.
1. Foundations are important to everything.
2. Jesus was not giving a sermon on how to construct a solid
home but on how to construct a solid life, a solid family,
a solid business, and a solid nation.
3. Everything built on a false foundation will fracture and
fall.
4. Now while everything has a foundation, I don’t have time
to talk about everything so let me pick one thing.
D. Lives have foundations:
1. And instead of me talking to everyone—at least for the
next few moments—let me talk to the parents.
2. Often without realizing it, parents either build or allow
their children’s’ lives to be built on false foundations.
3. False foundations:
a. Education
(1) Some children get the impression that they are to
build their lives on the foundation of
education.
(2) Why wouldn’t they?
(a) Some parents part with their children soon
after they are born and send them to day
cares, schools, and colleges so that they
are in those places from their earliest
memories.
(b) Most American children are in some sort of
formal babysitting or learning center at
least 8, 9, 10 or even 12 hours every day,
five days a week, most every week of the
year, for the first 18 to 22 years of
their lives!
(c) In such situations, some things are just
logical.
i. It is logical that a child would
think that learning is the most
important thing in their lives and
use it as a foundation to build
upon.
ii. It is also understandable they some
children might actually resent
education, see it as the enemy that
took them away from their parents,
and so rebel against education.
iii. It is also logical that educators
would start to think of the children
as theirs instead of the parent’s.
(d) All of these things have and are happening.
b. Work
(1) Again, there is nothing most parents do more
religiously than go to work.
(a) Parents go when they want to, and they go
when they don’t.
(b) They go when they are well; and they when
they are not.
(c) They go if they like their jobs; and they go
if they don’t.
(2) Children watching that would have to think that
work is important, foundational, and start to
build their life around work.
(a) Again, work is important.
(b) I am not advocating being a bum.
(c) But work is what you do to live not what you
life to do.
4. There are other false foundations, but Jesus lumped all
the false foundations into one category: sand.
Matt 7:26 And every one that heareth these
sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be
likened unto a foolish man, which built his
house upon the sand:
a. Understand, even sand will hold the house built on it
for a time.
(1) According to Jesus’ parable, the house built on
the sand stood—for a time.
(2) It stood long enough to be built, long enough to
get a family inside of it, long enough for the
family to think the foundation was solid and
sure, long enough for them to trust their home
and rely on its foundation.
b. But when the storm came, it fell!
c. In the end of every structure built on sand—
buildings, lives, marriages, businesses—will
have the same end.
d. It will fall.
II. The Parable Is about A Message.
A. Jesus was attempting to convey a message.
Matt 7:24 Therefore whosoever heareth these
sayings of mine…
Matt 7:28 …the people were astonished at his
doctrine:
29 For he taught them as one having authority,
and not as the scribes.
1. The parable was not the message. It is the conclusion to
the message.
a. The message began in Matthew 5 and continued until
the end of chapter 7.
b. It is often called the Sermon on the Mount.
c. It is the longest message of Jesus that the Bible
recorded, and all of it is the message this parable
was warning about.
d. The parable we have read is the conclusion to that
message.
2. The parable is not just the conclusion to this message.
It is the conclusion to all that Jesus taught.
a. Jesus never spoke any words that were not true.
b. All of the words that Jesus spoke and the Bible
recorded were powerful, practical, life changing.
c. All of the words Jesus spoke and the Bible recorded
are THE word of God, all of them.
d. So any message of Jesus is a foundation that you can
build your life upon.
3. But then the parable is not just the conclusion to Jesus’
words but to the entire Bible.
a. The whole Bible is the Word of God, is it not?
(1) Not one word of this Bible is false.
(2) Every word is powerful, practical, and life
changing.
b. So the parable is the conclusion to all of the Bible.
B. What then is the message that Jesus is conveying?
1. If you build on the Bible, the Word of God, you house
will stand.
2. If you build on anything else, it is sand and your house
will fall.
3. That is the message of this parable.
a. I may embellish.
b. I may elaborate on it.
c. But that is the message of the parable
C. Lost people, this message is to you.
Matt 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in
thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name
done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
D. Saved people, this message is to you too.
1. Do you realize the Bible is not written primarily to the
lost but to the saved
a. There are tidbits in the Bible for the lost.
(1) \\#Matt 7;22-23\\
(2) \\#John 3:16\\
b. But the Bible is written to the saved.
2. Yet so many of the saved do NOT build their lives on it.
a. You wonder why your marriage falls apart, you
business fails, your children make a mess of their
lives.
b. I am trying to be ugly but it could be because you did
not build your life upon the Word of God.
III. The Parable Is about A Flood.
A. Notice that no matter what you build your house on, the sand
of false foundations or the rock of the solid foundation, the
flood will come!
1. There are two builders here, one wise and one foolish.
2. There are two foundations here, one rock and one sand.
3. There are two outcomes here, one house will stand and one
house will fall.
4. But there is only one location to build the house on, in
the path of the flood.
a. No matter whether build by the wise or the foolish,
no matter whether build on rock or sand,
no matter whether the house stands of falls,
they are both build in the river bed,
in the place where the floods will come.
b. Why? Because the floods come to all.
(1) There is no place you build that the floods will
not reach and there is no wisdom that can keep
the floods from coming, and there is no
foundation that can divert the floods away.
(2) The floods of life come to all.
5. Sad but true.
a. This parable is not about stopping the flood.
b. This parable is about withstanding the flood.
B. Your life house is in the path of a flood. So is mine. So is
everyone’s.
1. Over the last few weeks, the floods of death came barging
into the lives of several of church families.
2. But the flood does not have to be death.
a. It can be sickness, loss of a job, betrayal of a
friend, a financial loss, or a few hundred other
things.
b. The point is, floods will come.
3. If your house has not been hit by the flood yet, just
wait.
a. It will.
b. And so will mine.
C. Your family’s house is in the path of a flood. So is mine. So
is everyone’s.
1. We have six children, five children added by marriage, and
the 19th grandchild to be delivered this week, and the
20th already on the way.
2. I am far more concerned for their lives now than for mine.
3. I do not ask God to give them a long life but a godly one.
D. Our national house is in the path of a flood.
1. Our nation has made some very foolish and costly
decisions.
a. We ruled God out.
b. We legislated sin in.
c. And we are voting for the devil and socialism.
2. This concerns me.
a. I have attempted to build by house on the Rock of
Jesus Christ, but if the nation is swept away, my
family will be impacted as well.
b. However, every time I ask God what I can do to help our
nation, the answer comes back the same, "Preach the
gospel to every creature!"
IV. This Parable Is About What to Do.
A. The overall point of this parable is to build on the Rock,
Jesus Christ.
1. If you are a parent, build your children’s lives on the
Word of God.
2. If you are a young Christian, build your life on the Word
of God.
3. If you are starting a family or a business, build them on
the Word of God.
B. But what if you are not starting a building?
1. What if you are older and your life is already built on a
false foundation?
2. What if your family is about grown and you built it on a
false foundation? Maybe it has even fallen and broken up?
3. What do you do then?
a. You lay the right foundation, the Word of God, and
start building on it, gradually moving as much as you
can of the old onto the new foundation.
b. You will not be able to move everything, at least not
at first, but you keep building and moving as much as
you can to the new, and you will be amazed at what
God will do.
Will your house stand when the flood comes?
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