House On Sand
Jesus called it. If you build your house on sand, it will eventually fall.
But Mark and Barbara Blasch thought they knew better. Somehow they were able to get the permits to build a multi-million dollar mansion on the eroding sand of Cape Cod Bay in 2010. But wind and sea erosion slowly took away the little bit of dunes between the house and the bay, until they had to remove their front deck and master bedroom. The rest of the house is now on the precipice of tumbling into the sea…
Most of us think we would never be so foolish. But I see people do this all the time.
“Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash” (Matthew 7:26-27).
God’s Word works. You can ignore God’s principles, and you can get by for a while. But eventually, there will be a crash.
Like the guy who bought a 2-cycle lawn mower and didn’t know you had to mix oil with the gas. He ignored the owner’s manual and ran it with straight gas for half a season, and it worked great…for a while. But when it finally overheated and froze up, it was beyond repair.
If you ignore the owner’s manual, you’ll destroy the machine. And if you ignore our owner’s manual, you’ll destroy your life.
You can have fun and sleep around…for awhile. But it will catch up to you. You can smoke pot and get drunk, but you’ll eventually pay. You can be a “gentle parent” and go easy on your toddler…but it’ll cost you in a few years.
God’s Word works. And ignoring His Word leads to implosion. It’s that way with relationships, with our bodies, and life in general.
But Jesus’ emphasis in Matthew 7 wasn’t on the here and now. His chief concern was eternal. The everlasting consequence of ignoring Him is an eternal crash: separation from our Creator…hell.
If you are living your life for today or the short-term future, if your life priorities are family, career, house, and hobbies, you’re building your life on sand. All of those things are good, and they are gifts from God. But the only foundation for eternal life is the giver of life: God. He has to be our chief priority. Living to honor Him, living in accord with His Word, practicing His principles — that’s building your house on the rock…a life that will stand.
And the beauty of it is, in the same sermon, Jesus said if we do that, “all these things” (the things we tend to live for instead), will be added to you.
Start and finish with God being #1. Do things His way. He will take care of everything else.