Priscilla Shirer - Firm Foundation
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Summary
It isn't just about catching the message—Priscilla Shirer emphasizes that hearing Jesus' words is hollow without the actual follow-through. Looking at Matthew 7:24-27, there’s this stark contrast between the wise and foolish builders, one anchoring themselves in rock and the other in shifting sand. The reality is that resilience during life’s inevitable collapses depends entirely on active obedience, not just passive listening. That’s where a truly unshakable foundation is built.
Good morning, family. I’m so glad to be here to have the opportunity and privilege to be back with you. We do consider you to be our family. You know, we go to church just down the street in Oak Cliff at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church, and we just feel like we’re family with y’all. So, thank you for letting me come and be a part of your Sunday morning.
A Word of Honor to the Leadership
I’m going to read the scripture to you in a minute and pray, and we’re going to jump right into this little simple thought from scripture that I hope will be a challenge to you as it has been to me. But before I do that, I just wanted to take a pause while you’re standing to tell you something and to give you an opportunity to celebrate the fact that at this church, the Lord has entrusted you to leadership that actually has integrity.
Listen to me. I have the privilege, the joy of being in so many different kinds of churches, y’all. So many different denominations and backgrounds. And I am sad to say that it is becoming more and more rare to find pastors and leadership teams that actually love Jesus. Like, it’s not about lights and stage and screens and microphones; they live it on a Monday and a regular Tuesday. Like, they’re really honoring God when nobody’s watching.
I just want you to pause for a moment and appreciate the fact that the Lord has entrusted the spiritual growth of your soul to leaders who are for real. So for just a moment, y’all, could you please join with me in celebrating the Majun fam? Celebrate, y’all. Keep honoring your marriage. Keep honoring your children. Keep honoring the house of God, and God is going to continue to pour out his favor and blessing on the two of you.
Thank you for living well. Thank you. And I honor your mom and dad, too, Robert. I love these parents so much. Just, Lord, thank you.
Prayer
Thank you that in the next few moments, you’re getting ready to open up the windows of heaven and speak to your people. I can’t get over the fact that you know us, and you still choose to meet with us anyway. That you let us hear your voice, that you let us open up the scriptures and know that this is not just some random book with random words, but it’s the fresh breathed word of a holy, living God. Father, may we never take it for granted. We are sitting on the edge of our seats now, Lord, to hear what you will say to us. We have rolled out the red carpet for you in our praise and worship. Now, we’re asking you to come down and speak. We are so glad each other is here, but we didn’t come to see each other. We came to see you. So speak, Lord, in Jesus’ name. Everybody agreed and said, «Amen.» Amen. Amen.
You may take your seats.
The House That Survived Hurricane Ike
In 2008, there was a hurricane named Ike. Ike was memorable because it swept through the south of the U.S., particularly Texas, which was hit really hard. There was a particular town right on the shoreline of Texas that was actually destroyed. This little town is called Gilchrist.
The Gilchrist community is a serene small community where folks in their retirement years really would go when they wanted to live those years in peace and quiet. A little teeny town, about 200 homes, brightly colored houses with perfectly manicured lawns and friendly sidewalks. The kind of community where folks would get on their golf carts and drive from house to house, where the neighbors knew each other and saw each other. Just a sweet, serene, peaceful community. That’s why folks went there.
But then 2008 came, and there was a storm. The storm was so devastating because the winds didn’t just blow, but they burst against the homes in that neighborhood. The sky opened up, and the rain fell so extremely that the floods rose and the hurricane wiped out 199 of the 200 houses in this neighborhood. It looked more like a swamp the next day.
In fact, someone went to visit who had been in that neighborhood the day before, and they didn’t even recognize what they were looking at. It didn’t look like a neighborhood; it didn’t look like anybody had lived there. It was complete and utter devastation after this hurricane.
There was only one thing that gave a little hint of the fact that a neighborhood had actually existed there. Of the 200 houses that had been there before, one remained, and it was the only hint that there had been a neighborhood. They couldn’t believe the sight of it.
I have an image here that they’re going to put up for you to see because it is the most odd, devastating, remarkable sight to see one house sitting where 200 had been the day before.
This begs the question: what is it about this house that made it so that when the same storm hit the same neighborhood, there was one house that had the stability and strength to make it through the storm?
And if I had time, I’d tell you the whole story of the builders of this particular home, the homeowners who had been through previous hurricanes. Because they had been through previous hurricanes, they knew the damage the storm could do. They had taken the extra time and the extra investment to sew the additional resources needed to retrofit their house so that their house could stand steady when the next storm came.
Something about having been through a storm makes you become a wise builder.
Jesus' Parable: The Wise and Foolish Builders
Jesus tells a tale of two houses in Matthew chapter 7. This particular passage, a very familiar portion of scripture, comes at the tail end of what we now know to be one of Jesus’ most famous and memorable messages: the Sermon on the Mount.
This is where Jesus spent 111 verses, red letter words in our scriptures, 111 verses where he is talking about everything from the Beatitudes to teaching them how to pray the Lord’s Prayer to talking about how to love your enemies, and addressing the cure for anxiety.
This is where he said, «Listen, if I clothe the lilies of the field and make sure that if one sparrow falls from the sky, I know exactly where that one sparrow has landed.» That’s basically his way of saying, «What do you have to be anxious about? I’m taking care of everything down here and everything up there. Your life is in the palm of my hand.»
This is where he has said to the masses, «You are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world.» He has covered a wide range of topics in this most memorable message to a multitude gathered on Galilee’s hillside, hanging on every word that Jesus is saying.
Because wherever Jesus went, a crowd followed. Not a couple of dozen; multitudes, thousands would gather wherever Jesus was.
And they were never sitting like you all are this morning, calmly and sedately listening to God speak. Uh-uh. Because it was Jesus himself. There was an authority, there was an awe that they had never ever heard before.
They wanted to be like that woman with the issue of blood who pressed her way. Think about a whole multitude of people trying to get as close as they possibly can to Jesus because they know if they get close enough and reach out and touch the hem of this man’s garment, power will leave him and come to them and change the entire course of their lives.
This is a clamoring, chaotic group of people trying to get close to Jesus because even if they did not quite know if he was the Messiah, they weren’t sure about this whole kingdom of God is at hand business. They didn’t know about all that.
But what they did know was that when Jesus showed up, blind people could see. What they knew for sure was that when this guy showed up, deaf ears were hearing, lame folks started walking, and dead people were being raised. They couldn’t wait to get as close to Jesus as they possibly could.
And when he spoke, it was different from the religious leaders of the day. They had heard good preaching before, but they had never heard anything like this.
Think about how you’d feel if Jesus were your pastor. He shares with them 111 memorable verses. And at the end, he does not try to rouse them to a standing ovation. Like many teachers, preachers, communicators, speakers who might try to put a punch at the end just to get an emotional response out of the people.
He doesn’t call them to consider a standing ovation; he calls them to the topic of obedience. He’d rather them sit and ruminate about whether or not they are actually going to do something with the 111 verses he just said rather than have everybody cheer for it but not live in alignment with it.
Matthew 7, verses 24-27 says this: Therefore, Jesus says, «Everyone who stands on this mountainside and hears these words of mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise builder who built his house on a rock. The rains descended, the floods came, the winds blew and burst against the house; and yet it didn’t fall because it had been founded on a rock.»
Verse 26: «Everyone who hears these words of mine,» he says, «and does not act on them will be like a foolish builder who built their house upon sand.» Why would anybody do that? And the rains descended, the floods came, the winds blew, and burst against the house; and great was its fall.
Jesus ends his message with this little parable to call them to the topic of whether or not they’re going to act upon or not act upon everything that Jesus has just said in the previous message.
Everybody hearing this parable would have known exactly what Jesus was trying to imply because in ancient times in Judea, which is the region they were standing in at the moment of this message, the climate was volatile.
They knew that in certain storms there were going to be outrageous storms. The storm clouds were going to gather, unleashing voracious storms that would always result in flooding. That flooding would always cause erosion to any of the structures that were in and around this particular community.
So when Jesus is saying to them, «The storm came, the flood rose, the winds burst against the house,» they knew exactly what he was referring to. They knew that it would be a foolish builder who would only pay attention to the structure above ground without considering the solidification of the foundation below ground.
Not in a climate like that. Not when it’s a question of whether or not there will be storms. Only a question of when the storm will come.
Y’all, we live on Earth. Life is out here lifing. Can I get a witness?
Life is out here doing the most. It’s not a question of whether or not there will be a storm. Come on now. It’s only a question of when the storm will come.
Like, when life happens, when the clouds gather over your life and through betrayal or loss or grief or financial devastation or a health struggle, where life bursts against your house, you’re going to have to make sure that you don’t just have all the bells and whistles above ground, but that you actually have a solid foundation below ground because the storms of life will happen.
Jesus said in this world, John 16:33, «You will have trouble.» You don’t have to go looking for trouble; just keep living. Trouble has a way of coming to find us, doesn’t it?
Three Places We All Find Ourselves
In fact, in a room this size, you need to know that every single one of us that are here are in one of three places. You’re either right smack dab in the middle of a storm, on your way into one, or on your way out of one. Because it’s the cadence of life.
Which means before the storm, you must think about the kind of foundation you want to have. I’ve never seen a builder pouring a foundation in open skies. You’ve got to have decided that before the rain falls, before the flooding, before the winds are bursting against your house.
Jesus looks at this group of multitudes gathered on Galilee’s hillside 2,000 years ago, and he basically asks them the same question that the Holy Spirit’s asking you and me today: what kind of builder are you?
The thing is in a room this size we can fool each other because we can have standing ovations without dealing with the issue of obedience. Only you know whether or not your Monday reflects what you heard Jesus say on Sunday.
Only you know whether or not the way you’re navigating your relationships on a regular Tuesday aligns with what Jesus said on Sunday. Only you know if the way you’re handling your finances on Wednesday and the path you’re choosing on Thursday and the entertainment choices you’re making on Friday and Saturday align with obedience.
It’s easy for us to celebrate in here. There ain’t no storms in here. The question is in the regular rhythms of life, y’all. Are we living in a way that reflects that we’re not just hearers but we’re doers of the word of God?
The Two Builders: Same Storm, Different Outcomes
In this passage, there are two builders, two different people. Yet, they have the exact same goal: to build a house. They have access to the exact same resources to get the job done. They have the same measurable success because both of them actually have a house. They live in the same neighborhood because they’re about to be subject to the exact same storm. They both describe the exact same way. The storm falling, the flood rising, the winds not just blowing but bursting against the house. And by the way, can I just tell you that’s the definition of a hurricane?
There are times and seasons in life where we’re in a storm. You know, there’s something happening that doesn’t feel too good. And then there are times when it’s a hurricane because it’s not just one thing; it’s another thing. And just when you deal with that thing, it’s another thing. And then just when you take care of that thing, you turn this way, and there’s another thing. Everywhere you go, it seems like you’ve been surrounded by inclement weather. Does anybody know what I’m talking about? This is a storm that Jesus is describing.
And there are two people experiencing the exact same storm. They both see the need to build. They both have the skill to build. They both have crafted a design worth building. They both have the financial resources to build this building. They both have the resolution, the determination, and the patience to see the project through to the end.
And when they get to the end, they both seemingly have the exact same results. And that’s the scary part because we can look at our building projects, our lives, and with folks looking in from the outside, it looks like we all have the same results.
But it turns out brick and mortar don’t reveal the difference between the wise and the foolish. You can have a spectacular house, a spectacular life built on a shoddy foundation. Most of the time, the only way you can really tell the difference is when there’s a storm. Then we know the shortcuts you took. Then we know the investments in the deeper internal parts of your relationship with God that you actually didn’t pay attention to, that you undervalued. We’ll be able to tell when the storm comes.
Those of us who are just sitting here playing church but actually didn’t cultivate a real friendship with Jesus, who didn’t have a thing going on with Jesus, you know, where you didn’t just read a verse a day to keep the devil away, but you actually asked the Holy Spirit, «What is it that you want to say to me? How do you want to mold me?» Where you didn’t cultivate a prayer life with the Lord, where you not only speak to him and know he hears you, but you’ve actually inclined your ear so that you can hear the voice of God too and have a rapport and a relationship with him.
You know, I have had, we have had a lot of loss in our family. In the past 5 years, we’ve lost 10 people back to back. Just every four to six months, it seems like another person in our family was passing away. Some suddenly and some progressively. Two of those people were my mother and my husband’s mom, who passed six months apart from each other. Both of them, individually apart from each other and another woman that was a friend of mine, an older, wiser woman in my life. There were three women that were going through very hard things all at the same time. And of course, I was tending to each of them, talking to each of them individually.
And both of them can remember my mother saying to me that she was so glad that before, in her case, she was sick with cancer in the last months of her life. She said to me, «Priscilla, I’m so glad that before this, I already had a thing going on with Jesus.» She said, «I’m so glad because there were times she literally, physically couldn’t keep up with actual Bible reading. So she was so glad his word was hidden in her heart.» She was so glad.
Every now and then, y’all, I remember when mom was on medication and she was sort of unconscious because of the medication she needed to be on. She was just in a deep sleep. Sometimes she would come up out of the sleep mid-hymn, already singing the hymn that she was already singing in her spirit, but now it was coming out of her mouth.
She was so glad she knew some things. She’d already walked with Jesus and talked with Jesus, had rapport and a relationship with Jesus. So that at the worst of times, there’s something on the inside of you that can bubble up and carry you through.
Jesus says you’re going to need a firm foundation, y’all. We can’t be out in these streets playing church. Life is too hard for that. Earth is too rough for that. We’re going to actually have a real relationship with the Lord so that when our marriage is fragile, we have a walk with Jesus. When our kids are wayward and haven’t done the things we hoped they would do, we have a thing going on with Jesus. And when our heart is broken because of the betrayal, that person that said they wouldn’t abandon you and yet they have and they’ve betrayed you and abandoned you, and your heart is broken, you’re going to have to have a thing going on with Jesus.
And when the economy tanks and your finances are not what you prefer and you’re trying to find your way and business is hard and ministry is struggling and all of life seems to be closing in on you, you’re going to have to have a real relationship with the Christ, the Son of the living God, to carry you during hard times. It’s the only way we’re going to have houses that stay standing.
That’s why I’m so endeared to parents like the Medus over here. That’s why I’m so endeared when we see mothers and fathers in the house of God. People that have not just followed him for a season or a year or a decade, but they’ve gone the distance with Jesus.
And they’ve been through sunny days and rainy days. They’ve been through mountaintops and they’ve been through valleys. They’ve lived to tell the story that serving Jesus is worth it. They’re not bitter. They’re not skeptical of the church. They are still tender and sensitive in their hearts, out here praying over people, serving the house of God because they’ve walked with him long enough to tell the story that serving the Lord is worth it. We need some witnesses that can testify.
The older I get, the less impressed I am with the famous. I’m impressed with the faithful. I’m impressed with integrity. I’m impressed with character. People that have some backbone, some strength in the scaffolding of their spiritual life.
Concentric Circles of Jesus' Words
Jesus says there are two different people, but they both look like they have the same results, then the storm comes. Anytime in the scriptures when Jesus repeats himself or when the word repeats itself, that means you need to know it’s not because God likes to hear himself talk. If it’s repeated, it’s because he intends for you to lean all the way in, paying real close attention to it. He’s trying to get you to grab hold of something.
Like when you see in the scriptures «Truly, truly I say unto you,» repeated, pay attention. The same is true, by the way. If something is contrasting, if it appears to be different and conflicting with each other, the Bible is inherent. So if it appears to be contrasting, that means lean in. Pay attention. And there’s a reason.
Okay, in this passage, a bunch of stuff is repeated. For example, the storm. It’s exactly the same storm. Okay, there’s something else that is repeated at the top of verse 24 and at the top of verse 26. Here’s the line: «Everyone who hears these words of mine.» Okay, he says it again, «Everyone who hears these words of mine.» Same line.
I want you to see this in layers. «Everyone, everyone who hears, everyone who hears these words of mine.» Okay, there are layers for emphasis.
Okay, we find ourselves in these layers, and it helps to give us a key on what it means to have a firm foundation or what is required for us to have a firm foundation so we can make sure our houses are still standing.
Whenever in heaven we were all being fearfully and wonderfully made, I think there was a day where people were supposed to stand in line to get the math and science wiring in their brain. I missed that whole day. I don’t know where I was. I wasn’t in that line. So for me, math is just not my situation. It is not my jam at all.
Anytime my kids have come to me through the years and they’re like, «Can you help me with this math problem?» and I see an X or a Y, I’m out. One of the very, very few things I remember from math growing up is concentric circles.
Concentric circles are different-sized circles, but they share the same midpoint. So they have different radiuses and diameters, but the midpoint is the same. It’s a large circle, there’s a smaller circle within it, a smaller circle within that, and so on.
I want you to see Jesus’ words as concentric circles. He starts with the biggest: everyone. Everyone includes believers and unbelievers alike. He says, «All y’all.» Okay, everyone.
This is what Romans chapter 1 calls general revelation that everyone is privileged to experience. It is why the psalmist says the fool says in his heart there is no God. Because general revelation means through the things that God has created, you are able to see a reflection of the invisible God. The visible realities of earth actually tell us there’s got to be a God somewhere.
It’s like when you go on vacation. Have you ever stood on the beach and looked at the ocean and thought, «Oh my goodness, so vast, so powerful, so majestic?» Marine biologists have already declared that even with advancements in technology, they will never be able to plumb the depths of the ocean because it is absolutely too overwhelming for the human mind to comprehend or for technology to fully navigate and search out. It is so overwhelming.
Have you ever stood there and thought, «How in the world is this enormous powerful body of water being held back from overcoming the earth?» There has to be a powerful hand that is holding back the waters from encroaching upon the earth. You shouldn’t be able to see that and not know there has got to be a God somewhere.
The universe itself declares, the heavens declare the glory of God. There are neighborhoods in the galaxies that scientists don’t even know exist. They don’t even know it’s there. The God of the universe is hanging every single star in the sky, making sure that every one of them is at its post, making sure that the sun rose this morning, and it will stay in position all day long till it swaps places with the moon later on tonight.
He is the one making sure that the earth, right now while we’re sitting in this room, is turning on its axis at just the right speed to maintain life while we’re sitting in this room. And that great, powerful, almighty God who is in control of the universe, through the visible realities of the earth, is reflecting his creative genius and power.
It’s the fool who says in his heart there is no God. After you’ve seen all that, you should be everyone who knows there’s a God.
The sphere closes even further because he doesn’t just say everyone; he says everyone who hears. He’s not talking about physical hearing; he’s talking about spiritual ears to hear and discern what the Spirit of God is saying. This is conviction.
Conviction is where your heart warms up because you feel like you’re the only person sitting in the room. Conviction is when you and your spouse just had an argument this morning, and when you come into service, the pastor reads what the verse is for the day, and you feel like you did the church bug my house. How did they know?
Has that ever happened to you where you’re maybe having your quiet time and you read a verse that you have read a million times before? But on that day, it feels like the Holy Spirit has taken out a highlighter and has highlighted that one verse to speak directly to you.
This is because you have spiritual ears to hear the conviction of the Holy Spirit. This is why in the book of Revelation, the writer keeps saying, «He that hath an ear, let him hear.» He that hath an ear— not physical ears, spiritual equipping to be able to hear what the Spirit of God is saying.
When you place faith in Jesus Christ, you get spiritual ears to hear.
The Hookup: The Holy Spirit
When I was growing up, my siblings— a bunch of them were here earlier for the first service. There are four of us altogether, so I have three siblings. When we were growing up, we did not watch television during the week. That was one of the rules in our household. Mostly just because mom and dad, it was four of us. We had homework to do, and there were dinner dishes, and we had stuff to do. They were like, «This is just a distraction; it’s getting in the way.»
So we could only watch TV on the weekends, and one hour a week. It was the same hour every week that mom and dad and the four of us sat down on that couch and watched television. It was the same hour you were sitting down watching television because it was Thursday nights at 7:00.
From 7 to 7:30, it was The Cosby Show, and then from 7:30 to 8:00, it was Dwayne and Whitley. A different world was what we would watch then. So that was our hour of TV. We didn’t have cable. We didn’t have Direct TV. We didn’t have any of that in our house.
Which is why after I went through graduate school, I was getting ready to get married, and I moved into what would be our first apartment right over here off Swiss Avenue. We’re moving into our first little apartment, and the very first thing I wanted to do was get cable. I mean, that was like the excitement of my life. I wanted cable.
So I called the cable guy one day and I said, «Hey, come hook this situation up.» This is back in the day, y’all, when the television was a whole box. Like, it wasn’t nothing flat screen about it. It was a whole huge box and it had to go in a piece of furniture. So, I had an armoire. Y’all remember back in the day?
And that piece of furniture was in the corner of what would be our bedroom. The cable guy came. Oh, the glorious day that the cable man came. I let him in. He walked into the bedroom, moved the piece of furniture, hooked up a bunch of cables and stuff behind there.
And then when he was finished, he moved the piece of furniture back. He came around to me and handed me the remote control. He said, «Ma’am, push the guide button.» I pushed the guide button, and Lord, have mercy! All of these channels, all of these shows, all of these options flashed across the screen— hundreds and hundreds of them. I couldn’t believe all of these channels that were available to me.
Now, they didn’t just magically appear in that moment; they’d already been there. But I just got the hookup. It’s not that they weren’t already there and available; it’s just that if I didn’t have the right hookup, I wouldn’t be able to pick up on their frequency.
Do you understand that God is always speaking? He’s always moving. He’s always preparing a way and ordaining steps and aligning things. But if you don’t have the hookup, you won’t be able to pick up on the frequency. The Holy Spirit is the hookup.
Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13 and 14 says, «The moment you place faith in Jesus Christ, you get the hookup.» The Holy Spirit of God takes up residence on the inside of you.
And the Holy Spirit, y’all, is not a ghost or a wind or a fire or a dove. He’s often symbolized by those things in the scripture, but don’t minimize him. That’s not who he is. He’s the third person of the Trinity. Not third because he’s least in value; just third because he’s the last to be revealed in the pages of scripture. But all of the power, all of the grandeur, all of the authority of God the Father is in the person of the Holy Spirit.
When you place faith in Jesus, you receive the greatest gift you will ever receive this side of eternity. You receive the person of God himself and the Holy Spirit. He takes up residence on the inside of you, and he gives you ears to hear.
Everyone Who Hears These Words of Mine… and Does Them
«Everyone, everyone who hears,» even smaller, «everyone who hears these words of mine.» Jesus needed to clarify this for them for the same reason he needs to clarify it for us 2,500 years later.
Because back then, there were religious celebrities who were saying things that were charismatic and clever and cute, but they weren’t truth. They didn’t reflect Christ. And people were absorbing them because they were said charismatically and poetically and cutely.
Jesus would say of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the religious leaders of the day in Matthew 23, «Y’all are like whitewashed tombs; you look impressive on the outside, but inside you’re just full of dead men’s bones and all kinds of uncleanness.» And those were the people that folks were listening to.
Y’all, I fear that we live in a day and age of whitewashed tombs. There are folks out here talking a good game. It sounds clever, and it’s charismatic, and the posts look refreshing and perfectly lit. And we’re sitting here absorbing everything we’re hearing just because it sounds cute and clever and is said charismatically without taking seriously whether or not it’s actually his word.
And so they’re packaging lies in the veneer of truth, making it sound so close to God’s word that if we are not discerning, if we are not careful, if we are not wise, if we are not invested in whether or not what we’re hearing is God’s word, they will take us on a ride.
It is responsible for the speaker, for the deliverer of God’s word, to make sure they’re being responsible to the text, but it is also incumbent upon you and me as the listener to make sure we’re not absorbing everything we’re hearing just because it’s charismatically said, but that we’re discerning, testing the Spirit by the Spirit—anything that contorts God’s character, anything that diminishes his standard, anything that tries to mold, morph, and modernize God so that he is no longer the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forevermore.
So make it your business, when you hear even what I’ve said today, don’t just believe me. Go back to the book and be a student and say, «Lord, is this what you said?»
Y’all, we’re going to have to be responsible not just to hear and absorb in our lives, but to ask ourselves if this is reflective of Christ and his kingdom.
«Everyone, everyone who hears, everyone who hears my words and does them.» Why is the circle so small? Why are there so many of us across Dallas-Fort Worth? We got mega churches on every corner. Why are there so many of us in church every Sunday but not the same amount of us out there through the week doing what he says?
So many of us, including me, don’t need to hear one more sermon. We need to do what God said in the last 20 sermons we heard. Are we or are we not going to be obedient disciples?
Because this is the difference between being a believer and being a disciple. Being a believer—thank you, Lord—it’s a free gift. Placing faith in Jesus Christ, you receive salvation. It’s free.
Discipleship comes at a cost. This right here is deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. It means the decisions I’m making in my reactions, in my relationships, how I steward my finances, how I govern the decisions I’m making and building this business to make sure it’s with integrity.
You’re going to have to decide, «Am I going to be a disciple, or am I just going to play church every Sunday for the rest of my life?»
This little pin prick of invitation and opportunity will determine whether or not you and I have houses that stay standing. Whether or not we have foundations that are secure so that when the skies open up and the hurricane comes, our house is built on solid rock.
And I don’t know about you, but I want my house to be standing in Jesus’ name.
Closing Prayer
Will you bow your heads with me, please? If you are in this room and you already know the area of obedience that the Lord is calling you to consider—like, there’s something on your mind right now, and you’ve not been surrendering it, and you feel God saying surrender, obey, build a firm foundation—if that’s you, would you just raise your hand and let me pray with you and for you? No matter where you are, from the top to the bottom. Just raise your hand if that’s you.
Lord Jesus, you see every hand that is raised and you see the heart that it represents. You know the area of obedience or disobedience that you are calling them to surrender. So I ask right now in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, Lord, that you would loosen any shackles that are on their lives that are keeping them from walking in the full abundance, freedom, and victory that you have called them to: every habit, every addiction, every lifestyle that is out of alignment with your word. I pray right now for supernatural recalibration in Jesus’ name. Then I pray that in these next days there will be practical application. Put accountability in their lives. Father, give them courage to say no and to say yes to you. Father, I pray that there will be victory and freedom in the name of Jesus Christ in every area of their lives, Father. And help us all to build our lives on solid rock. You are worth it. Not just in one season, but in every season for the rest of our lives in Jesus’ name. All God’s people agreed and said, «Amen.»