Alright, if you have your Bibles this morning, would you turn with me to Psalm 11, and children can be dismissed at this time. Psalm 11. Forward in faith, or a walk in faith, and Psalm 11, first three verses, as we look at the passage of Scripture tonight. I'm so encouraged, and this has been on my heart for a while, and I've been thinking, praying about, Lord, what is the theme for 2024? What is the emphasis? What direction should we go? And as the Lord just continued to put it upon my heart and mind, foundations. If our foundation is unstable, our life falls apart. If our foundation is not only theologically set, but practically established. And there are so often times in our lives we have head knowledge, but we don't put that knowledge to the pavement where we actually live it out. And so the truth is this morning is forward in faith, Psalm 11, verses one through three. Let's read. In the Lord put I my trust, how say ye to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain, for lo, The wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Now David is here referring to the malicious and spiteful stories which were circulated about him at court. A little illustration for you, this is a commentary by John Phillips, he goes on to say, Saul did not have a more loyal supporter than David, but Saul felt inferior to David, and Saul attacked David. David's men panicked when they saw the foundations of their nation beginning to crumble around them. I think we can resemble that very same thing today. We see our nation crumbling. Quickly, these foundations refer to the law and the order of society based on the Lord's rule. Most likely, the reasoning of David's consultants going on here went something like this. When the citizens of Israel rebelled against the Lord, His commandments, and His appointed king, there was nothing that could be done to prevent the fall of the nation. They should at least attempt to save their own lives and leave the nation to its inevitable ruin, one would think. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? David cried, the word foundation comes from the Hebrew word meaning the settled order of things. David likens society to a building. The foundation of society is law and order, justice and truth. If law and order, justice and truth are undermined in a society, then what can the righteous do? In the original context, the form of the question here is such that David can find no answer. These are the very foundations which are being destroyed in Western society today. Their law is being destroyed, order is being destroyed, truth is being destroyed, justice, morality, decency, and integrity. Humanist and libertarian views prevail in our schools, our courts, our government, and in the media. A determined attack is being mounted against everything decent, moral, and Christian in our society. The foundations are being destroyed to make room for the coming reign of the man of sin that we will know in the Bible as the Antichrist. Now I want to ask you several questions this morning before we come to prayer. What is, we're going to talk about faith because there is no greater foundation than what is your faith. What is the purpose of faith? What is the strength of faith? What is the purpose of the Bible? Is the Bible just a good resource manual when I need it? Is it just an ancient religious text? Is it the book which the pastor pontificates or preaches from on church days? What is the purpose of church? You see, if you're a Christian, then faith is your foundation. Now we understand from Hebrews 11, verse 1, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Your faith is the foundation of your hope. If your faith is on a rocky foundation, your hope will be rocky. You have been called as a Christian, if you are a Christian, you know Jesus Christ is your Savior, to live by faith, otherwise you are not a Christian. But how does a Christian live by faith? How do we know how to live by faith? How do we know what convictions to base our lives upon? The Bible tells us in Hebrews 10, verse 38, Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. The Bible very clearly tells us if your foundation is not in faith, God is not pleased with you. If you are going to be a successful Christian, you are to fortify your foundation. That fortify is to build up, to strengthen, like if you had a castle and you had walls around that castle and those walls were in a deteriorating condition where they were kind of rotting out or the rocks were getting weak and the walls, you needed to go and you needed to strengthen those walls so that when the attacks come, they're not getting through that impenetrable wall. You see, we've got to establish in our lives, we have to fortify our foundations. And then we must establish what is the very foundation for how we live and work in life. Let me look at James, look with me at James chapter one. And then we'll go to prayer this morning. But this is something that's been so heavy on my heart and mind, and I was really pondering and praying and studying this week. James 1, verses 5 and 6. If your fate is not settled in the one who holds eternity, you will be violently tossed about in life. Now, faith is, again, it's not, it doesn't just end once you get saved. Every day we must exercise faith. And I'm gonna talk about how do we do this? How does this implemented in my everyday life? James 1, verses five and six, if any of you lack wisdom, Let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. The Bible tells us if I'm going to go to God and I'm going to ask of him, I have to do it in faith. So may this morning, may you make Christ your foundation and the Bible your guide to life and a deeper walk with Christ. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I love you and I am so thankful for being our gracious Savior. Lord, I yield this morning to thee. I love you. And Father, I pray as the Word of God is preached that it would go forth, convict hearts, stir hearts, encourage hearts, comfort. Lord, only you know what is needed in the heart of each and every person. Father, I just yield this time to you. Take control of my lips, my thoughts, and may you be praised. Thank you for being our gracious and loving Redeemer. And we'll commit this time into thy hands. In Jesus' precious name I pray, amen. When you think about, first of all, the firm foundation, I'd like you to look with me at the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 58, Isaiah 58 verse 10. Isaiah 58 verse 10. I'll give you a moment to get there. it is important, as I had mentioned there in the Burj Khalifa, that that building had a solid foundation. For something to rise 2,700 feet into the air, and it would have 110,000 tons there, I think it was, what is it, 110,000 tons of concrete, more than that, I mean, unbelievable massive amounts of concrete to hold this large structure upright without leaning, without falling, you need a solid foundation. And Christian, our foundation has to be more than just our salvation. That is the beginning of our faith. But my faith is lived out on a daily basis, and not only am I relying on Christ for my salvation, I'm relying on Him every day for how I live out my life, and how to deal with obstacles, how to deal with trials, how to deal with storms and things that come up in our lives. Isaiah chapter 58, verse 10, "'And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry "'and satisfy the afflicted soul, "'then shall thy light rise in obscurity, "'and thy darkness be as the noonday. "'And the Lord shall guide thee continually "'and satisfy thy soul in drought, "'and make fat thy bones, "'and thou shalt be like a watered guard, "'and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. "'And they that shall be of thee "'shall build the old waste places. "'Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations, And thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath the delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord. I will cause thee to ride upon the high place of the earth and Feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it what we find in this very passage of scripture God says if you make me first and you're obedient to the Word of God I'm going to be for you. I will help you and strengthen you. I will repair the breaches that are in your life. I Maybe there's some things going on in your life that are troublesome or struggling with and God says you've got to be obedient. And where is the foundation? 2 Timothy 2, verse 19, nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his. And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. The Bible says leave iniquity, leave trying to do life your own way, and instead do it my way. Now here's something we find here. Psalm 82.5, you know what, our government has no clue about a solid foundation. Our government doesn't know what really comprises a good society. The Bible has given us the very truths that are needed for a society. We need a strong family. We need strong individuals. We need people with character, people that have a love for God, a love for neighbor. These are the things that are, you know, God is the author of the institution of government. He's the author of the institution of the home. He's the institution of the church. God is the one who set the rules, and if we do it God's way, things go out a whole lot better than when a government tries to do it in their own humanistic way, going against the very foundations of God. And as we find our nation, and we find our world going away from God, going into moral indecency and moral perversion, we find that there is a decay in our society, we find an increase in mental health, we find massive other problems in our society because they have gone away from the foundation of God. Psychology's foundation, if you're older than 40, there was a name, Benjamin Spock, is more than familiar. He told an entire generations of parents to take it easy. Don't ever discipline your children and allow them to express themselves. Discipline, he told us, would warp a child's fragile ego. A child needs to have a loving correction and mentoring your child. Millions followed this guru of child development, and he remained unchallenged among child-rearing professionals. However, before his death, Dr. Spock made an amazing discovery. He said he was wrong. In fact, he said, we have reared a generation of brats. Parents aren't firm enough with their children for fear of losing their love or incurring their resentment. This is a cruel deprivation that we professionals have imposed on mothers and fathers. Of course, we did it with the best of intentions. We didn't realize until it was too late how our know-it-all attitude was undermining the self-assurance of parents. There's fads. We find a lot of fads in our society today. There's a lot of things that have come under the name of Christianity. For a while, there was the Prayer of Jabez book, and there was a fad, and it was a fascination. There was a purpose-driven fad, where everyone was reading the purpose-driven life, and that man is an absolute heretic. And then there's an openness theology where God doesn't know the future. Then there's the emergent church and all the bans and all these sorts of things. Then there's a virtual victory of egalitarianism where churches go into a social gospel. The thing that we want to do is we want to raise people up out of poverty. Well, the way to raise people up out of poverty is if they know Jesus Christ and their heart is right, then they can work and they can get away from the vices and all those sins that are keeping them enshackled. And then there's a trend of mega church pastors doing impersonation of secular life coaches, Joel Osteen being one of them. You have Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes, Joyce Meyer, and other complete heretics. You have the Willow Creek-ization of broad evangelicalism. We have a thing today, what happened at Willow Creek, there was a church in Illinois, this guy went around the community and said, he went to the people in the community and he asked them, what would you like in a church? And they did that, they brought that into the church. And he would end up, as I'll tell you here in a little bit, but he would end up saying, this did not produce the Christians that we thought it would. And we find here in Psalm 11, verses 1 through 3, if the foundations are destroyed, that idea is ruined, brought down to nothing. What is it that destroys? Proverbs 11.11. If you'd like to look there with me at Proverbs 11.11. My friend, we judge everything upon the book, God's book. This is the foundation of how I live my life. This is the foundation of how you establish your work, your home, your personal life. Everything is established around the book, the Bible. In Proverbs 11, 11, by the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. And we are seeing things today destroying our nation. Walls are thrown down. Foundations are broken. And you know what, it will only be like that for a while. We must fortify our foundations. I'm just kind of getting a start of this idea here, but in Ezekiel chapter 38, verses 19 and 20, the Bible says, for in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken. Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel so that the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the heaven and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep upon the earth and all the men that are upon the face of the earth shall shake at my presence. And the mountain shall be thrown down, the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. And understand this, my friend, that there is coming a day of God's judgment. As we've studied the book of Revelation, we're still working our way through it. But the idea is that there's coming a day when I'm going to have to give an accountability for how I've lived my life. And I'm not trying to discourage this morning and the stone wall was broken down. You find this in Proverbs chapter 24 verses 30 and 31. I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding and lo it was all grown over with thorns and nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone wall thereof was broken down. You see, what does it take for our foundations to be destroyed? You just don't need to do anything. You know, if we're not in the word of God, we're not meditating. And I'm gonna get a little bit further, but I don't wanna jump ahead, but let me read for you something that Bob Birney would write. This was actually the Willow Creek Church. The leaders would actually say this. Bill Hybels, he's no longer there. He had to leave under sexual allegations and other problems. But nevertheless, he says, this comes from Bob Birney, first person, a shocking confession from Willow Creek Community Church. It says, for most of a generation, evangelicals have been romanced by the seeker-sensitive movement spawned by Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. The guru of this movement is Bill Hybels. He and others have been telling us for decades to throw out everything we have previously thought and been taught about church growth and replace it with a new paradigm, a new way to do ministry. Inadvertently, with this new wave of ministry came a de-emphasis on taking personal responsibility for Bible study, combined with an emphasis on felt-needs-based programs and slick marketing. The size of the crowd, rather than the depth of the heart, determined its success. If the crowd was large, then surely God was blessing the ministry. Churches were built by demographic studies, professional strategists, marketing research, meeting felt needs, and sermons consistent with these techniques. We were told that preaching was out, relevance was in, doctrine didn't matter nearly as much as innovation. If it was cutting-edge and consumer-friendly, it was doomed. If it wasn't cutting-edge, excuse me, and consumer-friendly, it was doomed. The mention of sin, salvation, and sanctification were taboo and replaced by Starbucks, strategy, and sensitivity. Thousands of pastors would hang on, but they asked how, you know, and here's the stunning thing that goes on here. The promise was clear. Thousands of people, millions of dollars. Satellite seminars were packed with hungry church leaders learning the latest way to do church. The promise was clear. Thousands of people, millions of dollars. Couldn't be wrong. Forget what people need. Give them what they want. How can you argue with the numbers if you dared to challenge the experts who were immediately labeled as a traditionalist, a throwback to the 50s, a stubborn dinosaur unwilling to change with the times? All that changed recently. They have released the results of a multi-year study on the effectiveness of their programs and philosophy of ministry. The study's findings are in a new book titled, Reveal, What Are You? Co-authored by Callie Parkinson and Greg Hawkins. I don't know anything about them, but Heibel's himself called the findings groundbreaking, earth-shaking, and mind-blowing. This was obviously a number of years ago. The report reveals that most of what they had been doing for these many years, What they have taught millions of others to do is not producing solid disciples of Jesus Christ. Numbers, yes, but not disciples. It gets worse, Heibel says. Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back, it wasn't helping people that much. Other things that we didn't put that much money into and didn't put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for. If you simply want a crowd, the seeker-sensitive model produces results. If you want solid, sincere, mature followers of Christ, it's a bust. In a shocking confession, Heibel said, we made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and became Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take personal responsibility to become self feeders. We should have gotten people, taught people how to read the Bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own. What is he saying? He said we should have done it the way the Bible says to do it. And you think about this, an unhealthy preoccupation. What all of this was is they said, well, if it's pragmatism, pragmatism is, the idea is, if I wanna get an A in class, I don't know, I'm not learning what the teacher's doing, so I'm gonna cheat, and that'll get me my A. Doesn't matter how I got there, I'm gonna get my A. Well, that's cheating to get there, right? And you're bypassing things you should've done. You should've learned and studied and listened and all that. But you didn't, you tried to bypass it, and you got results, but you didn't get those results, honestly, and that's the fact. The results are there. Now, I say all of this idea that God's desire is that the foundation is our faith. Now, what I mean by all this is these people are following all of these individuals who are not feeding them, much like you might find in Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 34 discusses this. There's preaching that is centered on getting the result without moving people to a closer walk with Jesus Christ. And I want to talk about this foundation this morning. What is your faith in? If a crowd of people, illustration for you, are running in a particular direction, you would be prompted to run with them. The more cautious would ask why the people are running and where they're running to. Now imagine this, imagine you're in a place and a ton of people are running in a large, in one direction, they're running this way. And you're sitting there, you're like, where's everyone running? I don't know, but let's run with them, right? The whole crowd's running, let's run with them. Well, where are they going? What's the problem? What's causing them to run, right? To blindly run with the crowd without knowing where you're going is a very dangerous action. Think about this, that oftentimes animals are corralled and pushed in a direction which will ultimately be their slaughter. If you're not sure where you're going or the direction you're going in life, then you're liable to being upset, discouraged, and off track of your expectations. Unless you have your eyes fixed on a target or a destination, you're unlikely to make your destination. If your life is going to stand the test of time, and the assaults of various storms and winds of affliction, then you must have a sure foundation. I'd like you to look with me at Ephesians chapter 4. I read that lengthier portion there on the church because the idea is just because a church has numbers does not mean it is necessarily a healthy church. And just because a church is small doesn't necessarily mean it's healthy. It could be both. But the idea here is that we've got to settle individually in our lives what is our foundation. Because if my foundation is a direction that a lot of people are going, is that a right direction? We learned a lot about that through the whole pandemic era. A lot of people were going a direction, but it wasn't necessarily the right direction. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God and to a perfect man and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro. Carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sight of men in cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive but speaking the truth in love May grow up into him in all things which the head even Christ. What is that you have to be anchored? He says you grow up into Christ grow up speaking the truth and And as you understand this very, you have to, because there's a lot of fads that come. And you look through the years of your life, what you've seen in Christianity, if you've been around Christianity for any length of time, you will have seen a lot of things that have come. There used to be, a lot of churches used to do this, where they'd have a traditional service and a contemporary service. It created tremendous division in those churches. created a lot of problems, and it didn't produce fruit. It created where the older people and then the younger people, but the older people and the younger people weren't together, and it created lots of problems in churches. It wasn't uniting churches, it was dividing churches. That's not of God, that's not what God wants, and what the Bible is saying here is you must be anchored. You must be grow up into Him, grow up into Christ, have that faith. Now what is necessary for a foundation or an anchoring? On December 2001, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was finally reopened to the public after having been closed for almost a dozen years. During that time, engineers completed a $25 million renovation project designed to stabilize the tower. They removed 110 tons of dirt. and reduced its famous lean by about 16 inches. Why was this necessary? Because the tower had been tilting further and further away from vertical for hundreds of years to the point that the top of the 185-foot tower was 17 feet further south than the bottom. I mean, you talk about a lean 17 feet from the bottom to the top, that is way off. And Italian authorities were concerned that if nothing was done, it would soon collapse. What was the problem? Bad design? Poor workmanship? An inferior grade of marble? No, the problem was what was underneath. The sandy soil on which the city of Pisa was built was just not stable enough to support a monument of this size. The tower did not have a firm foundation. It had been a spectacle for many years. The unfortunate reality is, however, that as intriguing as it is, the building would eventually fall. What is the reason for this, right? Poor planning research, poor location, poor foundation. Now if we think about this in our own personal life, when storms come your way, hardships come, and problems come, where is your foundation? How do you respond when you are faced with adversity? And you might say, well, I believe in Jesus. That's wonderful, and I'm glad you do. But what is it that is guiding the decisions that get you through that storm of life? What is the very choices that you're making, what are they based on? The Bible tells us in Isaiah 28, 16, What is, you know, and then we find in 1 Peter 2, latter portion of verse 6, you can look at verses 4 through 6. Let's look at this, 1 Peter 2, verses 4 through 6. If we don't establish the foundation, you can say, I'm a Christian, I trust Jesus, praise the Lord. We have to have that mindset. But how do I get it when I actually trust Jesus? What does it look like as a Christian when the problems are coming, how do I actually prove to the world that Jesus is my foundation? How do I prove, I'm not saying, how do you prove to the Lord that your foundation is Him? How is it that you live out your life? 1 Peter 2, 4-6, as I kind of work on this idea here, to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, ye also as lively stones. God's called us, you and I, as lively stones, are built up as spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, verse 6 of 1 Peter 2. Wherefore also, Now Jesus says, I want to be the very cornerstone. He's the cornerstone of a church. That's 1 Peter 2, verses 4-6. And we understand also that in our very faith and in the churches, the institution of churches are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. You can find that in Ephesians 2, 19 through 21. But you are either, you will either accept or reject this cornerstone of Jesus Christ. Psalm 118, 22, the stone which the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner. You will either establish a central point of focus or you'll follow your own ideas of how to deal with problems of life. Look with me at Proverbs 28, 26. And how many people, how many professing believers are doing this and their lives are a wreck? In Proverbs 28, 26, where their lives are getting more and more difficult and struggling and going in a direction that is not of the Lord. Proverbs 28, 26. As a Christian, we can say these truths. But when you're at home by yourself, or in your bed when you pillow your head at night, and these problems are racing through your life, How do you turn? Where do you turn to? What do you look to for answers? In Proverbs 28, 26, he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. But whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. The Bible says you either establish a central point of focus or you follow your own heart. You follow your heart. As the Bible says, you're a fool. You see in Matthew chapter seven, look with me here at Matthew chapter seven. Matthew chapter seven, verse 15. You might be saying, well, pastor, I pray. That's good, I'm glad you do. Do you also search the scriptures? Because in your problems, the Bible has the answer. This is what I'm getting to. The Bible has the answers for the problems we're going through. But am I willing to submit my spirit under this book to do what God's called me to do? In Matthew 7, verse 15, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wool. This is Matthew 7, verse 16, coming to. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Understand this, if your foundation is bad, you won't produce good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast in the fire. Wherefore, by their fruit ye shall know them. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? In thy name have cast out devils, in thy name done many wonderful works. And then look with me here at this verse 24. Then will I profess unto them. I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. These people are doing a lot of work for God, but their foundation was never God. They call, Lord, Lord, we did a lot of wonderful work. He said, I don't even know who you are. Your foundation was on religion, was on tradition. You might say, I believe in God. That's great, but you never put your faith completely in Him. It says in verse 24, and your foundation. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon the rock. Heareth these sayings of mine, you hear, and you're obedient, you submit. I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. Verse 26, when everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell. And great was the fall of it. You see, your foundation will determine whether you stand the tests, the struggles, and the adversities of life. When I ask you this morning, what is your foundation? Where do you turn when you're like, my life is falling apart and I don't know where to go? I don't know what to do. I'm struggling. What do I do? I'm praying. And maybe God is saying, I want you to do this. Because unless Jesus is the one leading and guiding the Spirit of God, the Comforter, leading us and guiding us, and he does so through the Word of God, my heart is leading me in this way, but if that way is in opposition of the Word of God, you're going a wrong direction, you'll follow your heart. And Jesus, for some people, they talk the talk of being Christian, they might do things for God, they might do things that look really good, and you're like, wow, they've gotta be a strong Christian, and then Jesus says, I don't even know them. They can talk the talk, they can walk the walk, but they don't know the Lord of the walk. Because their foundation in that verse, they've never settled, Jesus Christ is my Savior. I walked up onto this platform today. I wasn't worrying whether it was gonna crash down onto the basement. It would be rather uncomfortable. If this floor gave out and I crashed down to the basement, I would not be in the same shape I am in now. If there's a big old trap door or something happened, boom, you know, that's not a good day. But I stood up, I came up here, because I said I knew this was gonna hold me, by God's grace, and I'm not gonna fall in. But when you are, you can guarantee you and your Christian life will face troubles. And that is where you find out how strong is my foundation. Look with me at Hebrews chapter 12. Got a lot more to go through, I won't be able to get through it this morning. Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. The seeker-sensitive movement, they thought they had something sure, boom, gone. There was a church, it was a quote-unquote church, that I was a part of while I was in Seattle. Massive emergent church, growing 60% a year. The pastor had some real problems. He left and the whole church crumbled, boom, gone overnight. It was built on a man, it wasn't built on Jesus. In Hebrews 12, verse 1, Jesus must be your foundation for salvation, but He also has to be your foundation every day. And if you're not in the Word of God daily meditating on His Word, you don't have a solid foundation. You're fickle. You're up. You're down. The works of the flesh. You might have a day where you're the fruit of the Spirit and you're beginning to submit and then all of a sudden, boom, something happens and you're back and acting like the works of the flesh. And you're not behaving like a Christian ought to behave because your foundation is you. It's not Christ. Hebrews 12, one and two, wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us. What is the very thing in your life that will cause you to say, I give up, I'm done with God, I'm done with church, I don't want anymore to deal with Christians, what is it? What is the very thing in your life that causes you, oh, I messed up again. Oh, I gave in to sin again. What is it that causes you that besetting sin? What is it that's gonna pull you back down? If it's being around friends who are going in a wrong direction and doing things that they ought not to do and you hang around them and then you find yourself going down that wrong path again, stay away from them. That's a besetting sin. The Bible says stay. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which has so easily beset us, and let us run with, what's the next word? Patience. The race is set before us. You know what, that's the word that I don't like. Because the Christian life is not a sprint. You don't achieve superior Christianity status quickly. It's a patient day in. Patience is the very thing of being able to bear up under the assaults of others. The Bible tells us in verse two, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. My faith starts with him and it finishes with him. Who for the joy that was set before him. He's saying there's joy set before me, there's a hope. The joy set before him endured the cross. What part of going to a cross would be enjoyable? Because he knew that it would bring you to a reconciled state with God. He knew what he was to do. Set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. You see, Christian life, your faith starts with Christ. There's a beginning, and there's a finish, and there's a dash in between. Your life is a starting place of a birth, a dash, and a completion. How you live your life is all in that dash. Is it on faith? Is Jesus truly the one that is your foundation? Is the Word of God, which you come to, you said, I don't know what to do. God, I'm out of answers. I'm so lost. I give up. I can guarantee it upon the authority of God's Word. As the Bible tells us, In Proverbs 4.23, keep thy heart with all diligence for out of the issues of life. If your heart and you've been injured in things from the past and you don't deal with those, you have made the foundation for your life something other than Christ. Yes, you can be faithful in church. Yes, you can read your Bible. But if we don't deal with those the way God wants us to deal with them, we're gonna struggle. And you know what, that's fine, we all struggle. And I had periods, there's still times in my life, I'm like, Lord, I don't know what I'm doing, how do I do this, you know? And the whole thing of the Christian life is, I don't know what I'm doing, I'm moving forward in the knowledge and the wisdom of God's word, and I'm just gonna follow as he leads. Because I don't know the future. I don't know what the future holds. I don't know what God has for my life or my family's life. I don't know all of that, but I know every day what I'm supposed to do. In regards to, I know I'm supposed to get up, I'm supposed to meditate on God's word, God will give me the words, the encouragement and strength I need for that day, and I move forward to deal with whatever adversities come my way. Because Jesus is the author, the finisher, and the dash in between. God's called us forward in faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. We don't know what the future holds. Galatians 3 in the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith. Preached before the gospel to Abraham saying, and these shall all nations be blessed. You know what, Abraham left, er of the Chaldees, not knowing where he was going, but he left simply by faith. You see, Christian, if our life, in our everyday lives, when we are struggling, not even when we're struggling in the good times and the bad times, I've gotta say, Lord, you direct my day. Guide me through your word. and I will follow. The surest foundation in our lives is the Lord Jesus Christ. And I don't say that at some trivial Christian thing. I say that because the practice of our lives at every moment of every day, what does God say in God's word, and I'm going to follow it. This book has the answers for our life. It is our foundation through Jesus Christ. God did give us the very instructions and guidance and love and all of those things that we need through this book. And my friend, this morning, if you're struggling and you say, pastor, I don't know what to do, I'd love to meet with you. I'm not just going to say, go read your Bible. You're like, I don't know where to look. Well, we'll be happy to meet with you. The truth is, this book will heal our hearts. This book will help us if we'll just trust God, be faithful, be obedient with what God has called us to do. As we have a time of invitation this morning, you see there is, in the invitation period, I want you to really ask the Lord, Father, am I living my life in faith? Do I deal with things in faith? Because in faith, I'm going to ask God how to deal with it. If I'm dealing with it in my own knowledge, my own understanding, you're not living by faith. And it's impossible to please him. Hebrews 11.6 discusses. And so this morning, Christian, are you living by faith? Moving, direction, all in faith. And if you are not in faith, then your foundation is unsettled. You won't lose your salvation if you're safe. But your life is gonna have a whole lot more rocking and a whole lot more movement than you would like. Why don't we this morning just settle in our hearts. Number one, God, is there anything in my life that is creating a lack of faith? Number two, am I coming to the word of God, using it as a very foundation for my life? As you think on these truths this morning, if I could have Mrs. Pack come forward, please. I just want to ask you again, are you moving forward in faith? If you've never put your faith in Christ, you've never settled the foundation of Jesus Christ as the author of your faith with you this morning, just bow your head and ask God, please forgive me of all my sins. I recognize, I realize I'm a guilty sinner. Please forgive me. and be my Savior and you put your complete trust in Him, my friend, you're forgiven. Christian, what a wonderful thing it is to be a Christian and to know Jesus and to know that I can have a solid foundation. When the wind and the waves beat against me, I don't need to move. As the music plays this morning with heads bowed and eyes closed, I just trust that you would pray and talk with God wherever you may be.