A Solid Foundation

By Pastor Matt Black

18 February 2007
Lord's Day morning
Ephesians 2:20

Introduction: Open your Bible to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  The title of this morning’s message is “A Solid Foundation”.    Let’s stand together and read Ephesians 2:19-22.

Ephesians 2:19-22, “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20  And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21  In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22  In whom ye also are [being] builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

Introduction:  When I was in Spain, we had the privilege of transforming a 300 year old Basque farmhouse into a Christian camp and conference center.  Buildings 300 years ago were built differently than today.  Many of those buildings were built stone by stone.   Those stones rest on each other with only clay in between them!  Do you know why that building is still standing today?  Because it is built on solid rock! 

Our text tells us that God is building a house, a holy temple to dwell in.  God is doing it His way.  He maps out the foundation, He fits us into place, and then he fills that place.  This teaching is throughout the Bible. 

1 Corinthians 3:16, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

2 Corinthians 6:16, “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

God says, I want to dwell in my people.  But first He must lay the foundation.  There are many foundations in the world today, but only a Christian has the right foundation.

A foundation is what the whole building depends on.   The Bible says we are “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone”.  Foundations are important. 

If you don’t get the foundation right, everything you build thereafter falls apart.  Isn’t that right?  We’ve got a piece of land we are looking at to build a new church building on, but we’ve got to do soil boring to see what we are building on. 

I. First, let’s see some examples of Bad Foundations

What is your foundation?  What is it you are depending on when you make each decision?  “Just two choices on the shelf, pleasing God or pleasing self!”  Which one will you choose today.  Will we say “all to the glory of God” or do we have the motto, “Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to comfort of self”?  Brothers and sisters that is idolatry. That is a bad foundation.

Look over at Matthew 7:24-27.   Jesus gave us some good advice on bad foundations!   “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: 25  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 a rock. 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: 27  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.”

What is your foundation?  Perhaps the moorings of your life constantly seem to be shifting!  Let’s look at some Bad foundations!!  For many Americans, food is an idol.  Instead of leaning on the Rock Jesus Christ, we lean on food!  Now there is nothing wrong with food.  The Lord said whether we eat or drink we need to do all to the glory of God.

A. Comfort Eating.  We come to the table and we say, “I can’t help myself!”  I just had to eat that 10 ounce Filet Mignon… and that 10 ounce baked potato… with lots of butter… and sour crème… and I just had to eat those 3 bread rolls….  Dear brother and sister in Christ today, listen to me: you can and must help yourself by the grace and for the glory of God.  There are only two ways to eat.  We can eat sinfully, or we can eat to the glory of God.

1. Eating for comfort alone is sinful eating.  We eat because it tastes so good—it makes our body feel so good, and so we become gluttonous.  The Bible says of the wicked in Philippians 3:19, “Their God is their belly!”  The comfort that we receive from food takes the place of the “God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3) and must be exposed as an idol.  How do you know if this is going on?  It is simple.  If you ever feel so compelled to eat that you just can’t say no, then food is an idol.  If you cannot say no, then food has become a ruthless taskmaster.  Instead of food serving to nourish your body, your body is a slave to food.

2. Eating for the God alone gives glory to God.  “Whether therefore ye eat or drink... do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).  We are such slaves to food and entertainment, that we get robbed of fellowship with our family.  So instead of using meal times as an opportunity to stop and reflect and fellowship with our family, we have 10 minute power eating so we can get back to our misplaced priorities. 

B. Depression.  Depression or discouragement is not a valid reason to disobey God.  If you don’t do what God wants you to do because you feel despair, you are disobeying God.  You and I live under the curse, and from time to time we are going to feel the effects of that curse in our emotions.  Depression will almost always give us an inflated view of life, as if everything is wrong, and it can’t be fixed.  Discouragement and depression are two of the greatest weapons in Satan’s arsenal.  Can I let you in on a secret?  Depression is a gift from God.   No matter what is going on, God is still on the throne, and that is something to rejoice about.  And even if you are depressed in your spirit, and you can’t tell exactly why, you must come to the place where you have decided to serve and glorify God no matter what you feel like!!  If you are willing to disobey God in order to lift your depressed feelings, then your emotions have become an idol for you.  

C. Pleasure.  Some of you men believe that you must have intimate pleasure, and that controls you.  It may be that you have a problem with looking with lust.  You are constantly in judgment against your wife because she doesn’t please you.  The marriage bed is no longer pleasurable to your wife and no longer satisfying to you.  If that is the case pleasure has become an idol to you.  Let’s think about this. 

· Hebrews 13:4, “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”

· Jesus said in Matthew 5:28, “That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

Men and ladies, your body is not your own.  It is the Lord’s.  If you are married, your body is to be used to please your spouse.  You are to serve your spouse and be selfless.  Men, if you think you must have pleasure to be happy, that pleasure is an idol.  Let your wife fill your cistern.  Don’t drink from a broken cistern.  Be patient with your wife.  Love her, and wait on the Lord.  There are some men who have wives that are invalids.  God sustains them. And it illustrates that a man doesn’t need pleasure to survive.  Our goal is the glory of God.

Ladies, if you are married, you need to keep your husband’s cup full.  If his cup is filled at home, he won’t go seeking for it else where.  If you don’t fill his cup at home you are tempting him to find his pleasure at a broken cistern.

Whether you are married or not, we must not be controlled by our pursuit of pleasure.  We ought to pursue our pleasure in God.  Lady, no man on earth can be the amazing prince that you desire.  No one can fill that longing but God.  Man, no woman in the world can fulfill you completely.  Men get divorced all the time and seek the floozy.  Guess what?  They end up divorcing the floozy.   We need to seek our pleasure in pleasing God!!

Singles, marriage is not what you need.  It will not fulfill you.  Nothing will fulfill you unless God is on the throne of your heart.  You must be willing to be single—asleep in the will of God—until or unless God tells you otherwise.

D. Anger.  Does anger cause you to sin?  Does it control you?  Do you use anger to get your way?  Do you use it to solve problems in a godly way or to manipulate people to get your way?  You ought to control it for the glory of God.  Notice I did not say you need to get rid of it   God gives us anger at times. The Bible says “Be angry and sin not.”  Anger is a gift from God to help you find His solution to the problem.  But again you must to control it for the glory of God.  There are two words for anger in the Bible: Both of them have the idea of a heightened passion because of injury.  How do you know if anger is sinful?  If anger causes you to sin, then it is sinful.  If anger causes you to clam up it is sinful.  In argument, do you stop talking when you don’t get your way?  Then your way has become an idol, and your anger has become a tool for vengeance.  Perhaps you don’t clam up, you just blow up!  There is a progression to sinful anger.  Here’s how it goes…

· I Desire such and such.

· I Demand such and such.  It is my right to have your respect.  It is my right to not have to watch the kids tonight and instead watch the TV.  It is my right to have a little appreciation around here.  It is my right to not have to take the garbage out, since I did it last time.  I demand that I have my rights and my way!! That is sinful!  Love your neighbor.  You need to be willing to wash your enemy’s feet.

· I Judge you because you won’t give me such and such.  If you loved God, you would let me have such and such.  If you really were a Christian, you would let me have my way.  You are a bad spouse because you won’t let me have my way.  You don’t have one ounce of goodness in you since it is so clear that if you loved God you would let me have my way.  You are a bad person, therefore…. 

· I Punish you because you won’t give me such and such.  I clam up or I blow up.  I will get my way.  Perhaps you withdraw privileges to punish.  Fine.  I just won’t cook for you until I get my way.  Sometime wives will use intimacy as a form of punishment.  Men will withdraw their protection.   They should be in the home, but they say fine, I’ll go to a friends house. 

What is your life built on?  Are you controlled by your feelings?  Is comfort eating a slavemaster to you?  How about your anger?  Is your life a picture of one outburst to another?  What about depression? Is your life built on one depression to another? Do you only serve God when you feel good?  Then your emotions are your idols.  You are building on the wrong foundation.  Are you willing to sin in order to get rid of a bad feeling?   Are you tossed to and fro like a wave of the sea trying to feel happy?  You need to serve God no matter what you feel like!  You need to find your only joy in pleasing God! 

There are other foundations that we don’t have time to talk about. 

E. Some are built on the foundation of Materialism.  Your goal is based on covetousness.  You always need the latest and the greatest.  It has to be bigger and better. You can’t live without competing with the Joneses.  They are willing to sacrifice their children on the altar of greed and wealth, so instead of downsizing the life style, Mom is enslaved to work and debt is accumulated through the cruel taskmaster of debt to the credit card companies.  God is robbed in all of this.  He’s not just robbed of His tithe, but He’s robbed of the service that you ought to be giving Him.  That’s no way to live!  Tear it down, and build on the foundation of Christ!

F. Others are building on the foundation of Victimization.  Woe is me!  No one is more taken advantage of than me!  This victim’s mentality is a smoke screen for lack of responsibility.  There is no temptation that has taken you but such as is common to man!  (1 Corinthians 10:13).  You are no victim.  You need to take responsibility for yourself.  Anything bad that has happened to you is nothing compared to what we all deserve.  And “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).  You don’t need other people to dote over you to be happy!  You need to please God, and stop serving yourself!  If you have been ruthlessly hurt by someone, the worst thing you can do is have a pity party.  Life is too short for all that.  Accept what happen as part of the sovereign plan of God, and use it to comfort others.  Get busy serving others!!!

G. How about Success?  Some are willing to sell out for success.  Some say they need to be successful in their job, so they take the promotion without even knowing if there is a solid Bible believing church to go to.  Men, are you willing to abandon your family to a weak and anemic church just so you can build a prettier house and drive a prettier car?  How about investing in your children’s souls?  Long after your house is broken down and your car is rusted, your children will be living either for God or the devil.  Don’t sacrifice your godliness and your family on the altar of success!

So if you have been building on the wrong foundation, you need to knock down the building of pleasure and success for self, and start building the house of pleasure in God.  How can we do that?

II. By the Grace of God, we need to let God build a Good Foundation in our life.  Verse 20 tells us you need to be “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone…”

A. The Word of God.  When Paul said you need to be built on the apostles, he was talking about the Word of God.  When Paul and Silas planted churches, Acts 16:4 tells us that “as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.” 

1. Explanation.

a. The Apostles’ method.  The apostles used the Old Testament and wrote letters to the churches.  Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:13, “give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.”  The Bible tells us that the early believers “continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine” (Acts 2:42).  Why did they do that?  Were the apostles better men that every one else?  Were they like the Roman Catholic saints?  No!  Paul said “O wretched man that I am!” (Romans 7:24).  He called himself “the chief of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). 

b. The Apostles’ message.  Why is the apostles’ doctrine so important?  Because it is the Word of God!  Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2:13, “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”

2. Illustration. So what does a life founded on God’s Word look like? 

Street Address.  When you are given a street address, does it matter if it says “Morgan Street” or “Morgan Avenue” or “Morgan Blvd”?  Yes!  What if you get to Morgan Street and you don’t know if it is West Morgan or East Morgan?  That’s the difference between one side of the city or the other.

Internet Address. Does it matter if I put the “dot” in the internet address?  Do you know if you type that address in, and it is just one letter off, or you leave out a dot or a space, you are not going to get to the right address!

3. Application.  It is the same way with the Word of God.  Paul asks the question in Galatians 3:3, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”  Listen you can’t live the Christian life in the power of the flesh.  You can’t live the Christian life with fleshly thinking!  We have surrendered our lives to outward conformity to Christ, and inward conformity to the world!  Do you know what the Bible calls that?  Hypocrisy! 

When God says something, we need to follow it precisely!  There are no shortcuts to holiness!  Well, if I have my hair cut the right way and listen to the right music and go to church, then I am holy.  No!  That’s a shortcut.  You’re going to the wrong address.  You must be controlled by God.  You must be radical.  There is no room for deviation from the Word of God!  It has the answers for life and godliness.

Psalm 19:7, “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul”.  The Word of God is perfect.  You cannot improve upon it!  You need to follow it even when it doesn’t make sense. 

Illustration: No New Construction!  God’s Word is a lot better than Google and Mapquest.  Google and MapQuest are constantly having to update.  New construction here, new road there.  Friends, there is no new construction in the Bible.  “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89).  Churches are constantly adjusting to the latest new thing that will work.  They have a shifting foundation!  If you put your heart and soul on the Word of God, you will never be moved!  The Word of God does not change! 

Transition:  So God says, a good foundation is built on the apostolic message of the Word of God!  Paul says in verse 20 of our text, that we “are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21  In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22  In whom ye also are [being] builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

B. So the second aspect to this foundation of a solid, mature Christian life is the Fellowship of the Body of Christ.  That’s what this word “prophets” is referring to.  I want you to see this in the Scriptures.  Turn over to Ephesians 4:11.  You see, I’m not making this up.  This is not my idea. We need to let the Bible interpret the Bible.  The Bible says that God gifted certain offices to the church—He gifted certain men to deliver the message of His Word to the church.  We read here in Ephesians 4, beginning with verse 11 that God “gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14  That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive…”

1. Local Church.  If you are not involved and serving the Lord in the local church, you are on the wrong foundation.

There is an epidemic in America.  Christians are church shopping and hopping and remaining uncommitted, unaccountable, and unprofitable to the local church.  And then we have "members" in name only. They are on the roll and even attend regularly, but serve someone else? Get involved in ministry? You've got to be kidding! We cannot let this go unchallenged. 

Ephesians 4 teaches us something about being under the preaching of the Word of God.  God gave you as a believer “pastors and teachers; 12  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

You know what that tells me?

Ø Church Attendance. If you have a problem with church attendance you will not mature.  If you are a true Christian you will not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Let me ask you, do you have your priorities right?

ILLUSTRATION: Who is more important, The President or God?  Would you clear your schedule for the President?

How about this, do you serve God or money?  Would you make it to the other side of Chicago to accept a check for $10 million dollars?  Is that more important than coming to church?

EXCUSES that reveal a LACK of priorities.

1.) I can’t go to church because I worked all day Saturday and Sunday is my day of rest.  Exodus 20 says “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”, 

2.) My spouse is sick, so I need to stay home and take care of them.  Sometimes that is the case, but very rarely.  I have never in my 10 years of marriage had to do that.  There may come a time when I need to do that, but my wife would have to be pretty sick.  I have three small children, and Jill has been sick at times, but there is rarely a time when the whole family needs to stay home unless the whole family is sick.  Now if you are sick, stay home, but if you are well, then you ought to be here with the rest of your family.  That says a lot about priorities.

2. Preaching.  So we need to get our priorities right!  You need the local church.  That’s what God says.  Let’s read it again.  We need the preaching of the pastors and teachers.  Why?  Ephesians 4:14, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive…”

The Local church protects us from wrong doctrine.  It builds us up in our faith and walk with God.  If you go another way, you will tossed to and fro like a child in a wave.  How do you handle difficulties?  Stay home from church?  Bad idea!!

C. Ultimately our Foundation is Christ.  Look again at our text.  Ephesians 2:19-20, “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20  And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

The cornerstone is what everything else is built on. Everything is oriented to the cornerstone.  If the cornerstone fails, everything fails.   You can mess up the rest somewhat, but if you don’t have the cornerstone you are doomed.

How about you?  Maybe you have much of the word of God memorized.

Conclusion:  Illustration on Bob Brza.

Closing Hymn: 147 Amazing Grace