Thursday 25 November 2010

Built To Last

BUILT TO LAST

“And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luk 6:46-49)

The life of a house is determined by its foundation. The questions of how strong the house is, how long it will last, how high it can go etc, are answered at the foundation. The foundation is the load bearer; it is the sustainer and the shock absorber of the house. The glory of a house is not in how fast it came up, its external beauty or the landscaping but in the quality of the foundation.

The nature of the foundation is determined by the nature of the soil, the load the building is expected to carry and the external forces it is likely to confront (e.g earthquakes, storms, flooding etc.) A swamp for example, requires a stronger foundation than a rocky ground. Also a skyscraper does not use the foundation of a bungalow! Foundations can be expensive in terms of money, time, materials and men.

Every endeavour of man is comparable to a house e.g an academic house, financial house, marital house, career house, spiritual house an on and on you go. In fact, your very life is a house that is being built. Each house has a foundation which determines its final outcome.

We need to build strong Foundations.

1. The soil is soft, dig deep till you find the Rock! Friends, Family, Governments, Money, America (checking out), etc are all too soft to build lasting houses. They fail too often. Recently, banks, companies and even whole nations are being bailed out financially. I guess it is easier now to understand why we should never, build our life houses on anything but the Rock- JESUS!

2. The external forces are fierce. (Floods, earthquakes, storms etc)

If all conditions are perfect, we mat not know the difference between a weak and a solid foundation. It may take many years, but eventually a storm, flood, or an earthquake will come. What is left standing is the only proof that it had a solid foundation! Physically speaking our generation is beginning to experience adverse climatic conditions resulting in earthquakes and floods, storms, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions etc. Figuratively speaking the same thing is happening to lives of men and women all over the world: retrenchment, meltdown, demonic attacks, marriage breakdowns, career somersaults, trials and temptations. We can only survive if we have a solid foundation.

3. The load determines the foundation. If you want to build a bungalow, you don’t dig 20ft down to lay a foundation. If you don’t plan to rise high to the top of life, you may afford a weak foundation. If you wanna be a sky-is-the-limit personality, then you’ve got work to do. You must dig deep into the Rock, fix your roots right deep into Jesus so as not to be brought down at the height of success and achievement.

Weak foundations will crumble under pressure. That’s why you see some so called good men fall when they rise higher. The character cracks will widen as you rise and eventually bring you down, close them up now. The weak traits will get weaker as you climb up until the fail completely, bringing down a Champion. Make your foundation solid now.

The Foundation is to hear and obey the Word of God.

Even young people have experiences they like to share with their younger ones and it pains them when those younger ones won’t listen. Many times we experience failure and pain and want to spare others from going through the same by advising them. However most people won’t listen, preferring to experiment on their own, sometimes with disastrous results. The reason you stop a child from touching fire is because you’ve been burnt before.

This man is the oldest on the block; he knows just everything, everyone, and every place. He is the strongest, wisest, tallest, richest…, Jesus is he! To listen and obey him is the coolest you can ever be. Come on, it’s better to listen to the most experienced and carry out his instructions than to go it on your own and risk destruction.

Imagine a boy who got a toy with clear, written instructions on how to assemble and use the toy. You got the rest correctly, he did it his own way – to hell with instructions- of course he damaged the toy. Your life is not a toy however, and it’s going to be too costly to toy with it. Follow the instructions!

Great was the fall!

Buildings frequently collapse in Nigeria and the blame game involves substandard materials, poor design, incompetent supervisors, cutting corners and either the absence of building codes or not following the existing ones. As a Pastor I’ve seen huge sums of money wasted on a Church building that collapsed as we tried to roof because the Civil engineer was inexperienced and failed to follow the standards.

Some houses fail and fall several years after being in use. The foundation is always the culprit and it all goes down to not following the rules. I pray for you that your house will not fall in the mighty name of Jesus. This prayer can only be answered if you stick to the rules of building the house – obeying Jesus at all times.

There is the written Word in the Bible and the spoken one through preachers, godly books and even by hearing from God directly. Seek to find the word, much more seek to obey it. That is a solid foundation.