How's your Worldview? Will your Foundation stand?

[0:00] On Christ the solid rock I stand. I thought that was very fitting the first song that we sang! Because I'm speaking about foundations.

[0:11] ! About the rock or the sand? And what are we building our lives on? And I was just talking to someone earlier about foundations and about how tricky it is this time of year to lay the foundation.

[0:24] Because the ground can be soft and muddy. Hopefully not sand that we're building on, but rock that we're building on. And the truth is that every one of us is building.

[0:36] Our lives are like a house that we build. And what matters most is the foundation. Is that right? The foundation that we're building our lives upon. And the Lord Jesus tells us of two builders.

[0:49] Two very different foundations. Two different ways to build. And of course it's a familiar passage in Matthew 7. Matthew 7 tells of these two builders.

[1:02] Two foundations. Two ways to live. Matthew 7 verse 24 it reads, 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.

[1:23] And the rains 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.

[1:38] So the wise builder chose to build upon a rock. And the like account in Luke tells how the builder digged down deep.

[1:51] It helps to see things sometimes, doesn't it? The builder got his spade out, his shovel, and it says, what did he do? It says in Luke 6 verse 48, of this wise man, he is like a man which built a house, and dig deep.

[2:09] He digged deep. He made some effort. He started to dig deep to hit the rock, to have that solid base, that solid foundation. He took the trouble to dig deep.

[2:21] To dig deep, right? And he laid the foundation, it says, on a rock. And when the floods arose, and the stream beat vehemently on that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock.

[2:35] So this foundation, as Matthew 7, as Luke 6 records, this foundation of the wise builder, ensured that that house could not be shaken when the rain came, when the floods came, when the winds blew.

[2:53] The foundation could not be shaken. It was solid, rock solid. The other builder did not take the trouble to dig deep, to bother about the foundation.

[3:05] We read on verse 26, and 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 beats upon that house, and it fell.

[3:27] Crash! And great was the fall of it. In Luke's account, in Luke 6, 49, it says, But he that heareth and doeth not, is like a man that, without a foundation, built a house upon the earth, again which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.

[3:50] Of course, we could sing the children's song, couldn't we? The wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man built his house upon the rock, and the rains came down, and the rains came down, and the floods came up, And the rains came down and the floods came up.

[4:17] The rains came down and the floods came up. And the house on the rock stood firm. Amen. We could go on with the rest of it. Thank God we've got other people song leading.

[4:31] So we're talking about the wise man. We're talking about the foolish man. The foolish builder had no foundation. What is the foundation of your life? This is the question, isn't it?

[4:42] We see here, is it the foundation? Is it rock or is it sand? Are we building on the rock or are we building on sand? And so we're going to tease that out a little bit.

[4:53] About really it's a choice of two world views, isn't it? Rock and sand. We can either build our lives on that firm foundation of God's word. Or the shifting sands of worldly values.

[5:07] The wise builder constructs his house upon the rock. A firm foundation. And this world view acknowledges we've got divine authority. We've got truth that we're building on.

[5:18] We've got God's word. We've got his authority. And we seek to align life's values and choices with God's will. It's a solid faith.

[5:29] It's grounded. The alternative, on the other side, the alternative is to build our house, our life on the sand. The alternative represents a world view built upon worldly values, materialism and self-centered desires.

[5:46] This world view neglects God's word. It relies on temporary pleasures and human wisdom. And that will fail to sustain us during trials. When the floods come, when the winds blow, we'll see that the house will fall.

[6:02] Now, everyone has a world view. Both of these are different world views. And it's explained.

[6:13] This term, this phrase, world view, is explained as like a lens through which we look at our lives, through which we see things. This world view is how we view the world around us.

[6:26] For example, we have an apple sitting on a table. And several people see this apple sitting on a table. We first see the botanist looks at the apple and the botanist classifies it.

[6:43] The botanist looks at it scientifically, the different parts of it. He analyzes it. He classifies it. There's a certain Latin word. I meant to write that down, what an apple is called.

[6:54] But a botanist classifies the apple, right? Then we see an artist. An artist sees this apple as a still life.

[7:06] And he draws it. He paints it. The artist paints it. Then we see a grocer down at the shop. The grocer sees this apple as an asset.

[7:17] And he inventories it. He classifies it as a commodity he can sell. And he puts a price on it. And then we see a child sees lunch and eats it.

[7:30] Chomp! So, you see, there are all different ways of looking at the one thing. And really, we can think of world views as like that too. That people see things differently.

[7:42] A world view, our world view, is how we see the world. So, it's like a lens that we look through the world around us. How we view the world about us.

[7:53] It's our way of understanding reality. And so, we see, as we'll tease out a little, we've got the rock and we've got the sand. Two contrasting world views.

[8:05] And it's about what we're looking at life through, isn't it? And so, a world view impacts our beliefs, our values, our perceptions about life, truth, the universe.

[8:18] How we can look at the situations of our lives. It's influenced by how we look at the world at large. We all wear different glasses. A filter through which we see life.

[8:30] And our world view is the basis for making daily decisions. So, it's really important. And our world view profoundly shapes our lives. Now, most people have some secular kind of world view.

[8:43] We're always getting shaped by the culture around us. By TV, by movies, by music, by politics, by friends. Of course, our children, they're getting schooled in a world view.

[8:55] But sometimes it's not a world view that we, as parents, share. It's very easy to take on a secular world view. That's the point. Rather than a biblical world view. And sadly, even many churches today are teaching self-help and man's wisdom.

[9:11] And not really feeding the soul with the truth of the word of God. Not helping people grow closer to God. They're missing the point because the world view is wrong.

[9:22] Many Christians are biblically deficient too. Their relationship with the Lord is lacking. Some Christians scarcely read the Bible between church times.

[9:34] Scarcely reading the Bible for themselves. And so they're weakly. It's a real issue. And friends today, think of these truths of your world view.

[9:45] It's a very powerful factor in your life. It's how you process what you think is valuable. What is right and what is wrong. So it's critical to get this right.

[9:56] Rock or sand. A world view is an all-encompassing perspective of how we interpret ideas. So we see, as we've got pictured here, a world view is gathered from news, from relationships, the opinions that we have, from social media, what we perceive to be real.

[10:20] What is real? That's the world view. And then we see flowing down from the world view, what we perceive to be real. We see it leads to belief. Beliefs about the world, the big picture, that direct our daily decisions and actions.

[10:33] And so either consciously or most of the time it's unconsciously, we're slowly building up a framework, a world view of beliefs, of what we perceive to be true.

[10:44] We want to make sure it is the truth. Is it the rock? Is it true? Is it real? And so as you look through the lens that is your world view, you come to a view about what is real.

[10:56] And this determines what then you know to be true. That's your beliefs. That determines what is good and what is important to you. Your beliefs, what is true. And then your values, what is good.

[11:09] And then ultimately it translates into your behaviour. So you see your world view affects how you think, how you feel, how you live from day to day. It kind of translates down.

[11:21] Beliefs, values and then to your actions, your life. How are we to live? It's a big question, isn't it? Rock or sand? Is the foundation right?

[11:32] The world view? What are we building our life upon? Do we follow along with the popular culture? What the culture tells us. Do we consume the culture? Copy it.

[11:43] Or where it conflicts with God's truth, dare we confront the culture? Does our world view align with God's word? His teachings. It seems like we mostly have a post-Christian culture.

[11:57] If we're honest today, it's over here. It's shifting sands. Shifting sands. Today culture seems filled with doubt and confusion. It's like that man who tries to build on that soft sand.

[12:10] And everything falls to bits and crumbles. But a biblical world view is different. It's shaped by God's word. It impacts all of these kind of aspects of life.

[12:23] A biblical world view. It's shaped by God's word, the Bible. And it's centered and focused on our Lord Jesus. In all of these dimensions of our life, of our living.

[12:34] For the Christian, the Bible reveals to us the heart and the mind of God. It reveals his plan for humanity, for you and me. And the redemption that's found in Christ.

[12:45] So our world view impacts what we think about the big questions of life. Does God exist? How did everything begin? Origins. Who am I? Why am I here?

[12:57] Am I living a good life? What happens after I die? Why? Humanism believes that truth is relative. It's over here, the sand. That everything is relative.

[13:09] Make it up for yourself as you go along. But Christian theism believes that truth is objective. There is objective truth. There is a foundation. What's true is true for all people in all places at all times.

[13:24] So whatever was true, it still is true and always will be true. Sadly, they reckon that surveys have found less than 10% of even professing Christians possess a biblical world view.

[13:38] That's pretty bad. 10%. Only 51% of American pastors have a biblical world view. That's pretty shocking really, isn't it? And two-thirds of so-called born-again Christians in America assert that there is no such thing as absolute truth.

[13:53] They're over here in the sand. No such thing as absolute truth. They've got no sure foundation. They're building our life on sand. But God doesn't want us as the church, his church, to move with the world, but that we should be a church that moves the world.

[14:12] We read in the Word of God that God commended the tribe of Issachar as men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do. 1 Chronicles 12.32 So they had an understanding of what God wanted of them.

[14:29] They understood the times they were living in. And we can understand truth. Even in these times of sand where everything's murky and relative and make it up for yourself, we can actually be assured of God's truth, God's Word, God's will.

[14:44] Our world view is what we believe, what we trust. So we want to make sure we're on the rock. We have to be sure about what we're building on. Is the foundation right? What is biblical thinking?

[14:55] What are God's standards? How do we think biblically? People ask about meaning, about purpose, about God and faith. And someone's brought it down to really there's three questions we could ask of every world view.

[15:09] Three questions of every world view. Christian and non-Christian. How do they answer these three questions? Where did we come from? And why are we here? What's wrong with the world?

[15:21] And how do we fix it? A prevalent world view today is called naturalism, which answers these three questions like this. Number one, where did we come from? It's over here in the sand.

[15:32] We're products of random acts of nature with no real purpose. That's why you're here. You've got no purpose at all. Number two, what is wrong with the world?

[15:43] We do not respect nature as we should. We're not looking after the planet. Now that could be true to a degree. Number three, how can we fix it?

[15:54] We can save the world through ecology and conservation. That's what the naturalist world view would say. And like philosophies like moral relativism, pragmatism, you name it.

[16:09] A Christian world view, on the other hand, answers these three questions differently, biblically. So where did we come from? Why are we here? We are God's creation. We are made in his image.

[16:21] We've been created to have stewardship, to govern the world, to have fellowship with him, our Lord, our Creator, our Maker and Sustainer. Number one.

[16:32] Number two, what is wrong with the world? We've sinned against God. And so the world is subject to curse. The curse, the fallen planet. That's what's wrong with the world's sin.

[16:45] Number three, how can we fix it? We can't. But God himself has redeemed the world through his precious sacrifice of his Son, the Lord Jesus.

[16:55] And one day he will restore creation to its former perfect state. So we can't think biblically. We can't have that rock, that foundation. We can't think biblically.

[17:07] And our lives can be founded upon a rock, God's true word, his truth, his saving truth, salvation in Christ. And the Bible impacts our thinking in so many ways.

[17:18] If we can think about it to a degree, if we can just take some moment to think about these truths. In Proverbs 23, 7, it says, in part, for as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

[17:33] It's saying here that our thinking governs our actions, our beliefs, our convictions, the life choices we make. So we want to get that thinking right. We want to get the right foundation that we're framing our world through, that right lens that we're looking at life through.

[17:52] And our worldview touches on the very fundamentals of life. How do we make sense of God, the world, our relationship with God, and the world? So really, if you boil it down, there's essentially really only two main competing worldviews.

[18:08] It's rock or it's sand. It's on the, on this side, we've got God, we've got purpose, we've got truth. On the other side, we've got this murky quagmire that's sand.

[18:26] There's a battle of ideas going on, and we're right in it, in the thick of it. And through life, we have this from birth to death, isn't it? We're in this competing battle of worldviews, a battle of ideas.

[18:40] So, and we can choose to be shaped by the culture, this non-Christian worldview, with distorted ideas, basically people who think like this, refuse to bow to God's truth.

[18:52] If you don't have a Christian worldview, you can't see God at work in every aspect of your life. It's shifting sands. We see, if you say there's no God, then really there's no purpose.

[19:05] You've not got a maker who's got a design for you. There's no truth, because it's all, make it up for yourself. And really, it just leads to emptiness and hopelessness, doesn't it? Shifting sands.

[19:16] No basis for stability. No basis for morality. What you say is right might be different from what I say is right. Morality, you make it up for yourself.

[19:27] There's no basis for morality, for hope. But in contrast, you've got the rock here. Biblical worldview. Truth changes everything.

[19:37] With the biblical worldview, God is the centre. There's a foundation that will stand. It's a God-centred world. He's framing it. And God wants us to see the world His way.

[19:50] The way He has told us that it is. Because really, the worldview that matters begins with God. We know that God created all things. Man was made in His image in the garden.

[20:03] And we're here on purpose, not by accident. We see the truth that there is sin. That's why the world has trouble. That's why there is turmoil and suffering.

[20:17] The truth is that sin is that problem at the heart of it. And that all have sinned. And that the consequences of sin is death. It explains all of that mystery that life, that death is sin.

[20:33] When we get that truth right, it makes sense of things. And then we see on this side, the rock side, we see God's purpose, His creation. We see His amazing love for us.

[20:45] That He's given everything to save us. That Christ's death pays our sin debt and provides a perfect, fulsome salvation. And He provides a heaven for us as our home.

[20:57] Really, we live on earth as strangers. We're just camping here. This is just our campsite. Our stay here is only temporary. Because we look forward to heaven to come.

[21:09] So how are we to live on earth when you get this Christian worldview, the biblical worldview, He calls us to be holy in the midst of a world that disbelieves. And when Scripture says be holy, it also means to be whole.

[21:22] There's a sense where wholeness comes from knowing Him. To know the Savior is to be made whole. He fills in the emptiness. He makes our life complete. To know Him is to live life to the full.

[21:34] But then in contrast to this, the rock side, we see the sand side, we see the secular worldview. That holds that I'm not here to be holy, I'm here to be happy.

[21:47] It treats God as not relevant, as irrelevant, not real. And the world's values lead really to hopelessness and an empty life. What a contrast it is, isn't it? We see on this side there's no truth, so there's no rules, there's no law, there's no authority, there's no accountability, yeah, that we've only got this life.

[22:09] Really, it's vain really, isn't it? What a contrast. And the question really for all of us is what foundation are we going to build upon? Now people have a biblical worldview, they fundamentally hold to the truth.

[22:22] We've actually got an authority that explains really, it makes sense of things, doesn't it? We see this purpose, we see this truth, we see that we can be saved.

[22:33] The one who made us wants to save us and make us his own. We have an authority, the word of God that explains and makes sense of life. And the Bible is actually inspired of God, we can trust it, it's from God.

[22:48] As the Lord Jesus says, thy word is truth. God's inspired it and he's made sure that it is written that we would still have it exactly how we have it today. We can trust that he has given it to us in its entirety and in its authority.

[23:03] So what a contrast here, we see the biblical side, then on the other side you see the secular side, the godless side, the non-biblical, the non-Christian worldview, really there's, it really ultimately leads to hopelessness and people are lost.

[23:20] So it's chalk and cheese really isn't it? Are we going to build on rock or are we going to build on sand? And we see the word is what matters. The Lord Jesus says it's if you hear my word and you do it, you take it to heart.

[23:33] 2 Peter 1 talks about the word of God. It says, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God were, they spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

[23:48] So holy men of God, yes men wrote it as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, they were inspired to write it. God moved them to write it. And when we get the foundation right, the rock, when we submit to the truth, his word, what is right and true is plain.

[24:03] And a biblical worldview means you come to God on his terms, not your own. You say, I recognise God's terms, his way, his authority, he is authoritative on every level of my life, on practical levels in my life.

[24:18] And it's not just knowledge that I agree to, it's not just some intellectual or philosophical exercise, but when we know the truth, the truth shall make us free. It actually affects our daily life for real.

[24:30] And so getting the word right is what counts. And of course, another scripture that's familiar in 2 Timothy 3 talks about the scriptures. It says that It's saying here that we have got a rock that we can be assured of.

[24:57] This is true. This is true and always will be true. And this is applicable. It's relevant. It's something we can translate into our daily lives. God's word teaches us that it teaches us what is true.

[25:11] Because if we're over here on the sand side, we just, truth is very, it's very murky. It's not absolute. But on the rock side, truth is absolute.

[25:22] We have absolute truth. We have final authority. We have God's authority. And when we're on the rock side, God's word, it helps us realise what's wrong in our lives. The word of God corrects us, it says.

[25:35] It's profitable for correction. It corrects us when we're wrong. It teaches us what is right. It's profitable for instruction. In righteousness, it shows us what is right, what to do.

[25:47] And when we know this truth, we build our lives upon the rock. We can find relationship with God. It says that it provides salvation. All scripture is such that it provides that blessed truth of salvation.

[26:00] And when we know this truth, we can have that relationship with God. You can come to know him. He says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind.

[26:12] The biblical worldview is about this wonderful relationship that we can know. And that's the rock that we can be assured of. So biblical truth, we're not only founded on it, but we're meant to live our life by it.

[26:25] We're meant to live out this biblical truth. And the Bible speaks really to every aspect of our life. If we're wanting direction, if we're wanting to know God's will, then we've got the source and we can hold it in our hands and receive his word, his will.

[26:44] A worldview is comprehensive. So whether you're on the rock side or the sand side, a worldview is comprehensive. It affects every area of our life, from money to morality, from politics to art, really, it's not like you compartmentalize God for just a part of your life or a day of your life or some meetings of your life.

[27:07] But he is your life. As you're saved, your worldview is that he is my all in all. And it influences every single day of our life, every breathing moment.

[27:21] It impacts our views about everything. When we're on the rock side, we see that life is all about what matters to God and my relationship with him.

[27:32] And when we have our eyes open to that, it frames the judgments that we make, the decisions that we make for ourselves and for others in our life, our families. When the worldview is right, it makes sense of life and it brings eternal truth and meaning.

[27:50] So we think about, really, it touches on, really, every aspect of our lives. Just to kind of recap a little, this idea of a worldview, it influences really everything.

[28:06] Everything. When we've got the rock, the Bible, the Word of God to stand on, we've got an authority. There's an authority. There's someone who is in charge and we can trust what he says.

[28:20] There's the truth of the authority that we have a God as the creator of our lives. You've got to get the authority right, don't you? Like I know when you start a new job, often, I know in times past, as an employee or as a manager, you've got to get the expectations right.

[28:40] So the boss wants to make clear what the expectations are of the job and the employee wants to know how's the expectations of the company, of the boss as well.

[28:54] And so there's a sense of getting the authority right. Those expectations. How is this work going to be done? And it's the same with our lives. We need an authority for our life. We need to know what is the guidance, what is the direction for my life.

[29:07] And the authority that we have on the rock side is that we have a creator God. And everything begins with that infinite personal God. The whole universe, our world, our human life, it's all understood when we have that authority right.

[29:24] The humanity that is our life. We think really, you could use some terminologies like sociology or anthropology. In other words, the study of our lives as what makes a man a woman and what makes human living, like interactions.

[29:45] Humanity makes sense when we know that we're created. And he's made us who we are. And human life makes sense when we know that he is the authority.

[29:58] And we see biology as well. The study of life. It's made clear right from Genesis. The creation of animals after their kind. When we realise there's a creator, it makes creation make sense.

[30:10] Biology. Humanity. That we're created in God's image. We can't just change our gender because we feel that we want to change it. God made them male and female.

[30:22] There's no blurring of that. God made humankind male and female. He instituted marriage and family. Right from day dot.

[30:34] Really, didn't he? He said, the man marries the woman. Marriage. It's something precious. And to be honoured. Cherished. And it all makes sense when we get the authority right.

[30:46] We get the humanity right. We get the morality right too. It's not over here in the sand where it's all murky and we make up our own rules. He makes the rules. He sets the rules.

[30:57] He says how to live. He says what's right. He says what's wrong. So he's instituted marriage and family. And as believers, it helps us to make sense of life's challenges too.

[31:10] To recognise the reality of sin. When we're on the rock side, we know what sin is. We know what morality is. We know that sin is that reality, that root cause of brokenness in our world that separates us from God, leads to moral decay.

[31:25] And fundamentally, the God-neglecting life on the sand side is without hope. There's no direction. There's no authority. It's all meaningless. There's no law.

[31:36] There's no lawgiver. There's no right or wrong. It's all murky mire. And that house is going to crash down. The biblical worldview holds the different, the true facts, that God has created humanity in his image.

[31:53] And that we're both body and spirit. I know knocking doors yesterday, some people have almost got the worldview, well, this is all there is, my body.

[32:04] But no, you've got a soul and a spirit. And that soul, that spirit, is going to go forever. It's eternal. And it gets that right thinking, really, about psychology. In other words, getting the mental processes right.

[32:18] It's all about the humanity, isn't it? And when God created Adam and Eve, he made them male and female. He revealed his design for anthropology, which is the study of humans, for sociology, the study of society.

[32:31] You could put all these big words in there to kind of say, basically, human life makes sense when we know that we are a created being. And likewise, too, it translates into biblical manhood.

[32:45] God says how a man should be. God talks about biblical manhood. How to be godly men. Men to aspire to that. That's the ultimate. And likewise for women, to aspire to be godly women.

[32:58] In Christ, we see the ultimate role model for manhood. And then we see the redemptive work of Christ on the cross, offering forgiveness and reconciliation. It makes sense of human history.

[33:09] The fact that there is sin, there has to be a saviour. And we see God's ultimate truth. Really, it sets that compass for life. And as far as morality, we have God's standards.

[33:20] Not some murky, sandy, make-it-up-your-own kind of way. But we've got God's moral standards. He sets what's true, what's right.

[33:32] And so that would guide our choices and actions. So the foundation, the rock foundation, gives us that sure hope. Friends, today, hopefully this is making enough sense to realise, yeah, this really makes sense of the whole of life.

[33:46] It's rock or it's sand. And for us who are on the rock, we know that there's a hope in the history yet ahead. Because the Bible foretells history. It prophesies future history.

[33:57] It tells us of the second coming of Christ. Of the ultimate restoration of all things in his kingdom. It gives us that different way of even thinking about history. And really, as we see history unfolding, we can learn from history, hopefully.

[34:12] And there's a biblical view of history that says it all started with the design, with God, and history's moving towards his end. But in the atheistic view of history, there's no designer.

[34:25] It's not purposeful. Things happen by accident. They're not planned. So when you think of all these various things here, it doesn't matter whether we're talking about science, law, politics, or economics.

[34:39] God's given us the framework. It's his worldview. As we get that right, we can make sense of all of these things and how we are to live our lives. The truth is it's who God is.

[34:51] If we get that right, so we trust him, we'll have that knowledge of him, we'll know what's really real. And a Christian worldview, when we're on the rock, it makes sense for us to believe there are moral absolutes.

[35:04] There is a truth to live by. There is his directions, his commandments, and their life to us as we trust him and know his salvation.

[35:15] So we're talking about foundations today. And the truth applies to our lives, the whole of our life, not just a compartment of it. Really, it's whether you're on the rock or whether you're on the sand.

[35:27] It affects every dimension of your life. And if we're on the rock, are we reflecting the character of Christ to our culture? You know, we heard earlier about 1 Corinthians 13.

[35:39] Are we living out that life of love, that life of truth, that life of ethics, of morality, of decency, of God's will, God's way? How do we apply the word of God to the issues that we're facing in our culture when we're constantly facing this challenge of our culture that is largely godless and neglecting God?

[36:02] We can look to this word of God, the rock, God's word to God, as we can think about how can I dig deep, that foundation? How can I dig deep, dig into the word of God?

[36:12] Make sure I'm grounded, make sure I'm firm, make sure I'm strongly planted on that which is strong, that sure foundation. When we face decisions of life, what job do I take?

[36:24] What entertainment choices do I choose? What relationship should I be in or not? Issues of diet, of marriage. It makes sense when the world view is right, when we're on the rock.

[36:37] It makes sense of every part of our life, of our decisions that we make because really, when you think about it, the Lord Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life. He says, really, he is our world view.

[36:50] He is our life. He is the truth. He is the way. And the ultimate object, really, when you think of life as God would put it to us, when we're on the rock side, what does the rock say?

[37:04] What does the word say? It says, whatsoever you do, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. The ultimate object of your life is this, God's glory.

[37:18] That's the ultimate object of your life. So, have that measure of your decisions that you make, of the choices, of the pathways you take.

[37:29] Will this bring glory to my God? Will I glorify God? Will we be, as the wise man who built his life on the rock, the word of God?

[37:41] Or, as the foolish man who refused the word of God and built his life on the sand? Of course, we know the essential truth for all of us is, are we saved?

[37:53] Are we saved? As we trust him, as we yield our life to the Lord, he saves us, we can know a sure foundation. We can know his word to build our lives upon, to dig down deep, to take time to study it.

[38:08] Get to the Bible studies, get to fellowship, get to as much as you can to keep digging, keep digging deeper, keep digging that foundation, so you'll plant yourself as a foundation that is rock, not sand.

[38:23] as you trust the word, as that word becomes the basis for how you live. It makes the world view clear, and you'll know God's will as his word is that foundation for your life, and you'll know that eternal truth, his salvation, to know him, to know that relationship with him, to know him personally, and that is really the eternal blessing that we can have, to know him, to know him, whom to know is life eternal.

[38:54] Let us pray. Lord, we thank you that your word tells us how you want us to be grounded and planted on that sure foundation, that rock that you are to us, Lord Jesus, that rock that is that foundation stone, that foundation that no one else can lay, but that you have laid that foundation, yourself, as that foundation for living.

[39:18] Lord, we pray each one might have that trust to know you by faith as saviour, as Lord, that each one might know that wonderful trust that you are the one that we can rest upon, our creator, our sustainer, the giver of salvation.

[39:39] Lord, as we navigate life, we know this world is full of people living on sand. When testing comes, they'll come crashing down.

[39:51] Lord, we know they have no eternal hope or future, Lord God. Help us, Lord, not to make that mistake, not to be, as it were, having a bit of both worlds, but rather being determined to stand on the rock, to not be shaken, to have our lives directed by your Holy Spirit your word.

[40:12] Lord, give us the grace to make the decisions we need to make to be more firmly planted on the rock, to take that trouble, to dig down deep, that we might find our trust in you.

[40:25] And Lord, we pray each one might know that today and grow in that too. Lord, we know as this world goes, we know we have need to strengthen that worldview, to nurture it, Lord, to make application of it, for our families too, that we might help them to be nurtured, to rest on your word, to build their lives on your word.

[40:45] As our children come to make their own personal trust in you, Lord, we pray that they too can have that wonderful foundation for life. In Jesus' name we pray.

[40:57] Amen. Amen.