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Matthew 16:18
18 And I say also unto thee, That thohe u
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
2 Timothy 1:5
5 When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee,
which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice;
and I am persuaded that in thee also.
A man went to visit a close friend who happened to work on Wall
Street. The friend's office was richly furnished with all the
signs of wealth and prosperity. All that is except two pieces
of broken concrete. When asked about these two items the man said,
"That first one I got on a visit to Germany. It's a piece
of the Berlin wall." "And the second piece?," asked
his visiting friend. In a quiet voice the man replied, "That
one I picked up down the street, It comes from the Trade Towers.
I keep these two pieces of concrete always in plain view so that
whenever I get overwhelmed by the demands of work on Wall Street
I can look at them and remind myself
what is of true and everlasting value."
What helps to remind you in the midst of the demands and stress
of common life what is of true and everlasting value?
I propose today that in life today the church and our family
are the only true and lasting elements that remind us of what
is important in life and of everlasting value. May I remind us
today that when everything is said and done your family is what
really matters. When it comes to the church people can ridicule
and belittle the church but the truth of the matter is that when
it comes to the end of your life the church is really the only
thing that matters in regards to eternity. We are not talking
about living 50 or 100 years but we are talking e-t-e-r-n-i-t-y!
In 2 Timothy Paul says to his spiritual son Timothy, "I
am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in
your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now dwells in
you." A Spiritual heritage passed down from one person
to the next. From generation to generation. From mother to daughter
and daughter to son. A sacred trust that can only last if the
one in whom it has been entrusted passes it on to the next in
line. From Lois to Eunice and Eunice to Timothy. And Timothy to
so on and so on. Paul recalls for Timothy how for generations
past this sacred trust has journeyed the road of faith. Paul remembers
the ancestors of this faith, the ancient 'fathers' who served
God before Paul or Timothy. The fathers and mothers of the faith,
who from the days of Abraham circumcised the sons of promise.
Who from the days of Moses kept the covenant.
All those who longed to receive what Timothy had come to see,
the coming of the Christ. Emanuel, God dwelling in human flesh.
Timothy received what they had not because they had passed on
the sacred trust of a faith filled hope which prepared him to
receive the one that had finally come. Daughter Eunice received
all her mother Lois gave her, and passed it on, in trust, to her
child, to Timothy.
And now it was his. He accepted the promise of God, and found
it's fulfillment in Jesus. He kept the covenant of God, and found
it's freedom in Christ. He now had a sacred trust, to follow the
Christ and to entrust to those that followed the call of Christ,
to make more disciples.
That sacred trust has now been passed on to us. (Chandler - 6th
Generation)
Previous Construction Projects
The church is not God's first construction project. He designed
and built the universe itself. He designed and built the earth
on which we live.
Every builder begins with a foundation. The Psalmist said:
"Of old You laid the foundation of the
earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands." Psalm
102:25
After God created the heavens and earth he looked at all he
had done and said it was "good". (Genesis 2:31). But
something terrible happened. A terrorist destroyed the earth.
That terrorist was sin and the whole human race has been held
hostage and has lived under his cruel tyranny ever since his encroachment
began.
Mankind, the crown of God's creative works, destroyed the beautiful
building that God had lovingly gave him for it was through man
that sin entered the world.
The earthly father of the human race, Adam, changed everything.
He altered, the place of man's habitation and destined the whole
family to a perilous and eternal end. In His mercy God expelled
man from the Garden of Eden, a place of absolute beauty and blessing.
In mercy? If he hadn't, man may have eaten of the tree of life
and had he done so there could be no remedy for his failure. He
would live forever in a state of separation from God. Our first
parents found themselves struggling for survival in a place east
of Eden called the "land of Nod".
The land of Nod is the place of "curse" and it is where
the human race has lived since Eden. It is a cold and barren land
in which none survive. It is a land void of God's blessing.
Amazingly and wonderfully, the master architect in his foreknowledge
knew well in advance of the coming of mankind's self-inflicted
mortal wound.
The Bible says:
"All who dwell on the earth will worship
him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Revelation
13:8
When God laid the foundation of the world, he also laid another
foundation. He laid the foundation of the church and that foundation
is Jesus, the Lamb. As a lamb he died for the sins of the world.
Christ's sacrificial death on the cross, is the price God paid
in order that there could be a church.
The Church's One Foundation
"Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a
foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
Whoever believes will not act hastly." Isaiah 28:16
Jesus Christ is the foundation upon which the church is built
and he is also its cornerstone. A cornerstone marks the identity
of a building. Wise men and women build their lives on this foundation
and find their identity in Christ. Jesus Christ is the only sure
foundation. He is invincible in strength. He is eternal in duration.
Jesus is the only immutable foundation. No attack against him
will prevail or prosper. Storms, heat, cold, the passing of time
do not erode this foundation. He is indeed a "sure"
foundation.
Those who build on other foundations have no security and are
vulnerable to a host of calamities, the greatest being death and
hell. Anxiety and uncertainty encompass them causing them to act
with haste in vain attempts to find peace and meaning. The Christian's
haste has ended. He has found the peaceful harbor, he has come
in from the storm.
In the New Testament Paul quoted this verse and added to it.
He said:
"Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling
stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not
be put to shame." Romans 9:33
"For no other foundation can anyone
lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians
3:11
Sadly, many in our world build their lives on other foundations
and in doing so they build on sand. Saddest of all is the person
who has heard about Christ, who knows the gospel and has even
at one time been a follower of Christ. For some reason the person
rejects Christ. Israel as a nation did this. Many other nations
have done the same.
"The stone which the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone." Psalm 118:22
This verse is quoted in the New Testament five times. (Matthew
21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17, Acts 4:11, I Peter 2:4).
The foundation of the church doesn't always look appealing.
Its location doesn't appear to be the best. The devil declares
that no such foundation is needed. Human reason leads to other
foundations that are more appealing to the senses.
Nevertheless, everyday, thousands of people across our world
choose to build their lives on Christ.
An investigation into the famed 18th century revival preacher
Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) showed that, of the 1,394 known descendants
of Jonathan Edwards,
100 became preachers and missionaries,
100 lawyers,
80 public officials,
75 army and navy officers,
65 college professors,
60 physicians,
60 prominent authors,
30 judges,
13 collegepresidents,
3 United States senators,
and one a vice-president of the United States.
Another man of that era, Max Jukes, had
310 descendants who died as paupers,
150 criminals,
100 were drunkards,
7 were murderers,
and more than half of the women were prostitutes.
| Despite its Christian heritage,
the United States leads every other nation in the |
| • |
industrialized world in the percentage of single-parent
families (23%), |
| • |
abortion rate (22.9 per 1,000 women aged 15-44),
|
| • |
sexually transmitted diseases (syphillis rate
is 6.3 per 100,000 and gonorrhea rate is 149.5 per 100,000), |
| • |
teenage birth rate (42 per 1,000 girls aged
15-19), |
| • |
use of illegal drugs by students (44.9 % using
in 1998), |
| • |
and the size of the prison population (327 per
100,000). |
| • |
Our rate of child poverty (20%) is likewise
abysmal. |
In Deuteronomy 6:1-3, Moses gave the Israelites instructions
before they entered the promised land. The purpose was, in Moses
words, "that you may fear the
Lord Your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which
I commanded you, you and your sons and grandsons, all the days
of your Life".
God's laws were to be observed from generation to generation.
Moses therefore told the people "You
shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of
them when you sit in your house, where you walk by the way, when
you lie down, and when you rise up". He also instructed them,
"you shall write them on the door post of your house and
on your gates".
