FIGHTING
FIRES, FOSTERING FOUNDATIONS
In January we received an email that signed off
like this:
“I have started reading Lust and the City. I'm happy to have
the book with me. But one thing is that I want God to deliver me for this porn
and masturbation problem. Please support me in prayers.”
My wife and I get many emails like those. During the month of February, she and I get invited to preach and teach in many campuses in Kenya about Love, Sex and relationships. It is usually the busiest month as far as our ministry is
concerned. We usually have two major highlights during this month. Firstly, we
get to tour the beautiful country. On the week leading to Valentine's Day we had to deliver 13
different sermons! Those many sermons often mean new places to visit. Recently we were in Kitui county preaching at
Kenyatta University Kitui Christian Union and later at South Eastern Kenya
University (SEKU). SEKU is the biggest university in the country. The distance
between the main gate and the school administration is 10KM! An indelible experience was teaching the Love, Sex and Relationships theme with K-Krew in Nairobi city. Night preaching in a cinema hall filled with hundreds of people in their early and mid twenties.
 |
| With Turi at SEKU |
The second highlight is praying and crying with
broken people who are worn out by sexual sin and wrong relationship moves, like the ones in the emails we receive. Last
month, we were in touch with many college students who wanted out of porn
addiction, masturbation, bisexuality and adultery. We also encountered a few
who were sex addicts and amidst tears wanted out because of an irresponsible
lifestyle that was hurting them. This is a highlight because we identify with
the struggles of these people. Personally, I had my victories over porn and
masturbation after gruelling nights of crying to God, struggling to stop and falling
over and over again. This is also a highlight because we hear victorious
stories. Yet despite the victorious stories, we can’t help but notice in many
of the places we preach that we are fighting fires. We see a stronger need to
foster foundations instead. Prevention is better than cure. One repetitive
remark we often hear from people is “I wish someone told me these things when I
was younger.” Another is, “I wish you and your wife had met me three months
before now; things would be different.” You see, Beloved, fighting fires means
you play now and pay later; fostering foundations means you pay now and play
later. Either way you pay. The question is this, Beloved: do you want burned
flesh from fighting fires or do you want strengthened muscles from fostering
foundations?
On April 10th at CITAM Valley Road, my wife, Turi, and I will
be hosting the 4th Volume of BOY MEETS GIRL. The theme is
FOUNDATIONS. We are getting back to the basics because we realise that things
don’t go wrong; they start wrong. If you have a good foundation in your faith,
you can build without worrying. So today, we will look at a few basic lessons
on foundations from one of Jesus’ teachings in the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 7:24-27 (ESV)
24 “Everyone then who
hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built
his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and
the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not
fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And
everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a
foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And
the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that
house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Jesus gives an analogy of a life with a
good foundation and one with a bad foundation. From a general view we can see
some differences. There are two builders and two foundations. We can also note
some similarities. There is one word and one storm. Let’s pair them up.
Two builders;
One Word
Jesus
outlines the lives of two people in verses 24 and 26. One is wise and one is
foolish. The wise one is deemed so on account of hearing the words of Christ
and doing them. 24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and
does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. He succeeds. The
foolish one is deemed so on account of hearing the words of Christ but not obeying
them. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does
not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the
sand.
He fails.
The
foundation of a victorious Christian life is not in hearing the word of God but in obedience to the word of God. Both builders hear but only one DOES. We live
in a time where professing believers think Christ, Paul and other Biblical characters inspired by the Holy Spirit were not really that
serious when you read their words. The word of God has been relegated to an
opinion among many. As a result, it has no authority in the life of a believer
who is trying to be politically-correct. My wife and I have seen for a fact
that young people who listen to the scriptures and do them, grow in their faith
and topics such as “Can I date an unbeliever?” are a non-issue for them. They subscribe
to the authority of the word because they know that God means what he says and
he says what he means. But we’ve seen the converse too. Young people who listen
to the word and have no inclination to obey it. It’s not the difficulty of the
word that’s the problem, Beloved. The problem is how the word challenges sin.
John 3:19 says that light has come to the world but men have rejected it
because they have loved their sin. And when the conviction of the Holy Spirit
is rejected, Beloved, no intellectual arguments can persuade you otherwise.
People with weak foundations don’t want to be free from sin; they only want to
sin freely. And the trouble with a desire to disobey God is that you cannot
even be sure you are born-again in the first place. A strong foundation for a
believer is based on obedience to the word of God. Any relationship for a
believer with the opposite sex that ignores the instruction of the word is
destined for a great crash.
Two foundations; One storm
I
love this teaching on Jesus because of the storm. The first house experiences a
storm. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the
winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been
founded on the rock. It withstands. The second house experiences the same storm. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and
the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall
of it.”It gives in. I find it interesting that both houses face the same
storm. The one with a sandy foundation of disobedience to God’s word inevitably
falls. It shows that short cuts are wrong cuts. It’s not how fast you go, but
how far you do. It’s not how high you rise but how anchored and deep are you? The
house built on Jesus' words, the right foundation, does not get special
privileges and protection from storms because he/she obeyed Christ. The storm
is not a respecter of foundations. Following Jesus does not mean you won’t
experience storms. In a relationship you will face temptation just like those
who ignore Christ. You will face anger and pain just like those in the world.
Some believers think that a pain-free life is God’s reward for their
faithfulness. That just isn’t true. Jesus promised us in John 16;33 that in
this world we will have trouble. Look at the most faithful man that ever lived
on earth- Jesus Christ. And just see how much pain he experienced despite his
faithfulness. The storms will come, Beloved. Being a Christian doesn’t change
what you deal with; it just changes how you deal with it. The storm will test
what your foundation is really made of. You will experience hard beating and
stress but you will stand if your foundation is right.
One
of the greatest strides that a born-again person can make in their spiritual
growth is handling personal pain by acting on what they know (God’s word)
despite how they feel (emotion). By no means do I mean maturity is to deny the
pain (as some may quickly misinterpret this). You are a mature person not
because you don’t feel personal pain – but because you DO feel it, but the
difference is how you respond to it. The pain of the storms brings negative
emotions and often we act based on how we feel. However, the more you mature in
your faith, God strengthens you to depend on what you know (his word) more than
how you feel. Because what you know will keep you afloat when how you feel is
drowning you. How you feel may be real but what you know is TRUE. And what you
know is mastered by imbibing the word of God through scripture memory and
meditation. The more you have God’s word hidden in your heart, the more you
will see mature decisions and outcomes from the personal pains in your life.
The feelings will not go away because you are saved. You will experience every
raw inch of them but you will overcome because your foundation of God’s word
can withstand any storm.
Love the
foundation
Beloved,
you cannot obey the word whole heartedly without loving the word. For the
unbeliever, that means you must be born again. For the believer, that means you must tear down your idols. We can fail to benefit from God’s word in two ways:
by misinformation and by lack of application. Whatever is taking the place of
God in your life will deny you an opportunity to build on the right foundation.
Lastly,
you cannot fix a foundation during a storm. The storms of life are not building
grounds. They are battle grounds. And battle grounds test us. They don’t give us rest. Make
a conscious decision today to be obedient to the scriptures. To be forewarned
is to be fore-armed. The decision to live purely, disciplined and faithfully
must be done now because when the storms come, decision time is over, Beloved.
The storm is a tester of your decisions. So, Beloved, are your basics set? Will
you live the rest of your life fighting fires or will you live the rest of your
life enjoying the fostered foundations?