Foundations | Week 2 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

So I don't know if you have gotten a chance to go to Italy. It is still on my bucket list to get over there. But when you go, everybody makes it a, you know, like a must stop. You gotta go see the Leaning Tower Of Pisa. Come on. How many of you guys have seen the Leaning Tower Of Pisa in person? Be honest. Did you take the photo with your hand, like, up against it like everybody and their mom does and puts on Instagram? Like, that's that's what it's for now. And so the the part that's so funny is that that is what the Leaning Tower Of Pisa is known for today. Like, you go there so you can take that photo. But the irony is is, like, man, how how did we get here? Right? If you go back to the November when the city of Pisa, Italy,

was making the decision to build the tower, which was supposed to be the bell Tower that was going to be kind of the crown jewel on top of the renovation of the cathedral that they were doing, They they were doing it because it was supposed to be to the world a representation of their, like, their architectural

breakthroughs and their wealth that they had accumulated as a city. Was supposed to be a symbol to the world of of who they were. And so they started a project that took almost fifty years for them to get a third of the way through the building, which is mind blowing to think about. But they started to realize that as they showed up to the construction site that something was something was off with the building, and it was kinda slightly tilting to the right. And so they made probably the same decision that I would have made, and they're like, well, let's just stop building it and to make it somebody else's problems. Right? So they literally just walked away from it, and it took almost a hundred years for another group of people to say, hey. Look. We've gotta we gotta finish this thing. And so their brilliant solve, instead of trying to figure out why the building was leaning,

their brilliant solution was that what we'll do is we'll finish the second half of the building, but we'll make the right side slightly taller than the left side. So at least when you look at it, it'll appear to be it'll appear to be level. That was the genius solve.

Nobody stopped to ask the question, well, why is it falling? So they got construction completed, and for the next few hundred years, the building continued to fall and fall and fall until eventually in 1990,

it was deemed to be uninhabitable because it was too dangerous. It could have fallen over at any moment. So eventually, they decided that they were gonna bring all these engineers in and they they try to figure out what was wrong with it. And lo and behold, they realized that the foundation

was never strong enough to support a building that was that that tall. So they did this injection foam. They re supported the concrete, and they say today, it's why it's reopened. If you wanna go, you can walk through with your family because they say based on the changes that they made,

the building should last another hundred years. So if you're there, you can walk through and you can tell me how it is. I'm like, I'll stay out here, man. I'll take your word for it. Right?

And the part that's interesting about it is that nobody stopped to consider the foundation that was needed to support a building like that. And the truth that we all know when it comes to any building is that the foundation is the most important part of of any building. Right? Like, we would all agree, hey. The foundation is one of the most important things. Like, if I told you today, hey, guys. Just know the foundation here is completely eroding. Like, we're pretty sure the building is gonna stay together while we're in service. Like, we're we're gonna find a different place to be. Right? But the part that's interesting is that the foundation is not it's not fun. Right? There's no, like, sex appeal to picking out rebar at Home Depot with your wife on the weekend. Right? We wanna pick out the windows, and we wanna pick out the the lighting fixtures and the kitchen, you know, stuff. And we wanna go figure out the bathrooms. But the truth is when the foundation is everything

is doomed. And what was supposed to be the crown jewel of a city showing the advancement of a city is now kind of the laughing stock of what the city is. And so if you go to the the Tower Of Peace is kind of a perfect example what can happen if you don't think about the foundation.

You go to the other end of the spectrum of like, okay. Well, what does it what does it look like to start with the foundation in mind? In Dubai,

they just built the tallest building in the history of the world. It's called the Burj Khalifa. Okay? It's an incredible building. And they set out from the onset, again, much like the city of Pisa, that we're going to build a building to show the world our power, our prominence, and our our wealth. They made the decisions that they were going to try to build the tallest building ever, which until that point was the Empire State Building that was about 1,200 feet tall. K. The Burj Khalifa is 2,700

feet tall. They were gonna go more than double the highest building that had ever been built. But they knew before they could do it because they're in Dubai. It's full of sand. It's not the greatest, you know, area to build because the foundation can be really shaky. They flew the best engineers in the world in, and they spent almost six months dedicated to just solving

the issue of the foundation. Eventually, they would pour a slab that was 12 feet of reinforced concrete. They took a 196 pillars that they drilled over a 150 feet into the earth and they actually connected the 12 foot slab of concrete into the bedrock of the earth

because they knew here's the principle. They knew before you can build something that is impressive,

before you can build something that goes up, you've got to first make sure you build something that is that is deep and that is stable. The question that you and I have to wrestle through this morning is what is the foundation that our lives have been built on?

So often, we don't even stop to think about the foundation. It's like if if we have one, it's kind of haphazardly there, but we've never stopped to really consider,

hey, what is the foundation that your life is is is built on? And we live in this day and age where everybody seems to be the goal is like, we just wanna have these big impressive lives and we wanna have lots of followers because followers means influence.

And that's what we're all that's what we're all after. And I'm just here to remind all of us that maybe the goal should be to strengthen our foundation and not just grow our followers.

That maybe one of the greatest things that you can do, one of the best investments that you can make for your life is to strengthen the foundation of your life and not just not just try to gain more followers. Because followers, they might give you some likes for sure,

but it's a foundation that will produce longevity that results in this thing that all of us truly actually want called legacy. If you wanna make an impact with the time you've been given on this earth, you better have a foundation that will withstand

the the torrents of this life. I don't know if you can remember what it felt like. Like, really, honestly, go back there at the beginning of February or March 2020.

Remember when you were in your house with bleach and you were wiping off Amazon boxes thinking that you were saving the world? I did the same thing. Right? Like, we're all maxed up. We're like, you gotta keep the boxes quarantined. And we're like, okay. Never mind. We're changing this thing. And it's like, you you can wear masks. You don't have to wear like our whole world as we knew it got completely flipped upside down, and we never really got many answers. We had a story for another day. But the truth is is we realized what it felt like to have everything that felt stable be shaken.

Again, I was I was old enough to remember the two thousand eight financial crisis that hit everything that felt stable. Businesses that were thriving for years at that point all of a sudden came crumbling to the ground. Here's the point. The point is is that you and I are going to go through some things in this life.

Politicians that you don't like are going to get elected. Wars are going to break out that we have no control over. The question is is is your life built on a foundation? Is your is your marriage built on a foundation that can sustain the the the craziness of this life?

And here's also the danger of this thing, is that sometimes the faulty foundation that we have, it seems like it's okay. Right? It seems like it's not that big of a deal because it seems like life is going well. But I'm here to remind us that a faulty foundation might not be exposed immediately, but eventually,

it will be exposed. And sometimes, the reasons that our life comes crashing down is because the foundation was not

stable. So the question again this morning is is what is your life built on? I wanna show you what I believe the scriptures say. What Jesus tells us is the thing we're supposed to build our life on. It is the bible. K. Matthew chapter seven verse 24. Here's where Jesus teaches us how to build your life on a foundation that can withstand

the storms of life. He says in Matthew chapter seven verse 24 that anybody who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise,

like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the flood water rises and winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock. It is built on something solid, unshakable, and unmovable. Verse 26, but anybody who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is is foolish,

like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and the floods come, the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.

Notice the promise of Jesus. These are his words that when the rains and floods come friends, it's not a matter of if the rains and floods come. It's just a matter of when because they're because they're coming. And if you don't have a solid foundation, Jesus also promises that they will collapse with a mighty crash.

And some of us, you know the feeling of life crashing down around you. And the truth is that some of you are sitting in the rubble of what is the destruction of a life that was built on a faulty foundation.

But I remind us all this morning, the good news of the gospel is that it doesn't matter what our current reality is. The good news of the gospel is that all of us can start over at any moment.

All of us can make a decision to go, okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna completely allow this foundation to be destroyed, and I'm gonna start over, and I'm gonna build a healthy one. Why should you care about having a foundation that is strong and healthy? Because it's the only way to make it out of this life. Why is one of the five values that we have as a church that the Bible is our foundation?

Because we have to remember that culture is going to move. Culture is going to change. What is what is good today is gonna be bad tomorrow. And we've gotta build our life, and we gotta build this church on something that is unchangeable.

And I'm just convinced that Jesus gives us the recipe here. K? The bible being our foundation is not my idea. It's not the thing that I sat down and said, is what I think we should do. I think Jesus tells us unapologetically here that the bible is the only foundation worth building your life on.

Any other foundation, it's gonna fail you. Financial success will not sustain. Happiness, because of life circumstances, are going to change. Any foundation that is not the word of God, I promise you, eventually,

that foundation will show the cracks, and it will eventually it will eventually set it'll eventually disappoint you. But here's the reason why I think so many of us, we we know intellectually we should read the Bible, but we just we just don't end up doing it. Again, the data is pretty alarming when you look at it, how little professing Christians actually engage with the scripture. They say that less than 11% of Christians would say that they've ever even read the bible cover to cover.

I think there's a couple reasons why. I think number one, the enemy knows the power source that you can tap into as you begin to make the word of God a daily part of your life. And I think there's a legitimate spiritual battle that's happening over your life to keep you out of the word of God. And the enemy's always had two tactics when it comes to keeping us disengaged from the scriptures. The first one, which is so easy in today's world, it's just distraction.

He just keeps you really distracted. And the reason that you can't watch or you can't read the bible is because you're too busy watching an entire season of Netflix in a day. Right? And we just stay distracted, and we're really good at distracting ourselves. But for some of us, it isn't distraction.

For some of us, the thing that's keeping us out of the Bible is doubt. And the enemy is really good at planting seeds of doubt going, man, how can you how can you even trust this thing?

It was written by a bunch of old people thousands of years ago, and wasn't it all just like a big game of telephone where, like, one person told another person a story who told his friend who then told a friend that eventually wrote it down, but it was four people removed. It was a hundreds of years of part, and they embellished the story. Like, how can you even trust any of it? And when anybody ever says things like that to me, it just it it is like an immediate red flag. You're okay. You've never actually investigated

the validity of the scriptures. Now if I had two hours with you, I would walk you through systematically why I think this should be the greatest archaeological and historical book that we have. But because I I don't have two hours with us, I just need to remind us that this scripture, these these words on these pages,

they can be trusted for a variety of reasons. Remember, this was written by 40 different authors. K? I need you to see this morning that the bible was written over a span of fifteen hundred years.

Think about that. From the first letter to the last letter written was a span of fifteen hundred years. No Internet, no Twitter, or x, whatever it is today. There there was no way for them to get their story straight over fifteen hundred years by more than 40 different authors that were on multiple continents,

and yet it's perfectly accurate. Without there being supernatural intervention, there's zero way that this whole thing happens. And you would also assume,

again, we've had two thousand years of understanding this, and there's incredible specificity of who was there at certain events and where the events happened. We've had two thousand years of archaeological discoveries

in unlike some other major world religions that exist and are prominent in our area where other archaeological discoveries have happened in proven key elements of their faith, there's not been a single archaeological discovery the last two thousand years that has dis proven one thing in the Bible.

If anything, the exact opposite has happened, where all the gospel accounts record that the person that oversaw the trial of Jesus was a guy named Pontius Pilate. Like, how specific is that? And then in the eighties, we discover a tomb to a man that would it was dated exactly to the time of Jesus' trial, and across

his tomb is the name Pontius Pilate. And the more we discover, the more accurate we realize that the scriptures are. Again, before I show you the how, I just gotta remind us that the Bible is accurate both archaeologically, geographically, historically, systematically, scientifically, prophetically,

and all of those reasons still submit to the most important reasons you should build your life on is because it's also miraculous in that the Bible is life changing. It is the only book that is not dead. It is the only book that is alive that God will use to

you from the inside out. Not only can you trust it, but the promise of the scripture itself is that if you will build your life on it, it will be the thing to change you from the inside out.

I promise you the number one way that God wants to speak to you is through his revealed word. You've gotta you've gotta get in it. So practically, what do we do? How do we begin to build our lives on the word of God? What's it look like to lay a foundation

on the unmovable, unchanging, unwavering word of God? The first thing we do is we make a commitment that we're gonna read the Bible regularly. K. The data is clear. If you read the bible two times a week, it it has negligible differences. It makes negligible

differences in your life. But if you can get to four or five times a week of reading the bible, the studies will tell you that rates of addiction dropped by over fifty percent. People begin to talk about how rates of depression are are plummeting.

It like pleasure in marriage begins to increase. Like, all types of different things begin to positively impact your life. And and if you start to read the bible, you begin to realize why those things happen. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter four verse four.

Jesus told them, no, the scriptures say people do not live by bread alone. Again, for some of you, that's a word going into thanksgiving. Okay? You've got to stop living on bread alone. The carbs are the enemy. Jesus said it two thousand years ago. It's still true today. Alright?

He says people do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. What is Jesus saying as much as I joke that carbs are the enemy? Jesus is reminding us that you are not just a physical body, though that's what we see and that's what we interact with. Right? That that's always the the lowest common denominator that we default to. It's just the physical world. And some of us spend so much time taking care of our physical bodies, and it's important. Right? The scriptures say that the temple today where God's spirit dwells is inside of you and I. We are the temple of the spirit of God today, and it's important to take care of your physical body.

But Jesus also reminds us you're not just a physical body. You are also a soul, and you also have a spiritual part of who you are that truthfully, if your physical body looked as malnourished as your spirit is, as your soul is,

I promise you we would stop services right now. We would all gather around and we would rush you to the nearest hospital because you are malnourished and you look like you're about to die. You haven't had a meal in three years.

Just like your physical body can't exist without food, Jesus is reminding us, your soul can't exist without the word of God and you have to feed it. I don't I don't know if you can remember the last time that you went through a fast where you you made a decision where I'm going to for spiritual purposes,

I'm gonna spend time abstaining from food. I'm excited to tell you that as a church, we're gonna begin 2026

with twenty one days of prayer and fasting. K? Not twenty one days of complete food fasting, but we're going to fast and pray together as a church, seeking the heart of God and what he wants to do on the earth today.

And I promise you there's going to be moments when you get into a physical fast where you are abstaining from food, where you'll begin to look around and all of a sudden you're like, dang, man, that broccoli looks really good. You know?

Like, I've never wanted broccoli until I'm on day three of a fast and then I'm like, would sell my child to get some broccoli right now. Right? Why? Because what happens when you get hungry enough? Your standards begin to drop.

And I'm telling you, the reason for some of you you've been settling for things that are far best from far from God's best for you is because your spirit and your emotions are completely malnourished.

And you're looking around at things that shouldn't even be remotely appealing to you, but because your spirit is so malnourished, you're going, man, I'll settle for that. It's better than nothing.

And I'm here to remind you that if you want to walk in the fullness of the plan that God has for you, you've got to begin to figure out how to feed not just your body, but also your soul. You've gotta make a commitment that you're gonna pray regularly.

I'm trying to convince you that you need to make an appointment with God this week and keep it. Potentially, the most important appointment on your calendar every single day is your appointment with God, that it sets the intention and the direction of your entire day, but it's not enough to just do it regularly. You've also gotta make a commitment that we're gonna read the bible systematically.

K? This is one of the things that's really important for us to remember because most of us, what we do is we go, okay. You know, Daniel said, I've gotta I've gotta read the bible. So we sit down and we're like, okay, God, I'm I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna read it. We get it. We open it up and we're like, okay. Song of Psalm chapter four.

And you start to read Song of Psalm chapter four, and you're like, well, this is some this is some vivid and explicit language. K? Song of Songs is an amazing book if you're married. Alright? Great book. Gives you lots of techniques if you're married. Alright? Doing a relationship series in the spring that we'll talk through those things. But if you're just opening it up, you're like, what are we talking about here? Right? There there's a reason that this poetic language wasn't allowed for a Jewish boy to read it until they were 13 years old because it's it needs context for you to understand what the scriptures are talking about. What what I'm trying to say is at some point, we've gotta figure out how to realize

that the bible isn't like 66 different books. It's one cohesive story,

but much like your kid bringing you a book at night going, hey, dad, would you read me the story and let's start on page 24? You're like, that wouldn't be really helpful. Right? Because we get need the first 23 pages to give us context, to give us character development.

You gotta understand the scope of the story if page 24 is gonna make sense at all. At some point, we have to figure out how to read the Bible systematically.

K? We've gotta have an approach where we begin to approach the scripture, not because we're trying to be theologians and our goal is to teach the bible to people, but we wanna be able to go, look, I I know

not like every single question, but I I have a pretty good understanding of what the scriptures mean and how to apply them and what different literary styles there are, and there's a ton of amazing resources that are out there. I don't know how people used to do this before the Internet, but you and I sitting here today, I just tell you we have zero excuses. K? The Bible app on your phone has more resources than you could ever possibly imagine. If you're like, don't even know where to start, go download a thing called the Bible Recap. It's an amazing daily devotional. This lady does a whole breakdown, and she's incredible. She does a phenomenal job with it. And I can't encourage you enough. You've gotta find something to begin to understand

the scripture because I just need to remind all of us sitting here today who claim to be followers of Jesus. The Bible tells us in second Timothy chapter two that you've got to work hard so that you can present yourself to God and receive his approval.

Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth. That every one of us here, not just me, this is not just for professional Christians. This is for every one of us that we have a responsibility to show ourselves before God for his approval.

And I'm not saying that it's easy, but I am saying that it's worth it. And notice what it says in here that as you do this, you won't be ashamed.

And I think the truth is for so many of us, we get so nervous that like our neighbors and our friends and our our family members at Thanksgiving are gonna ask us about the baptism photo that we posted a few weeks ago. Because we're like, well, I don't I don't actually know anything, and I need to, like, phone a friend for most of the questions that they're asking me about.

God wants to remove that, like, shame that you feel so that you can go, no. Again, I don't know everything. I still got questions. There are still multiple times where friends of mine are asked questions about theology, and I'm like, yeah. Don't know, man. But I I know Jesus is the answer, you know, and I just I don't know what I don't know, and and that is okay.

But you also should be able to give a defense of your faith, the scriptures say. We have a responsibility to steward the greatest message the world has ever heard as revealed in the scriptures. So we're gonna read the Bible regularly, but we're also gonna read it systematically,

and then we're also gonna read the Bible inquisitively. K? Here's the third thing we gotta do if we're gonna really build a foundation

of the scriptures into our life. We've got to approach it with a curious nature. And I know you know how to spell inquisitive, but we'll leave it up there for your neighbor for just a second. Okay? You've got to approach the scripture with curiosity.

One of the most dangerous places to be is to go, I've read it before. Now I know that book. I've read it.

I'm telling you, here's the beautiful part of the invitation of faith with Jesus. And I I say with people who've been following Jesus for sixty years, and they're like, man, every time I read the word of God, it's new. It's alive. It's it's changing. I'm seeing things I've never seen before. You know, I'm not 60, but I've been reading the Bible for a while now, and it's amazing how I still read. I'm like, I've never I've never seen this before. And that's the beauty of who God is, is he's such a deep well, you will never reach the bottom of the depths of understanding him.

You've got to approach the scripture with curiosity and to come to God and go, you know what? I just I want you to teach me. I want you to show me things that I haven't seen before. You gotta remember Paul again in first in second Timothy chapter three, he continues and tells us that all scripture

is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong, and it teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

One of the most important passages, why should you spend time in the Bible? Because God wants to use this thing to chisel away at your character flaws that all of us have.

He wants to mold you more into the image of Christ, and how is he going to do it through his revealed word? He says he wants to use this to prepare you for every good work that he has in advance for you. You know what that that tells me? Is that God has good things for you in 2026.

There are potentially doors that God is going to open into your purpose in 2026. The question is, will you be prepared to walk through that door by how you prepared yourself in this season? We've got to if we really want to make a significant,

like, change, we wanna make a significant impact with our time on this earth, We've gotta begin to take God at his word. And to go, hey, God, you're you're preparing good things for me. God, I want you to use my life to make a significant impact in everything you've given me, the influence that I have, the fact that you're a boss in a work environment, the fact that you're a mom over little kids, and you are stewarding

their souls, you are shepherding who they are in Christ, you have an incredibly high responsibility. How are you preparing yourself for that calling?

The scriptures say that God wants to use the Bible to prepare you for those things. He wants to show you the parts of your life that you're pumped on that nobody else is pumped on.

Some of the things in your life that you can't carry into 2026 with you that have gotten you here, but they won't get you they won't get you there. I'm telling you,

the scripture is God's chisel that he uses to chip away at the parts of our hearts that were were not pumped are are there. But you gotta always remember the goal. See, the goal is not information.

The harshest words that Jesus ever had for people on this earth were for religious leaders that had lots of Bible knowledge in their head, but none actually revealed in their hearts.

They knew it. They just didn't live it. K. Again, I wrote it down this way that what really counts is not how much of God's word you go through, but how much of God's word goes through you. We read the Bible not just for information, but for transformation

because we believe that it it is the vehicle upon which God will use to change us and mold us more into his his image. So we're gonna read the Bible regularly. We're gonna read it systematically. We're gonna read it inquisitively.

And here's potentially the last three of the most important ones. We're also gonna read the Bible prayerfully. Prayer is kinda like the glue that connects God's plan to your purpose. K? It's the thing that hold it's like the connective tissue that holds it all together.

And so often when you're terrified going, man, I don't even know where to start. I'm telling you, the greatest place to start is to sit down and go, okay, God, you're with me. We've got to remember that the spirit of God the the book of Ephesians says that the moment you give your life to Jesus and you're saved,

that you are actually marked and sealed with the Holy Spirit. See, the Holy Spirit is not like this little dove thing that floats around. It's the third part of a triune God, and that God dwells inside of you. And the spirit of God, the same spirit, the scripture say, rose Jesus from the grave is alive and active in you. So when you sit down in the morning to read the Bible that you're intimidated by, which I totally get and I totally understand,

you can start and invite the Holy Spirit into the process and literally just say, okay, God, I don't I don't even know where to start. But holy spirit, I invite you here right now. And I know that what I'm about to go through is an incredibly holy and sacred process

where God, you are going to take the revealed word of God and you're gonna speak to me. So holy spirit, I'm asking right now that you would open my eyes, you would open my mind, you would open my heart to see what you see, to hear what you hear. God, would you meet me in this place?

I'm telling you, a thirty second prayer before you sit down to read the bible, and all of a sudden you're like, man, I'm seeing stuff. It seems like God is God is stuff is standing out to me. And when that begins to happen, bible reading goes from a discipline to a desire.

And that's the greatest transition that every follower of Jesus needs to make. I'm not trying to convince you to build this in as a discipline. You can start with discipline. Yes and amen.

But eventually, you've gotta cross over the line, it's gotta become a desire. We go, man, every morning, I get to bring my burdens before God. I get to sit down and commune with God, the only person in this world that completely understands me, that knows me better than I know myself.

I get to meet with him, and he's gonna reveal himself to me through the revealed word of God. It's an incredibly holy invitation.

It's what Jesus reminded us. John chapter 14, this is the purpose of the Holy Spirit. He says, but when the father sends the advocate as my representative, that is the holy spirit. Here's the holy spirit's job, to teach you everything and to remind you of everything that I've told you.

Two of the greatest responsibilities of the holy spirit. Why do you why should you care about the Holy Spirit? Because the Holy Spirit is what will teach you about the things of God, and it will remind you what Jesus spent three years belaboring trying to get us to understand.

Here's how to really be human. If you wanna understand who you really actually are, you've gotta begin to allow the Holy Spirit to teach you, to take the word of God that can feel so daunting and overwhelming and make it simple and practical.

That's what the Holy Spirit will do for you and to you. But But you gotta also make a commitment that you're not just gonna do it prayerfully, but at the end of the day, last point, is you're going to make a decision that you're going to apply the Bible

daily.

See, it's not the goal is not information. We're not trying to get more knowledge so that we can dunk on our family and friends at Thanksgiving that we know more about the Bibles than them. No. No. No. We're we're we're trying to be changed as we made into the image that God is trying to make us into. Again, the very first verse that we read, Jesus talking about how to build your life on the word of God. In Matthew seven, he said that anybody who listens to my teaching

and. It's not enough to just listen to God's teaching. You've also got to follow it. That's a wise person. It's one thing to know God's heart forgiving.

It's an entirely different thing to actually do it and live it. It's it's one thing to know God's designed for marriage and sexuality. It's an entirely different thing to live it out. And I just think we're living in a day and age where lots of people know a lot of things, but very few people actually live those things.

And I'm just convinced that you and I, as followers of Jesus, we could change the world if we didn't grow in almost any more information, but we just made a decision to live out the amount of bible that we already know. I'm telling you, it's application that we need.

It's living out the things of God that will change this world. Not talking about them. Not just ruminating about the possibilities of God's design, but it's actually living them out. We've got to be careful that we don't become who James talked about in James chapter one verse 22.

James said, don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you're just you're just fooling yourselves. I think there are a lot of people that are full of churches today that are just fooling themselves.

They're talking about it, but they're not living it. It's the equivalent of the people who are like my greatest pet peeve in the gym. And there's a few different, like, groups of gym people that kinda drive me nuts. But if I had to rank the top one, then I'm like, if I could vote one of them off the island, it's this one.

It's the people that show up and they're in workout clothes. Most of the time, they have full makeup and their hair done, and they stand around with groups. They take photos. They pose. They do Instagram stories, but they never actually lift a weight.

And I'm like, you realize the purpose of this thing is to work out? It's not just a social club. And the truth is is being in the gym, it's not gonna do anything for you. You will not look any different in 2026 if you just show up to the gym every morning. You've got to at some point go through the process of of straining your muscles and pushing yourself physically.

And if not, we all sit around and go, they look foolish. I'm here to remind some of us that I think if God could gently whisper to us that our our our spiritual rhythms, they make us look foolish.

We do the things of God. We have the actions of a spiritual person, but the truth is is we're not applying it. We're not living it. We're not walking in the God given purpose and identity that we've been given. And we've got to, at some point, stop fooling ourselves and kinda go back to the drawing board.

And go, God, how do I how do I begin to build a healthy foundation? I I need you to see this morning. The last point that I have for you is that daily application is the thing that leads to spiritual transformation. What you and I need more than anything else is transformation. How do you get it? By daily application.

It's not in big monumentous changes. It's in the small seemingly insignificant things that God will whisper to you in the quiet places. It's the small things in your life that only you know.

It's the things that, truthfully, nobody around you is thinking about, but God has been nudging you. It's time to deal with this. This habit that you've had that is starting to become an addiction, we can't carry with us into this next year. Where you're going, you've gotta stop doing some things.

You've gotta allow the spirit of God to transform you. And I promise you, if you submit to allowing the spirit of God to speak to you, to reveal things to you, to change you, and you commit to living it out, and I promise you, come this time next year, you won't even recognize yourself.

You could have a marriage that's completely different. You could have a relationship with your kids that looks completely different than it does today. You could have a relationship with God that you've always wanted. It starts

with making a decision to think about the foundation that you've built your life on. I close by just telling you a story. I read the story a few weeks ago, and I felt like it was perfect for this message. And in 2011 in New Zealand, there was a a devastating earthquake

that hit New Zealand. Worst one they've ever had in their history. Buildings that had stood for hundreds of years were destroyed. Dozens and dozens of lives were taken.

Two of the most historic churches were leveled to the ground. It took months and months and months for them to get through the rubble and begin the process of of rebuilding.

But what was amazing is as they got to the bottom of the the pile of rubble, they got through the the fire and the storms and the chaos. What they found at the bottom in multiple places were completely intact bibles.

And there's pictures like this where they would get all the rubble off, and there would be these bibles that were just perfectly in in intact.

The the edges were a little bit frayed. There was some slight burning that happened, but the the word of God was just there. And it was amazing. One of the one of the construction workers went on record and said, in the earthquake, we we lost everything.

But we learned that there was one thing that was strong enough to outlast all the shaking, and it was the unchanging word of God. I submit to you this morning that the only thing that will withstand all of the shaking of this life is the unchanging word of God.

The one thing that I can promise you will not disappoint you, that will never let you down, is God himself who has revealed who he is through the holy sacred scriptures.

But you've gotta make a commitment to build your life on it. The decision is yours. As the leader of this church, I'm submitting to you that this is what we're going to build this church on.

What I'm asking you to consider is to build your life on this thing as well. Amen? Let me pray for you. Father, God, thank you, Lord, so much for every single person that's here this morning. And, God, I couldn't possibly begin to know all the burdens on every single person's heart this morning.

And, God, I just feel like there's people that are in this room today that walked in here heavy. I don't know if it's a relationship thing,

but I feel like there's somebody that's sitting in this room because of a relationship that's broken. I don't know if it's a marriage or relationship with a parent, but there's just there there's real pain. There's real uncertainty. It feels like there's deep hurt and there's deep betrayal.

And father, I just know that you brought them here because you wanna remind them just how much you love them, and that God, you have good things in store for them. And just because people have let them down, it doesn't mean that you will as well. And that father we thank you for being unshakable

and unchanging and that God you will be the same tomorrow that you are today and that you were yesterday. And father, we will build our lives on the one thing that is unchangeable amidst a culture that seems to change every six seconds. So father, would you speak?

God, this week as we make a commitment to sit down with you, to open up the bible, would you meet us in those places? Holy Spirit, would you go before us? God, would you begin to transform us from the inside out? Would we be people who build our life on the unmovable, unshakable word

of God? It is in Jesus' holy and mighty name all God's people said. Amen and