The Foundation of Life
Keith M. McFarren
November 8, 2026
Luke 6: 45-49
1 Corinthians 3: 10-15
    The people that followed Jesus did so
because what he taught made so much sense to them.   He “practiced what he preached” and he told
them that if they continued to trust him, if they would put their lives in his
hands they too, would be able to live the kind of life he had been talking
about.
    What they discovered was that they could
trust him as their teacher.  Many of us
had one or two teachers throughout our years in school that were different than
all the rest.  It’s like we connected
with them.  Not only did they make the
class interesting they also became a friend that maybe made a difference in our
lives because they cared about us not just as a student but as a person.  
    That was Jesus.  Jesus was a teacher but Jesus also became a
friend.  And it was because of the
relationship the people formed with him that they found that they could trust
him and if they did what he told them to do, everything would work out finE.
    Things haven’t change much
today.  If we move forward some 2,000
years and if we want to receive the love that Jesus offers and all the benefits
that go with it then it stands to reason that we too, have to begin by
accepting him as our teacher.
    But that is so much easier
said than done.  That’s because he thinks
one way and we think another and we don’t always agree with his way of
thinking.  We have a tendency to be
stubborn and hardheaded and think that we’re right and…everyone else, including
Jesus, is wrong.
   That’s our problem…because if
we are to accept him as our teacher then we also have to accept that he is
always right – about everything.  So what
we have to do is to learn that when we disagree with him: we must either be
wrong or we don’t fully understand what it is he’s trying to tell us.
     If Jesus is going to be our
teacher we have to believe in him and his ways and we have to trust him 100%
and we have to give him 100% of our undivided attention and... we have to allow
him to teach us the correct way to live our lives.  Not how we want to live our lives... but how
he wants us to live our lives.
    Did you understand the
parable this morning?  Parables are
confusing and sometimes sound like double talk.
What I get afraid of sometimes is that the bible confuses some of us and
we really don’t understand what Jesus is saying or what he means so we just
kind of let it go in one ear and out the other and think we know what he
said.  Or, we just figure “That’s too
confusing for me.  I couldn’t understand
it if I had to.”  
    So what I want to do this
morning is read a different version of what Jesus is saying.  Something that might be more
understandable.  It’s a different from
our scripture reading but the meaning is the same.
    Read 3 Little Pigs from “Book
of Virtues” by William J. Bennett.
    That’s what Jesus is talking about.  If we put these two stories side by side they
are pretty much the same.  They both have
the same meaning.  
    Three little pigs built
their own houses.  One built with hay and
straw, one built with sticks and the third one built with bricks.
    Each one faced the big bad
wolf and each one had to face the huffing and puffing of the wolf.  
    Two of the pigs knew better,
but they went ahead and built their houses out of junk, one of hay and straw
and the other out of sticks.  The houses
were cheap and easy to build but when the mean old wolf came along and blew on
them what happened?  They blew away.
    Why?  Because they weren’t built very well.  The pigs that built them weren’t concerned
about the future.  They were concerned
only about now.  Get it up and get it
done so that I can go do something else.
    But piggy #3 was thinking
about the future so he built his house out of good strong material.  He called a reputable construction company
who in turn called an architect and the bricklayers union, and they came over
and built him a good solid house.  They
dug down into the ground and started with a good solid, cement foundation and
cement walls and they built it up from there. It may have cost a little more
and it may have taken a little longer but he was preparing for the future and
piggy #3 knew that it would stand up against whatever came along.
    Our scripture reading this
morning is a story about building a house.
It’s a story that probably came easy to Jesus because, if you remember,
he and his father, Joseph, were carpenters and they had probably built a few
houses for different people in different subdivisions throughout the area.  
    It’s a story about two
men.  One who is more concerned about
living for today than he is about the future.
He doesn’t want to take the time to dig down and start his house with a
good solid foundation and then build up from there.  
    Deep down inside he knows he
should, but he doesn’t want to take the time because he’s more concerned about
the here and now…about how much money he can make and how much neat stuff he
can buy and impressing his friends with his house and his car.    The other guy is a little more
cautious.  He likes to have a good time
too and he’s got a decent house and a nice car but he is a man who takes the
time to look toward the future.  
    He did some research and he
decided that when he built his house he had better build it on a good solid
foundation.  He knows that there will be
times in life, especially with all the strange El Niño and La Niña weather
patterns that are predicted, it could get pretty windy and stormy so he wants
to be sure that his house can stand up to anything that comes along.          
    Jesus makes it perfectly
clear in our reading this morning, and so do the three little pigs for that
matter – that each and every one of us are going to face troubles in our
lifetime.  It’s going to storm.  And for some of us, and I don’t know why, the
storms seem to come quite often and for some of us the storms are pretty darn
big.     The rain is going to come down in
torrents and the streams are going to rise and the wind is going to blow and it’s
going to beat against our house and it’s going to try to blow our house right
off it’s foundation.  
    But it’s how you
prepare.  It’s about how you build your
house, how you build your character, how you strengthen your faith, how you
build your soul, that will ultimately reveal just how strongly your house is
built.  It’s your character and it’s your
soul, and it’s the foundation of your life, God himself, that will determine if
your house, if you, will make it through the storm.
    Many, many years ago I
bought a nice aluminum shed to store our lawn mower in and the kids bicycles
in.  Now you could put this thing
together two different ways.  You could
attach it to a cement foundation or...you could just set it on the grass and
anchor it down with the anchors that came with the kit.
    Deep down inside I knew the
best way to do it.  But I chose to anchor
it down with the anchors that came with the kit.  Why?
Because it was easier.  Because I
was in a hurry to get the shed up and I didn’t want to take the time or spend
the money to dig out an area for a foundation and pour cement.
   Within 6 months time a wind
storm came along in the middle of the night and in the morning my shed had been
moved from my back yard, over a fence and into a field behind our house.  It was totally destroyed…all because I didn’t
put it on a good, solid  foundation.
    Jesus is telling us two
things this morning.  First, he’s telling
us that we all build our own house.  And
secondly, no matter who you are, rich man, poor man, black or white, we are all
going to face storms in our life.
    So the question becomes,
what are you going to do to prepare?
What are you going to use for the foundation of your house?  What are you going to use to support your
house?  What is it that will support your
character and your soul?  In what are you
going to place your ultimate trust to get you through the most difficult of
times?
       As humans, we don’t get
to decide the types of storms we are going to face…but we do get to choose the
foundation on which we will stand when those storm come.  Jesus is telling us today that a life that
has been built with God as the foundation will help you withstand the waves and
the wind and the erosion that comes along with the storms of life.
    A life built on anything
other than God is nothing more than one big gamble.  The storm may miss you today and it may miss
you tomorrow but there is a storm brewing out there in the future with your
name on it and it’s only a matter of time before that storm makes landfall and
the wind and the rain and the erosion will start to eat away at the foundation
that you have built your life on.
    The day is coming when your
house…your life…will be tested and it is only the house on the rock that will
stand firm.  In times of trouble, no one
who has ever built their house on the foundation of Jesus Christ has ever been
disappointed.