One comment we frequently get from people who visit First Christian Church is that the courtyard is beautiful. And it is. It is a lovely place to sit in the quiet with a canopy of Mesquite trees and a view of blooming Hibiscus.

But the courtyard—as you may know—is not so beautiful at the moment. In fact, this week one could sit on the lovely new benches and watch as work crews dug, hacked and even jackhammered around its edges. By week’s end, our beautiful courtyard was marred by piles of concrete rubble and mounds of gumbo clay. And in the not-too-distant future we will see the same in the transept gardens.

But it has to be that way. The retainers that were used to keep dirt and water from running under the building have failed. They have to be dug out and replaced or at least repositioned. If not we will one day find that the foundation itself is at risk. And that, of course, would be disastrous because everything rests on the foundation. If it is not solid, then the whole building is compromised.

Of course, what is true of buildings is true of life as well. A solid foundation is essential to withstanding the storms that inevitably come upon us. Without it, we are in danger of being at least damaged and maybe even destroyed by the troubles that come our way. And Jesus knew that. At the close of his Sermon on the Mount he said as much. He said it was vital to build our lives on "rock," on a solid foundation that would not fail in the hard times. More importantly, we find in his words and the people’s reaction to them the keys for building on such a foundation. We find here what it takes to build one’s life in such a way that it is secure and enduring.

So what are the keys to building one’s life on a solid foundation?

One key is listening to Jesus. To build our lives on a solid foundation we have to hear what he has to say.

That might seem obvious. We might even assume that it is a given. But people—even Christians—have not always listened to Jesus. In 1970, James Smart wrote a little book entitled The Strange Silence of the Bible in the Church. In it he convincingly argued that the Scriptures were falling silent in the teaching and preaching of the church and in the consciousness of the people in the pews. More than 30 years ago—back in what some see as the glory days of the church—vast sections of the Christian faith had already stopped listening to Jesus. Sermons largely ignored the biblical text. Sunday School classes were more interested in psychology than theology. Bible studies virtually disappeared as fewer and fewer of the faithful attended.

Now, 30 years later, not a lot has changed. Today studies show that biblical illiteracy is high—that many churchgoers reared in the modern Sunday School and youth programs lack even a basic knowledge of the Scriptures. The Bible remains silent—and Jesus with it.

If we are to build our lives, our children’s lives and our grandchildren’s lives on a solid foundation, listening to Jesus is essential. There is no where better to begin than the Sermon on the Mount. As Dallas Willard has noted, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus addresses "the guts of human existence"

• anger, contempt and hatred,
• lust, divorce and manipulation,
• revenge, slapping and suing,
• cursing, coercing and begging."

Here—and elsewhere—Jesus teaches us how to live as the people God intended us to be. And the only way we can know what that is is if we listen to Jesus—commit ourselves to making the Scriptures central to our individual lives and to our life together, to read and study them, to discuss and meditate on them, to open our minds and hearts to what they have to say. Building on a solid foundation requires that we listen to Jesus.

But listening to Jesus is only one of the keys. A second is acting upon that which Jesus teaches.

I don’t know how to measure it, but I suspect the largest gap known to humanity is between the intellect and the will. Although both are rolled together into each person’s body, there is a Grand Canyon-like chasm between what we know and what we do. We may know in our minds what we are to do but doing it is a whole other matter.

Years ago I saw a great example of this gap. I went to visit a church member who had been hospitalized. I was surprised that she was there. She seemed to have been doing quite well. When I asked her what had happened, she told me that the doctor had prescribed some new drugs for her. I immediately thought that she must have had a reaction to them. But that was not it. She told me she had stopped taking them. She knew she was suppose to take them. She knew it was good for her to take them. She knew it would help her. But there was a gap between intellect and volition, between mind and will. It is the same gap that keeps us from exercising or eating right or changing unhealthy habits.

And Jesus’ followers can suffer from the same lack of will. And Jesus knew it. That is why he said, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock." He wanted to make it clear that simply listening to him, simply knowing what he had to say, is not enough. Building our lives on a solid foundation requires—to use the language from the Letter of James—that we "be doers of the word and not merely hearers."

Of course, that is not easy. Jesus calls us to a radical holiness,

• one where we refuse to get angry at a brother or sister,
• one where we go to those who have hurt us and seek peace,
• one where we control our desires, honor our vows, turn the other cheek and love our enemies.

It is not a mere holiness of the mind: "Yep, that’s what Jesus teaches. I’ve heard it--even memorized it." No, it is a holiness lived out in practice, expressed in the day-to-day living out of our lives. Building on a solid foundation requires that we act upon that which Jesus teaches.

Still, there is a third key to building on a foundation that can withstand the storms of life. It is hinted at in the response of the crowd to Jesus’ teaching. The Scriptures say that the people were amazed or astounded at Jesus’ teaching because "he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes."

To build our lives on a solid foundation requires that we recognize and yield to the authority of Jesus Christ. In fact, we have little hope of either listening to him or acting upon his teachings unless we believe by faith that what he says and what he asks us to do is nothing less than, to use his words, "the will of my Father in heaven."

In his book The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel tells of 30-year-old preacher getting ready for what would be a major crusade. But despite his calling, the preacher was wrestling with doubts. He was doubting whether or not he could trust what he read in the Scriptures. He was struggling with the philosophical and psychological questions people were raising about the Bible. For weeks he searched for answers, praying and pondering. Then one evening, in 1949, that preacher was walking in the San Bernardino Mountains. After much turmoil and confusion, he knelt to pray, Bible in hand. And he said, "Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word—by faith! I am going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts, and I will believe this to be your inspired Word." And a few days later Billy Graham would begin the crusade that would launch him into one of the most powerful ministries the church has ever known.

Today many even in the church find themselves with doubts similar to those Graham had. We wonder whether Jesus is who Scripture says he is. We wonder if the life he calls us to live is truly the abundant life. We wonder if we can dare do what he asks. We know deep inside that a life that endures our inevitable struggles cannot be built on Jesus as merely a wise man or as one great religious teacher among many. It rests on acknowledging by faith that Jesus is the very presence of God among us. It rests on yielding to the authority he possesses as God’s only Son.

William Willimon tells of a woman beset by a horrible neurological disorder. She has endured numerous surgeries and continues in pain most of each day. Still she fights the good fight, and she does so with dignity, humor, grace and hope. When Willimon visited here, he was so impressed that he had to ask her how she did it. She told him that she began preparing for this struggle more than 50 years before. It was then that her mother would take her to worship and Sunday School—take her to church where she discovered that God loved her, had plans for her, would always be with her. Although her life had been easy, truly blessed, when thse storm did come she was glad that she had placed her trust in Jesus, listened to him, followed as best she could all that he taught. When the storm came, she found that through all those years she was building on a solid foundation. That, Willimon said, made her wise.

May we be as wise as this woman and acknowledge the authority of Jesus, listen to his words and act upon them. May we be as wise and build our lives on a foundation that will endure the storms of life. Amen.