Brian Guerin emphasizes the significance of building our lives on the solid foundation of Jesus' words, as illustrated in the parable of the wise and foolish builders. He explains that both builders faced the same storms, but only the one who acted on Jesus' teachings stood firm, while the other faced a great fall. Guerin highlights the importance of proximity to Jesus and the necessity of being doers of the word, not just hearers, to ensure our foundations remain strong amidst life's challenges. He encourages believers to seek God's voice and obey it fully, warning against partial obedience that can lead to instability. Ultimately, he calls for a return to the foundational truths of Scripture to withstand the trials of life.

Jesus says, Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. Verse 26, But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, beat on the house, and it fell, and great was its fall. Didn't just fall, great was its fall. So real quick, I just want to talk to you really from my heart on this, and I love this. Many of you know, I actually, my background's in building under my amazing father here, taught by one of the best who built custom homes for many years. So it hits home, but also like what you're looking at here, just from a biblical kind of background, is Jesus is at the very end of the Sermon on the Mount. So the Sermon of the Mount, the most profound sermon Jesus ever taught. This is the last parable he shared before he closed the book on that. Everybody knows that the Sermon on the Mount was one of the most profound teachings of Jesus. The Beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer, it's all in there. And so if you go back to Matthew 5, Jesus had just healed the multitudes, performed miracles. I love this about the Lord too. He always teaches, preaches, and does. He's not word only, but he's spirit. He moves in power, he multiplies food. So if you're constantly in a stream that's word only, meaning there's no spirit, you want to find one where the river's flowing. That's typically religion. Paul said the kingdom of God's not talk alone, but power. So we've got to see people healed in their bodies, renewed in their minds. Marriages start to transform. Like Jared, he's a perfect example. Like lives transformed. And that's what's incredible about the word. Bathe in the spirit, it renews the mind, it transforms lives. You know, it's incredible. But anyway, so Jesus, I love this because you can picture it. He just healed the multitudes. Everybody's around for that. They love the miraculous, the supernatural, how it better, you know, better sets up my life. And then in the end of Matthew 5, it literally says he looked around, Jesus looked around and saw the multitudes and went up a mountain before he got into this. So I feel like the Lord was looking around and said, okay, yeah, of course the masses are here for healing. But I'm about to go on one of the greatest teachings this earth has ever seen. And it'll stamp the earth permanently with my eternal words forever. And I'm going up where only people will follow me who will pay a price for it. You could camp out there forever. He went up high on a mountain and it says the disciples, it says he went up high and sat down. Jesus climbed up this mountain and sat right before he got into the Sermon on the Mount. And the Bible says the disciples, when they saw him be seated, they came to him. Just the disciples, the multitudes, they come and go. This can be applied in your personal life to you'll start to see people that are really supposed to run with you. They love the multitudes being healed, the food multiplication, but also the higher places where it costs you to hear it. They'll follow you and sit right next to you. And so Jesus goes straight into the Sermon on the Mount, 5th, 6th, 7th chapter, all this sermon. He's sitting up there, you know, I mean, they had out their notebooks and he's hitting all like these major foundational things on the kingdom and the word of God. And I believe the attention span of many, the multitudes, I believe many probably stayed at the base of the mountain and just were like, oh, okay, he's not performing any miracles. He's not, there's no food, multiple, okay, I'm good. And they just begin to hear the echoes off and some was landing, some wasn't. But how many of you know, also proximity really matters. Things the Lord says, the disciples came near him and sat like Mary at his feet, just sat there and it landed with them. You'll see in a second, they were the doers of the word. If you just, it's funny, I was remembering like, because I really started looking up, I said, I bet part of why he went up was so it could be heard. Many believe that's why he'd get on a boat and go out into the water because it would bounce and echo off the water and everybody could hear. But I believe also because it was costly, meaning before I share this, because literally he lands it here. He says all these chapters of the Sermon on the Mount and the last parable is like, therefore, we just read it. They taught us in Bible college, if you're ever reading the word and you see the word therefore, to stop and look to see what it's there for. Meaning when Jesus says, therefore, he said, hey, listen up. Basically, everything I just told you, therefore, these sayings, all that I said, if you do them, you'll be like a wise man. You don't, you'll be foolish. But I was remembering we were in Israel and Todd, he'll actually be here tomorrow night, Todd White teaching our school. It's incredible, but it's funny. You never know what he's going to do. He's always this way. We're near a mountain somewhere by some olive trees. I'm fascinated by the olives, wondering do they taste ripe yet? Are they good? They look hard. And meanwhile, he runs with these kids up some mountain nearby, just gets lost, totally leaves the guide, everything. And all of a sudden you hear, our God is an awesome God. He's just yelling off the top of this mountain. It's like just reverberating through the mountains. You know, he's like, and all the kids are like, you're like, what is going on? He just, he just found a high place. I want to worship God. And so it's funny. I believe that's part of it because they say that sound when you're uphill, you know, it just has air to travel through. Whereas if you're down at the base of the mountain, you shout, it's got, it hits rocks and bounces off things and it can't quite travel as fast. I believe that's part of it. But also I love that he went to a high place before he got into this. And the disciples got real near him. And it's something to do with proximity. But basically he, you know, he goes up. This is that, this is the last parable before he closes the book on the Sermon of the Mount. And he jumped straight into this. I'll read it again slowly. He says, therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I'll liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. So, so we'll stop there. I love to point out too, if you read it slowly, he he's not talking about a wise builder or a foolish builder. He says a wise man, foolish man. They both built, I believe really well here. And I love this parable too, because the devil's nowhere in it. It's Jesus and his words to you. And then how you yield to him or not. I love, that's why the parable of the 10 virgins is also one of my favorites. It's so much like this. And then he divides the wise and the foolish here. It's what Jesus calls wise or what he calls foolish. He does it with the 10 virgins as well. And you'll see the only thing that separates the 10 virgins is oil there. They're all virgins and pure, the direction they're going, they all fall asleep and weary. But Jesus says, oh, who's got extra oil? Wise, who does not have extra oil? Foolish. That's the only thing he checked them on. Well, here, if you read slowly, the only thing that matters is what you're building on, not how you build. What we're building on so matters. And that's what gets tried. You notice that we come from Louisiana. A lot of us, we know this well, these storm progression, this is totally South Louisiana all day long. Rains, floods, wind, hurricanes, you know? And so that progression even has nothing to do with you read slowly trying to structure. This isn't a tornado that rips the house to shreds. It's rain that softens the foundation, then floods that erodes the foundation, then the wind just to topple it. And great was its fall. Y'all see that progression there? And also I love that in this passage, the rain, floods, and wind, and that exact progression comes to both. And it's not an if, it's when, it's coming. And so also I love that you could teach this parable both in the now seasons of our life or like a eschatological, which is a fancy word for like the start of the end times, meaning the end times is for sure gonna bring about rain, flood, and winds. It's going to come. Isaiah 60, it's clear in the word. But also I think it can be applied to everyday life like seasons. You build something in a season and then its foundation gets tried. Sometimes it falls, sometimes it doesn't. And I think 2020 was a great exposure of foundations because also while this parable is so beautiful is you notice the rain, floods, and wind often wait till you build whatever structure it is. And you can be fooled into thinking you built something great. You know, the wise and foolish builder here, sorry, wise and foolish man who built, I believe both of them built really well. They both built and were in their abode and everything looked great until it was tried. And this is why it's so important now, like in everyday life, we begin to make sure our life is being built on his voice, on his sayings, on his word. Because anything, especially now, the days we're in, and you guys know I'm not like a doom and gloom guy, but I love truth and I love to build in a quality way. I don't wanna, how many of you wanna waste your time building this big mansion and then great was its fall? You can also liken it to the deeds done by following God that get tried by fire in the end. Some's wood, hay, and stubble that all gets burned up. Some of it's, you know, precious stone, silver, gold, and it gets tried by fire and it's good. But I just wanna encourage us that, and we'll go through slowly, I have some notes here that's pretty wild, but first to kind of preface it with that. So real quick, these sayings where Jesus says, look, therefore, everyone who hears my sayings, both camps hear his word too. He's talking to believers, I love this. The 10 versions, same thing, he's talking. So his words go forth and then what we do with them dictates what we're building on, not what you're building, I love this too. This is basically saying whether you like it or not, you're building something. Your life is 100% right now building the structure of who you are and it will be tried one day. You know, a lot of people are like, well, I'm just not ready, especially young ones, please hear me. One day when I build a good testimony or something, I don't know what that is, that's total nonsense. And then I'm going to give my heart wholly to the Lord. Oh no, you're building your house right now. The structure of your life is being built whether you like it or not. You know, he says, those who do what I say, they built a house. Those who don't do what I say, they still built. So whether you're hearing God accurately, building, not half-hearted in God, your life's being built and rain, floods and wind are coming and you will be tried. But what's awesome is I love to look at it this way. Those that build on his words, the rain, floods and wind are a blessing to them. You're built on the rock you love from good rain. Oh yeah, just sounds nice on the roof. The floods are great because it washes away the trash and brings in new rich soil. I mean, you don't care when that does not phase you. Whereas the other, you know, it's quite different. But watch this, I'll begin to just dig deeper. And I just first wanted to preface it with that. But watch this, the, oh, here's one verse first. I love this, Proverbs 24, 27. You don't have to turn there. It says, put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready. After that, build your house. And I think it can apply, meaning know well what you're dealing with first. And it could even apply here on his word and the rock and then build. It's funny, my dad will tell you, we often would run into this. We built custom homes for, he was in it for way longer than me. I was in it for about a decade with him. And we'd always get these people that would buy this land first. And then all of a sudden they'd wanna build there, but they wouldn't prep it or not, you know, they wouldn't think about anything, just hurry up and got this lot in this neighborhood that they thought was great. But their dream home, they already knew about they wanted to build. And they'd bring us these plans already locked into a very, you know, who knows how expensive a lot, a hundred some thousand quarter, you know, they'd get up there and they'd bring these plans. We'd be like, that will not fit on the land. Train wreck, you know, you gotta, there's setbacks, there's a lot of codes you didn't even think about. Well, no, I can picture it. The trees, it'll fit right there. It's like, no, it won't at all. You gotta reverse engineer, you know, and I love that the Bible goes out of its way to preface first the land, the foundation, what you're building on. And then you start. And so, but watch this. Also the difference of the foundation. I think it's pretty awesome and it's fun to see it this way. And I believe kind of can land. You could pull so many different revelations from this. But what we're dealing with here, it's real simple. It's the sayings of the Lord. The scenario is exact same across the board. The sayings of God, which in this passage is Logos, his written word. He literally uses Logos here, both the written word of God. And then also I would propose his rhema, relational, intimate spoken word constantly to you that will never contradict the written. That would be like Romans 10, where it says faith comes by hearing and hearing of the word of God. That's rhema. So God's speaking to you relationally. Often the best way to get rhema is through the Logos. He'll just start speaking and it flows. But both, and so listen to, I started looking at like, why didn't he say dirt? Which turns in the mud. He said, sand. Jesus said rock, which is a solid mass in sand. So I started looking them up in rock. Of course, it's solid mass, but listen to, it's a solid mass of mineral quartz, granite, all this. We know this. Georgia has them all over the place. Listen to what sand is. Finally divided particles of mineral quartz, granite. Same thing. It's rock divided and eroded into smaller pieces. Same thing. And so I propose again, one of the many ways you could look at this is Jesus, his sayings, they come to you as rock. They're solid. But when we don't obey, or you'll see in a second, we mix in our soulless application. That what was a solid mass that came to you divides immediately. And it's no longer a solid foundation. Like this while, listen to what sand is. Rocks erode or weather over a long period of time, mainly by water and wind. And the sediments are transported downstream. These sediments continue to break apart into smaller pieces until they become fine grains of sand. The type of rock the sediment originated from and the intensity of the environment give different compositions of sand. Watch this. The most common rock to form sand is granite. It's basically rock divided. And so it can wash out from under you. It's not solid. Underneath. And so I've got so many notes here, but basically listen to this. If you are not one with his words, his words will not be one under you. If you are one with his words, his words will be one under you, the rock or the sand divided. And so hearers only, I love to, I'm going to try and condense it. But James chapter one says this, I believe it can apply. Hearers and doers of the word. It says this in layman's terms. It says, look, don't be a forgetful hearer of the word of God who are like a man who looks into the mirror. And then when they look away, they forget what they looked like. Be a doer of the word. It says who look into the perfect law of liberty and continue in it. And what you build, basically, it will be blessed. Your life will be blessed. So what happens is I believe often we're so caught up in the mirror of ourself. We're looking into, it's our soul, the mirror of our soul. And that typically produces a forgetful hearer only. It even says, don't be one of those who are deceived. If you sit under the word of God and don't do it, you become deceived inherently. You know, it happens inherently. And so, but looking into the perfect law of liberty, it transforms you. So I wanna encourage you guys. I know we know this, but sometimes I don't think we really yield our life to it fully. I'm constantly in the word. Like we need the word of God. It does something, it's supernatural. I mean, in the shower, I'm turning on the word. My kids will tell you, I'm eating and I'm not with them. I've got the word, like we need the word of God. The Bible says he who looks into the perfect law, this thing is life, the perfect law of liberty. You will become like that what you stare at. And it says he who looks in the perfect law of liberty and continues in it. Anybody can look into it for a season, but can you continue it? I see them all the time. They come and go. And that's why their house falls. I see them. They're the multitudes. Just for a moment, they're listening here and then they get distracted and they're over here and back in the mirror of their soul. And they look away and they forget where they're at. And then the rains come and the house falls every time. But God said, I just know it. I had this dream and I just prophetic word. That's great. But are you looking into the law of liberty and continuing in it? We've got to be possessed by the word. And the more you feed on anything else other than this, the mirror of the soul, and it looks like so many different things, you just forget you become deceived. Thereby your house is being built. Remember, it's being built, whether you like it or not. In the rains, floods and winds, come try those that just stare into the perfect law of liberty. And it's like, oh yeah, it's raining again. Anyway, love the sound. All the floods are coming. Those are beautiful. You can see the fish. Anyway, the wind. Yes. Now it's going to dry things off. It's perfect. It's all perfect. But those that forgetful hearers, they build. And in the moment, it looks good. I'm telling you, 2020 did this. Many people were built. And it's because, you know, it says great was the fall. Meaning they didn't have a chance to throw up a little single bedroom. Great was the fall. And sometimes we can be in what we've built for seasons. And then all of a sudden, when the rain, you know, floods and wind come and try it, it will fall for sure. And so I pray we'd be kind of recalibrated this morning. Like, oh yeah, man, I've got to build on your sayings, your word, like what you're telling me. And, but I have here partial obedience. It's the same thing. This is when we heed his word. So I want to say this. In our camp and a lot of streams I run in, because we deal with some people that are really going after it. You typically don't see just flat out disobedience when God speaks. I don't see it a whole lot. I know it's out there, but who we run with, they're typically trying to hear God. They want to hear God and obey. They're not like, heck no, God, no. But what I see is the partial obedience, which is the same thing. It divides that rock that's meant to be solid under you. It turns into sand. It's like this. You see it also. Remember Peter got out of the boat. What on the word of Jesus, he knew it. He knew it was all I need is the sayings. And if I do them, Peter knew it. He, his name means rock. He says, okay, if that's really you, Lord, tell me. Cause I know when you speak, I can build anything on it. As stable as can be. And the Lord said, come. So he steps out solid mass. You can build your life on it. You can take it to the bank. It doesn't matter if it looks real or not, or it fits in a season. Everybody thinks you're crazy. If he says it, you can, you can step on it forever. You can build everything on it. You can trust it. But this is what I see most often partial obedience. I mean, we, we mix in a lot of things from the mirror of our soul. That's why we get so brainwashed by this and trash the mirror. It's hard to even think anything else. You get brainwashed or the, the voices of others and things like this. But Jesus didn't say come and on your way, make sure and check out that storm coming at you. He said, come, that's all he said. Not, not anything more or less. So Peter came, he started off on the word only pure obedience. But then he looked at the storm and right there, the rock starts becoming sand because you're not doing what he said anymore. You're partially doing it. And that, that doesn't work, you know? So it says he, he began to look at the storm. Then fear came in. And this is what typically happens in the will of God. And our foundation will come out from under us. And so, um, doers though, of, of the word of the Lord, it looks like this complete and absolute obedience. They do what he says to the T nothing more, nothing less, no mixture of their own word in there or anybody else's. This often happens. They don't care if it lines up with how they thought it ought to look or be. They keep it simple and do only what they see the father doing just like Jesus did. I may just leave those all together, but I was, you got so much in there, but really I pray, um, you know, at least from now moving forward, cause I think a lot of us could relate up till now. We've built many things on what we thought was his voice, which is still sand. If it's not what he said, and only that it will become particles under you. It's still the same substance. It's just divided now because your soul is mixed in and it's not safe to build on. And so what I'll do often just to encourage you guys to make sure it's his voice. You sometimes have to detach from the noise of your own soul and others. And I'll really wait on the Lord, kind of like sifting silt and looking for the gold. The silt would be the noise, the soulless thoughts and what people say and whatever to hear his word only. Cause your soul is what causes you to like, Oh, but what about the storm? And that's right then when you start sinking, you know, the foundation comes out from under you. And so like waiting upon the Lord until you know for sure what he said and then obeying that and that only not anything more or less. And so if, if there's areas of your life, you feel like, you know what? They're just super shaky. I can tell there's nothing solid under that. I would go back to the drawing board of what he said. And in, in a very unbiased way, I try to do this in prayer, not always perfect, but say, Lord, really, what are you saying? I don't want to add my into it. We do that so often we say, yeah, God told me, but it looks like this. And it's a, it's going to be this timing or it's going to be me doing this. And he's like, I never told you any of that. I've seen it often where people have a Timothy call upon their life. Um, what's, what's your name right here? Yeah, right here in the, uh, yeah, no, no. Right here. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I met you last week. Yeah. God's on you. I keep just, uh, I don't know. I just feel drawn to you. The Lord's really on your life. Like a powerful call. You had a hoodie on last week though. That's why I didn't recognize you. Wow. Um, he's going to do something special in your life. Building on the foundation of his word, giving your life over to the word. Everything's going to change that which shook before. It won't be now. I'm telling you that which fell in the past. It won't now on his word. He's really on your life. Um, but anyway, I've seen it where people will have like a Timothy call, which is powerful. How many of you know, you only want to do what he says. I don't, we need to not care what it looks like or the title or what if people think, and I need to be here and who cares? Just, just throw it all down. Lord, what do you want me to do? Oh, I'm supposed to sweep all my days. I'm gonna be the best sweeper ever. I'm going to get the baddest broom on the planet and nobody's going to top me. And when I get to heaven and step on the red carpet before the throne, the angels like, oh snap, their mansions huge. Cause they did what he said. Nothing more, nothing less. And every season that the rains and flood, cause I'm telling you, they come every season. You guys know what I'm talking about. They come in seasons and eschatology. Sorry at the end, I can't even say it. I'm trying to sound smart. The end times it'll come in the end, but even in seasons, it'll try your foundations. And if we just do what he says now, um, you ride through and you're just never shook. You just actually progress. But anyway, I've seen it where like Timothy's they're meant to run as like sons of Paul. They run for a minute with Paul and they go, you know what? I got this. I'm to be a Paul seen it so many times and they're like, yeah, yeah. And then they jump out like I'm Paul and it turns into sand fall. Every time the Lord's like, I didn't tell you to do that. Never told you to do that. You see it, the, the priest with Joshua, they're under Joshua alongside. It's the perfect plan. Nobody's better. Nobody's more or less. It's just the plan of God. That's how it's supposed to work. And all of a sudden the priest, it says under the word of the Lord through Joshua, though, it's all got to work that way. I love it. I don't care where he's got me. Just let me do the right thing. What you're telling me to do, but Joshua said arcs, sorry, priest, take the arc into the, and it says right when they put their feet into the Jordan, it split often. This happens to the priests because it's all tied in to Joshua and the whole arrangement. They'll put their feet in the Jordan splits like, Ooh, you saw that? I was carrying the ark. Joshua's feet didn't split that Jordan and they step out over on sand and start trying to be their own high priest and splits Jordans. And it just falls. It's like, why'd you do that? In many other scenarios, it's like, just stay in what he's telling you to do. It's going to be, the grace is going to be there. That's where it's always rock and solid. Whether people think it's awesome or not, who cares? And that's what you want to build upon. And so I want to encourage you guys, like in this hour, may we kind of go back to the drawing board and sometimes it may take a day or two or three and just waiting before the Lord, like, okay, these relationships, did you really speak for me to stay in these and be in these? He'd be like, heck no. I often got like, no, no, no. Why do you think they keep backfiring and blowing up in your face? And everything you build around that just collapses. I never spoke to you around, around that or this decision, even positions, jobs, whatever it may be. And, um, I just started getting nervous. Although I've done it plenty where I've made decisions that I thought was his voice. And it wasn't, and it wasn't solid in a foundation way, but that we would, I get nervous though, where it's like, I didn't make a decision off of what he spoke. You know, I try and raise my kids this way. We get emails all the time, ministry and dealing with people now in the church and students. And typically my number one go-to is like, yeah, no, all that's awesome. Love it. I advise this, but did you hear the Lord? What did he say? Make sure you're hearing the Lord. I can biblically make all that work that you just said, but did he say? Cause if he didn't, it's going to be tried at some point.