Foundations:
An Introduction
When the foundations are being destroyed,
what can the righteous do?
-Psalm 11:3
When my kids were young, I didn't travel a lot. Not because I didn't receive speaking invitations, and certainly not because I didn't want to take them. (I'm sure the extra money and progress would have been nice!) Here's why I stayed close to home: I realized any progress I would have made as a communicator would offer short-term benefits. My life's long-term progress would be evident in the legacy I left in the hearts of my kids.
I could also sense a societal shift on America's horizon. I knew I couldn't leave it up to our community or school system to reinforce godliness in my children's lives. The responsibility was mine and my wife's, and we were going to take it seriously.
Because of this, Tamara and I ensured that we were home with our kids four nights out of every week. Some weeks it was tough with both a growing church and family, but we were adamant about keeping our routine. Once a week we had family devotions, but we spent most of our time together simply doing things-things like playing wiffle ball and catching lizards in the backyard. Then, every evening ended with a family dinner and me having one-on-one time with one of our four kids.
These ordinary moments, strengthened by the moments they experienced within our church community, became the moments with which they built solid foundations of faith. And it's upon those foundations that they have built and continue to build beautiful lives.
As a father and pastor, helping secure these foundations of faith is what I have given my life for. And each time I witness what's built on them, I'm reminded just how indispensable they are. We all know nothing great is built on a shaky foundation. But this is not just an obvious structural concept; it is a biblical one too. Proverbs 9:1 invites us to build with wisdom when it says, "Wisdom has built her house; she has set up its seven pillars."
Every area of our lives needs a solid foundation built on timeless truths, or it will crumble. This has proven to be man's reality since the beginning of time.
We find proof of it in places like Isaiah 58, when God spoke to His prophet Isaiah about the Israelites' suffering. God made it clear that, while He wasn't angry at His people, He was angry that unaddressed sin had crashed like waves through their culture, unapologetically leaving lives destroyed in its wake.
In verse twelve, God told Isaiah: "Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings."
So, Isaiah went to work. He stirred up the remnant of believers and helped rebuild the Israelites' age-old foundations-the foundations of truth built on Jesus Christ.
Paul addressed this same thing years later in a letter to Timothy. 1 Timothy 3:14-15 (NLT) says, "I am writing these things to you now, even though I hope to be with you soon, so that if I am delayed, you will know how people must conduct themselves in the household of God. This is the church of the living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth."
Friends, with all my heart, I believe it's time to stir up the remnant again. We mustn't allow unaddressed sin to run rampant through our families and communities; we must speak God's truth in love, helping those in our world build foundations of faith in Jesus Christ-the Rock who can never be shaken.
It's this passion that led me to preach a series called Rock-Solid Faith: 8 Steps to Living Blessed and Leaving Behind What Matters. The series produced so much life-change within our congregation that it set the stage for a surge of water baptism within our church community. This year, the number of baptisms has already increased by over one hundred percent, and at the time of this writing, we've still got four months to go.
This specific fact makes a broader point: our culture is sick of building on faulty foundations. We're ready for something that will last. That is why I wrote this book, friends-to help us all get to that rock-solid place.
King David expressed a similar sentiment in Psalm 51, which he titled "A Call to Trust the Lord." Verses 1-2 (NLT) say this: "Listen to me, all who hope for deliverance-all who seek the Lord! Consider the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were mined. Yes, think about Abraham, your ancestor, and Sarah, who gave birth to your nation. Abraham was only one man when I called him. But when I blessed him, he became a great nation."
This passage refers to Abraham, the father of our faith. In this book, we'll study his life and, through it, learn to trust the Lord's process for building a foundation of rock-solid faith. We'll uncover eight pillars Abraham used to build well, and we'll see how when we do the same, God will bless us, just like he blessed him.
The pillars we'll study were constructed on the basis of three truths-that God is our architect, His truth is our plan, and His Son is our cornerstone.
Our Architect
Hebrews 11 is all about faith, and it features the hero of our story-Abraham. Hebrews 11:10 says, ". . . he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
Scholars have pulled several meanings from this verse. First, they've pointed out that Abraham lived in tents, which were void of foundations. Because he was a nomad most of his life, he probably craved stability. Second, they've mentioned that Abraham, like all of us, was waiting in faith for the promise of God's ultimate city-Heaven.
Both of these are true, but the third meaning is the one I want to focus on. It's this: In faith, Abraham built his life on a foundation whose builder and maker (architect) was God. He lived God's way, and this led him to live a life and leave a legacy that has marked every generation after him.
The coolest part about all of this is that we have access to that same architect. As we seek Him and strive to live His way, we too, will construct a foundation of rock-solid faith that lasts for generations.
Our Plans
Every architect has a plan, and God's is His Word. Despite its critics, there's a reason the Bible is the bestselling book of all time. It's because its words work. The truth of its pages has provided inerrant, invaluable wisdom that has proven itself time and time again.
It's important to note that this truth works best in its entirety, though. Just as a successful builder can't deem part of the plans important and others not, we also must embrace every part of Scripture to reap its full benefit.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." As we embrace this timeless, priceless gift in its entirety, we'll build our lives to last.
Our Cornerstone
I'm not sure where your starting point is today. I don't know if you've begun building a strong foundation, if you're in the middle of a rebuild, or if you've been building on a faulty foundation for years. But there's one thing I am acutely aware of: that the latter is becoming much more common with each generation.
Two popular but faulty foundations Americans are choosing today are the foundations of secularism and humanism.
We define secularism as "the belief that religion and religious considerations should be ignored."2 According to the Pew Research Center, the number building on this foundation grew from sixteen percent of America's population in 2007 to twenty-nine percent in 2021.3 This should alarm believers because, in a democracy, the preferences and perspectives of one generation determine the policies of the next.
We define humanism as "a way of life centered on human interests and values; a philosophy that usually rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual's dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason."4 Though this ideology seems more prevalent than ever, humanism is not a new concept. It's what influenced Eve in the garden when the enemy convinced her to manipulate God's words to get what her flesh wanted. Sound familiar?
These philosophies may appear solid, but building upon them will undoubtedly cause our lives to crumble. It's only when we build on Jesus-the cornerstone of our faith-that our foundation will never be shaken. Jesus makes this clear in John 14:6 when He says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
As we begin our journey together, I'll leave you with perhaps the most well-known passage of Scripture regarding foundations. It comes from one of Jesus's parables, and it's found in Matthew 7:24-27:
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it...
