An Entire village in the Philippines gave chase to a thief who was known for looting department stores. They accosted him and said if he was caught doing it again they'll have to get rid of him. He said, "Hay all that I'm doing is alternative shopping." They warned him but he did what you predicted. He robbed again. And the village chased after him. The only option he had was to climb up a coconut tree. At first the villages decided to wait it out until he came down; and then get rid of him. But a very cleaver man brought out a chain saw out and bust down the coconut tree. The tree fell to the ground and while the thief fell to his death. The problem with the thief was the thief made his foundation with something that shouldn't have been made a foundation. He was looking for safety and security from something, which shouldn't have been made a foundation. As I travel across this world we find many, many options for foundations. We have some people who make power into a foundation. Last year in a very, very special country in the Far East I met the President who had been serving his country for 32 years. But after 11 days of riots steps down, resigned 3 minutes. Exactly 3 minutes. And now he is complaining that he has to stop at red lights like everyone else…like the people in his country. He has 'Power" no more. Power cannot be made into a foundation. Money cannot make a foundation. During the whole financial crunch in the Far East we heard of 2 thousand 300 hundred Koreans who took their lives because they didn't have enough money to provide for the basic needs of their families. Money cannot make a foundation. Fame, Fame cannot be made into a foundation. I hear that there are so many famous people in the world today that we haven't even heard of half of them. Fame cannot be made into a foundation. What about pleasure? Oh, pleasure is a big problem. Because if you make pleasure your foundation, any addiction you choose you fall prey to the boredom paradox. You're bored when you don't reach and then bored when you do reach it because then you're bored to what was supposedly promised and you didn't receive. Addictions are like cobwebs and they turn into cables. Pleasure cannot be made into a foundation. What about stuff? Materialism? You know all over the world there is this huge pursuit of stuff. Stuff, stuff, stuff for the houses you live in, and stuff for the cars you drive. And every night before you go to bed you are attempting to lock up your stuff so no one else will add your stuff to his or her stuff. You know the only thing that is guaranteed in this world is that you will be stuffed - stuffed into a coffin box one day and then they will sell your stuff in garage sales, and estate sells and open auctions and flee markets where people will add your stuff to their stuff live thru life. The problem with all these candidates for foundations is that they are sand foundations. They are not strong enough to hold your life. They'll not ultimate foundations by definition need to be ultimate. But these foundations need something else to hold it up. Religion cannot be a foundation. I mean, there are many, many religious people pursuing life with God attempting very seriously to climb mountains bare feet or walk on a bed of coals, attempting to find God. There is nothing worse then trying very, very hard and not being sure that you have arrived. Religions cannot be a good foundation. Let me ask you what foundation you are building your life. By what foundation are you living your life? On what foundation you are building your life. By what foundation are you living your life? To answer that question I take you to a story of the Lord Jesus Christ gave at the end of His best-known talk. You've heard that phrase called the Golden Rule…"Do to others even as you would have them do unto you." It comes from a talk that the Lord Jesus Christ gave; it's called the Sumnai on the Mount, at the end of His talk…He gave a story, a parable of two men, a wise man who built his house upon the rock and a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. The rains came and the floods descended and the pressed against their houses. The point of the story is very simple; the man with the rock foundation his house survived the storm. The man with the foolish foundation his house was smashed in the storm. It's simply asked, "On what foundation you are building your life? By what foundation are you living your life?" So, I looked at that story the wise man and the fool man and I found many similarities between the two and many dissimilarities with the two. Let me share a couple with you. The similarities between the wise man and the fool man: 1.) Both of them were building a house. Building a house is not an arbitrary affair. It's not whimsical. Building a house always takes thought, planning and intention. Every man, every woman in this whole world is building a house, the house of his life. It is a metaphor for the life you are building. Both built a house. 2.) both heard Jesus' words. Both knew exactly what Jesus had just finished speaking. Their problem wasn't a problem of ignorance; their problem wasn't a problem of awareness; it wasn't a problem of lack of information. Both had heard Jesus words. If you go to the great city of New York at the Rockefeller Center, there are 4 paintings. The artist in the first painting talks about man; shows man a primitive toolmaker. Secondly, he has man the Discover of nature and machines. The third has man, the Technologist, who can control vast amounts of information and the environment and the circumstances. And then there is a switch; the fourth painting has nothing to do with the first three. The fourth painting is a painting of the Lord Jesus Christ giving the Sermon on the Mount to masses of people. And under the painting the artist says "The ultimate destiny of man does not depend on whether he can discover new tools, new great technology. The ultimate destiny of man depends on whether he hears and obeys the words of the person who spoke to them 2000 years ago." You know the wise man and the fool man both had heard. That was common of the two. Both built a house, both heard the words of Jesus and both experienced storms. You know my friend's storms are not discreet -- not discretionary. They touch every person; they touch wise man and fool man; they touch rich man and poor man, old man and young man; white man and black man; and everybody in between. Storms are not discreet. They touch everybody. As the Lord Jesus told a story He uses four verbs in rapid fire that the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and burst against the house to ensure that there was no chance for the house to survive the storms. Some of you are experienced storms right now. Marital storms, of a marriage gone awry employment storms, relational storms, financial storms, and circumstantial storms, storms that are beating down your house. The question is whether your house will survive; that all depends on the foundation in which you built your life; by which you live your life. Those are the similarities of the wise man and the fool man. There were some dissimilarity of the wise man and the fool man. Let me share a couple with you: 1) they were of a different nation, of a different character. One is called a wise man and one is called a foolish man. Who is a wise man? A wise man is not simply a man of great knowledge who's got extraordinary brainpower. A wise man is not a man with simply with a great amount of data under his belt. That only takes extraordinary brainpower. A wise man is not merely an educated man. You know someone said that PhD stands for "Permanent Head Damage." A wise man is not a flag pool sitter who ascends a flag pool and sits on top and pontificates and prescribes for the rest of humanity. Like we have preachers and politicians and philosophers do. A wise man according to the Lord Jesus is a sensible man. A particular word that He uses who pays careful attention to his life and then takes action on what is known that's a wise man. You see my friends there is nothing then a knowing fool you can know a lot and if you don't act on it or apply it or the right use of knowledge you are the worse fool for that. There is nothing worse then that. The other man is called a foolish man -- fool man. That's the word we use for morons. Actually the Lord Jesus used the word morons so you and I can be morons. There is a degree of Moronism in each one of us. A moron is not an imbecile, it's not a person who is insane He's talking about a man who knew what should be done and did not take action. I was looking for an illustration of a moron and I heard it on a traffic report one morning when they said, "the drivers are driving like morons." They exactly what they should be doing and they are not doing it. You know, parts of our life may be wise, but other parts of our life are a degree of moronism in every one of us -- in your life. Some time ago at the house-riding club in New Deli they were attempting to get more people into their club. They advertised to the public and said, "Would you please join our club? We have fast horses for fast people, we have slow horses for slow people, we have fat horses for fat people, we have thin horses for thin people, and for people who have never ridden a horse before we have horses that have never been ridden before." That's a moronic statement. Somewhere life breaks down when you know what you should do and you don't do it. You are a moron. They were different in character and nature. One was a wise man and another fool man. They were also different in authority because foundations stand for authority. A foundation is possible the lower structure of a house but could also be the rock in which the house is built. In both cases unless we build on the rock and unless the lower stable structure of our house is strong we are not going to survive. One man built on the rock and another built on the sand. If your life feels like an empty plastic water bottle that is empty and flies according to the wind you are a fool man -- you are a foolish person -- you are building your house on loose rock, on sand. When my children were younger I bought them an inflatable punching bag doll; you know that kind of a doll where you inflate the doll and you punch the doll and my kids would ram the doll and box the doll and every time the doll would come up again. You know why? Because it had a weight at the bottom -- it had a good foundation. If it didn't have the weight at the bottom it would simply fly away. You in your life, you need the weight of the foundation, you need the weight at the bottom otherwise when the storm strikes you will be blown into pieces and smashed into smithereens. What is authority, what are the standard, the principal, and the weight at the bottom of your life? So, both different in character, different in authority but the worst thing they had different results. When the rains came and the floods came and the river blew the winds blew at the house ones man survived and another mans house was smashed. The wise mans house stayed. Regardless of all the circumstances he was going thru it survived because it was built upon the rock. I was in Indonesia some time ago speaking to the financial club to the very elite of the country. Just before I begun to speak a very prominent business stood up and said "We have all been going thru a very rough time in our land. The week that I was there the currency deflated 30%. That was that even people there that were normally solvent were now 30% in debt and paying interest on money that hadn't borrowed. And not a single bank in the country was working. This man was the head of a 20 billion dollar company, he got up and said "You've been following my story in the newspapers, last week I was relieved of my chairmanship of this company but ladies and gentlemen I am here to tell you that God was with me when I was at the very top and God will be with me at the very bottom." You know why he can say that? Because his house was built on the rock; because God is the only one that qualifies as the only adequate, strong, comprehensive foundation for life. Now, the foolish man his house was smashed. Everyone could hear the thug of the breaking down of the house…it was gone. In fact, the Lord Jesus uses a phrase to speak about the future storm that is coming. He in fact is not only speaking about the Marital storms, employment storms, relational storms, financial storms, and circumstantial storms he is talking about a storm that will touch all of humanity one day. Its called Judgment day when that storm comes, the mother of all storms, when that storm comes and sweeps across humanity how will you stand up? If you have built your life on the wrong foundation - a sand foundation. You won't be left standing in that one. That is some similarity and dissimilarity between these two men. Obviously, the question is how can you go from being a foolish person to being a wise person and the building of your life. How can you build your life on the right foundation -- God himself. The Lord Jesus had the answer, the solution, to who the foundation should be. In this particular chapter He says "If you hear my word and act upon it then you are building on the right foundation. If you heard my word and didn't act upon it and you just leave after this program then you are building on the wrong foundation. See only God could make a statement like that, only He could make a statement like He is the foundation. Anybody else making that statement would be very arrogant. But for God to make that statement would be perfectly appropriate. When Jesus says that he wants you to build your life on His foundation, embrace me as the reality of your life and not only hear my word but to act upon them, He was claiming to be the ultimate foundation for your life. See God is the foundation for your life because He created you. He created you in a unique specific way, the one that creates you can be the foundation of your life. God is the ultimate foundation of your life because God carries you, because by definition sake a foundation is that which carries you. He can carry you. Best of all God can be the foundation of your life because He covers for you. You see I our moronism we have done many things against God that have separated us from God. We need God to cover those otherwise we will be like the fool man. Now the Lord Jesus makes the transition and says He is the one who created you, He is the one carries you, He is the one who covers you in your moronism in your sin, in your wrong doings and moral rebellion against God Himself. A few years ago, when my son was in the third standard, in the third grade he had a huge problem. Apparently he was talking too much in class and he got his name on the board. And after the third or fourth day with his name on the board the teacher called his mother and stated that your son is getting his name on the board for talking too much in class. Would you help me reprimand him? So, my wife and I talked to him and he said he would do his best and the next day he went to school and got his name on the board again, the next evening we said "Son, try not to get your name on the board again." And he said he would try his best and the next day he went to school and got his name on the board again. So, I said "Son, if you get your name on the board again I am going to have to spank you. And he said he would try his best and the next day he went to school and got his name on the board again. So, when he got home I had to punish him because it was a grievous error -- he cried and he said the next day he'll try again. Unfortunately, he got his name on the board again and I had to spank him again. In all my spanking it really didn't work. So, in this day in desperation I said to him "Son, this is a serious situation, this is a grave error and it seems that my spanking you doesn't produce the result. So, I said if you get your name on the board tomorrow you get to spank me, you get to spank your dad." At that point he started weeping and said dad I cannot do that, I cannot do that. I said son this is a series error that if you get your name on the board again I am going to have to take the punishment for you. The next day we went to work and school and of course you know what we were thinking about. I came home from work and I knew what had happened -- no one said a word. His face was sullen so, after dinner I took him to our bedroom and undid my trousers , my pants, my trousers, and lend over my bed and said son go ahead and spank me. He said "Daddy I can not do that and I said "No, son you will have to go ahead and spank me because that is how serious it is and he was weeping and wailing at the top of his voice and he said dad I can not do that. I said go ahead and spank me brought his hand down very limp and I said that's not covering the error son go ahead and spank me. Very, very emotional moment I got up put on my trousers again and embraced him and said I created you , I care for you and now I cover for you. I paid your penalty. You know my friend that is what the Lord Jesus has done for the human race -- for you. He created you as God He cares for you otherwise you wouldn't be alive today. As we move into the next millennium He will continue to care for you -- but He covered for you. Let me ask you, Which God has covered for you, which God has dropped His clothing for you and taken your spanking? That's what the Lord Jesus did. He took your penalty. He took what you deserved on Himself and now He raises Himself from the dead and embraces you and says I created you , I care for you I carry you, I cover you. Make me the foundation of your life -- embrace me as your reality. You entrust your life to me as your only God and Savior and I'll be the foundation for the rest of your life. On what foundation are you building your life? By what foundation are you living your life? May I recommend to you the Lord Jesus Christ as the only foundation for the rest of your life?