What is the ultimate goal of the Christian life? Listen in as we unpack how to build a strong foundation of faith in our lives. thebridgebluffton.com
The Bridge Church - Bluffton, SC
Building a Strong Foundation // The Ultimate Goal
Amen. Wow. Thank you worship team. Thank you, Chrissy, for leading that song and Emma and all of you guys, thank you so much. Isn't that a great reminder? Just the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Amen? So good. Also, while Jacob was describing me during worship, way out of tune, you know, not following, you know, all of those things. And so you can, if you ever feel bad about maybe your singing type or whatever it may be, just come stand with me over here and you're like, man, I sound good. I was just singing next to Pastor Daniel and whoo. So we are so glad you're here this morning in the room. If you're listening online, we are starting a brand new series. Jacob mentioned this building a strong foundation. And so building a strong foundation. What does that look like for us? And so we're really, I wanted to dive into the series for a couple different reasons, a couple different layered reasons. One is how do we as individual Christians build a strong foundation as we walk with Christ? And then two, January is kind of sentimental for me because we started in January. So our anniversary service comes at the end of January and it's always a time where we reflect on the past, but also look forward to the future. And so as we, how do we build a strong foundation in Christ as a church? How do we come together in unity and under grace and in the power of the Holy Spirit? How do we move forward in that? And so this series serves that twofold purpose. And so I'm so glad you're here with us. If you have your Bibles, we're in Matthew chapter seven for a quick moment. And then we're going to really, the whole series spend time in Ephesians chapter four, Ephesians chapter four. And so we're going to be in a few verses there. If you have your Bibles, we're going to put on the screens for you. As well. But I want to pray for us and just ask God to speak to our hearts and we're going to jump right in here this morning. Sound good? All right, let's pray together. Lord, thank you so much for your goodness. Thank you so much for your grace and power. And God, I pray that you would just speak to us here this morning. God, we just take these few moments and we just cry out to you. God, we pray that you would speak to us. I pray that your word would just reveal who you are and help us to walk in your goodness and help it. Help us to see the next steps in faith that you're calling us to take. God, I pray that I will decrease so that you may increase and I pray that you would just strengthen us, bring us together. God, unify us by the Holy Spirit and help us to see the areas in our lives, God, that you want us to look at or lay to the side or move forward in you. And God, we just surrender it all to you. We seek your guidance. You are the head of this church and we are seeking after you. We ask all this in Jesus' name we pray. And everybody said amen, amen. When you are a younger, maybe a child, maybe you still play with them now. I don't know. But if you remember playing with those either Legos or you take those like building blocks logs, what do they call them? Like a log thing? Yeah, there you go, linking logs. And so if you begin to build those up and build a certain structure or tower up and maybe you place something underneath the foundation or maybe it was in the carpet and something was there or maybe you missed one of those logs and it was okay for the first couple of levels, right? But then as you built the levels up, you probably started to notice this thing maybe has a little bit of a lean to it, right? And you started to look like a jinga tower. Like this thing is kind of the tower of pizza, right? Like it's just it's leaning and then all of a sudden it comes crashing down, right? And when we think about building a strong foundation, if we look at it in that simple sense, then it's almost a no-brainer for us. We're like, yeah, you need a strong foundation, right? You're not going to be able to grow, you're not going to get the experience that you really want out of whatever you were building, but when we look at our lives, it's a little more complex, right? When we look at our lives, we may even question like, okay, well, I can just kind of keep going the way that I'm going. I'm not even sure do I need a strong foundation, do I need something that kind of anchors me in all of these different aspects, right? And so as we look at God's word, God begins to show us how important a strong foundation is. And having a strong foundation will help us in each and every season and situation. And when we look at a new year, it always causes us to have a time of reflection, a time of going, okay, God, this is where I have been, but we're believing for what is next. We believe you're not done with this yet, and so we're going to lean into that. And so before I jump into the full-on message here this morning, my prayer is that because I know some of us in the room, or maybe can hear my voice, you may be sitting back, and this year may be a moment we're going, okay, God, I need to adjust this piece of my foundation. Or maybe you're looking at one particular room in your house of life and going, okay, I need to renovate that one a little bit. Or you may look at one section ago, you know, I just need to tear that thing down, get rid of that and whatever it may be. But some of us in the room may go, I really need to tear the whole thing down, because the foundation is just off, right? I need to go back and re-address the very core of my life. And I need to just go back and trust God that He's going to demo all of that, and then He's going to start to rebuild something beautiful and incredible and grace-filled, and it's not always going to be easy, it never is, if you've ever been a part of demo, it is never easy, right? But I'm stepping in faith and going, okay, God, I'm trusting you enough that I want to build this off of you and what it has for me. And so as we begin to look at Matthew 7, we get to peek into, or almost listen to, one of Jesus' sermons, a sermon on the Mount is what it's famously called. And if you look at Matthew 5, 6, and 7, He unpacks this teaching, He unpacks this roadmap or this way of life that He is calling all of us believers to walk into and to experience, and so He teaches us all of that. And as He walks through His ministry, He teaches and parables, He teaches stories, and He brings people in and captivates them, and He does miracles, right? And He does all of these things. And then at the end of Matthew 7, He says, "Hey, everything that I have said, everything that I have taught, I want you to build your life off of those things." And this is how He describes it in Matthew 7 verses 24 through 27. It says, "Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock, though the rain comes in torrents and the flood waters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock." But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish, like a person who builds the house on sand. When the rain and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash. Jesus begins to paint this picture of one. A foundation is incredibly important, not only for when everything is going good, right? But He brings in an added element here because your life and my life, we may look at it from the outward or kind of step back to go, everything's okay, right? Like everything is good, I'm moving forward and experiencing life. But what Jesus says is that all of a sudden when a storm comes, it will start to reveal what our foundation is. Have you ever experienced that before? Like when a storm or trial or tragedy or heartache or when life is not going easy, all of a sudden, it's starting to make us ask questions we never thought we would ask, right? Thoughts we never thought we would have. And it rocks us, it shakes the house, it breaks some windows, it tears some rooms out and we're going, "Oof!" Well, in that foundation, right? Like what is happening here? What is God doing in that? Because you and I know that Jesus gives us this two different pictures. He said, "You can build your life on my teachings, which is the bedrock, or you can build it on sand." And we live in the low country. Even though our sand is really hard, you can ride bikes on it and all that kind of stuff. But you build the most beautiful sand castle in the world. That thing has rooms and windows and doors and it's spectacular, right? But high tide is coming, right? And so when high tide comes, what happens to that sand castle is gone, right? Why? Because it's sand. It doesn't matter how incredible it is, it is still sand. And we can look at our life and we can look at maybe even somebody else's life. And from the distance, we go, "Ooh, that thing is nice!" Look at the rooms there and then look at what's going on in their life and what they have and what they do and all of these things. And then when the storm comes, we end up finding out, "Wow, maybe that area of my life was sand." Right? Or maybe somebody else in our family or somebody experiences, "Man, I didn't realize that part of my faith was sand." And God begins to reveal that in us. Not because he doesn't like us and he wants to kick us when we're down, but he wants to reveal to us, "Hey, I want your life to be bit off a bedrock foundation where I can help you and mold you and shape you into my image." And so we see this and as we head into 2025, it is an incredible time because we're already almost as a society taking a step back to reevaluate the last year and then to go, "Okay, what am I building towards this year?" And we have to start with a solid foundation of going, "What is the ultimate goal?" Right? Like, "What is the ultimate goal?" Because if I don't know what I'm aiming at, if I don't know what am I building off of, then I will start to stray. I will start to drift or I'll start to take the one or two degrees off to one side, right? Because it can be easy to get lost in the complexity of life, the complexity of the Bible, the complexity of walking with Christ and bowling back down and going, "What's the ultimate goal?" Right? Like, what am I aiming at? What am I moving towards in all of this? Because even the spiritual disciplines that God has called us to live out can get complex, right? You can almost feel like, "Okay, I'm doing this over and over again. I'm showing up here. I'm reading this. I'm doing this study." But yet, what is the ultimate goal even in all of that? And so in Ephesians 4, it's really the entire book of Ephesians is an incredible gift to you and I. It is like a concise, packed up version of the Christian life, and it is power packed from beginning to the end. Ephesians 1 begins and shows us how we are separated from Christ. Ephesians 2 shows us who we are in Christ and that He has created us to do good works for Him. And then Ephesians 3 and 4, we begin to see the picture of the church and what He has called us to live like. And then He gives us a picture of the family and Ephesians chapter 5, a roadmap for that. And then Ephesians chapter 6 famously says, "Hey, here is a picture when spiritual warfare happens because it is happening. Good versus evil, and here's how you overcome it." And so we see this in Ephesians, but in Ephesians chapter 4, we see this begin to unfold. And so I want to look at Ephesians chapter 4 verses 14 through 16 here today to show us this. And so at the beginning of Ephesians 4, He begins to, the Apostle Paul, unpack this idea or this revelation to you and I that each member of the church are given these gifts. And he begins to walk through these spiritual gifts of the church and he says, "God has given each person these gifts so that they can build the body, strengthen the church, equip the saints for the works of service, and we get to walk in this and He wants us to experience unity in that." But in Ephesians 14, 15, and 16, we get to really see, okay, what is the ultimate goal of even all of that? And so here we are Ephesians chapter 14, chapter 4, verse 14, and it reads like this, "Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ who is the head of His body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly as each part does its own special work. It helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love, right? He says the ultimate goal, he says, "The reason you need to build your house on the solid rock foundation of Christ is that we get to experience that." And then verse 14, 15, and 16, he shows us, he says, "I don't want you to be immature like children. I want you to grow into maturity." And then he says, "The ultimate goal is that you and I grow more and more like who? Christ." He says, "We're growing into the image of Christ." And if you're taking notes, the ultimate goal of the Christian life is to be more like Christ. And so I can open up God's Word and I can read it and I'm spending this X amount of time and prayer and I'm showing up to church and all of these things, right? Which they align me with the presence of God, they align me with moving towards God and God uses that, but He uses that to mold you and I into the image of Christ. And so I love this from Claude King, he says this, "The measure for discipleship isn't how many times a week you read the Bible, although this is important. It's how much you are growing in Christ's likeness." And so I'm looking at my life and I'm looking at the life of Christ and going, "Okay, am I growing to be more like Christ?" Because that's the ultimate goal that God is calling us to. He's raising us up into maturity. And in Ephesians 14 here, verse 14, it says, "I don't want you to be no longer immature like children." And if you remember, maybe you've had a baby or a small child or you've been around a baby, when they're at that stage, we celebrate certain things, right? Like they make a noise, you're like, "Oh my goodness, they just made a noise. This is amazing. Did you hear that?" And you're like, "I'm not sure that was a word." They said their first word, right? And then they kind of stumble and they take their first step and you're like, "Oh my goodness, this is the greatest athlete that has ever been on the planet. Did you see them take a step at 10 months old? This is amazing, right?" And so you're seeing all of this, and you're celebrating it. But if they were a teenager still doing that, you would go, "Oh, you'd be concerned, right?" Because you believe they should grow into maturity. And when we look at it from that physical sense, we go, "Yeah." But then as Christians, as Christ followers, God's going, "I want you to grow and not be like immature children." He actually even gives us a window of what immaturity looks like, being tossed back and forth of, "Okay, this new teaching, that sounds good and this is great, right?" And so this immaturity of going, "Yeah, let me cling to that. Let me cling to that. Let me cling to that." But God's growing immaturity is realizing and understanding who God is and understanding His truth and realizing that, "Okay, that is a truth from God. And I'm not going to be swayed this way or swayed that way. I'm going to keep moving towards God because I know who He is, right? Because He's shaping me into His image. My foundation is on the bedrock of His Word and His truth. And so then I can speak the truth in love. And I can grow to be more like Him and who He has called us to be. And He gives us this beautiful idea of walking with Him and experiencing Him. Read God's Word. And I don't know about you, but maybe for me, sometimes as I read God's Word, it can become almost strenuous, right? And my idea of going, "Reading the Word again," or reading this again, or "I'm listening to the Bible again. I need to make more time for prayer. Maybe you feel guilty sometimes when you come to church and you're going, "Well, Daniel said I've got to read the Word more and I'm already so busy and He says I've got to make more time to pray and all of these things," right? Any time that I, because we're all human, we all get into that mindset every now and then, and anytime I feel that pressure or feel that weight, I have to remind myself, what a gift the Word of God is. That it is a, one, a love letter that is from the Creator of the universe. Then it is a direct revelation of who God is. And when we open it and we read God's Word, we are able to see who He is. And He unfolds this for us. And there are many countries, it's illegal, right? Like to have that, to do what we're doing. And we get the gift of opening up God's Word. And so as I read it or I listen to it and I want to think about it and memorize it and all of these ideas, why? Because it's going to help me to be more like Christ. It's going to help mold me and mature me as a believer in Christ so that my foundation is steady and built off the rock, right? And I tossed about by this idea or this circumstance or this situation and whatever it may be, and then God begins to use the storms to strengthen our foundations. Because even in my life, a storm comes and we get to reevaluate of going, "Okay, maybe that part, I had too much sand in it. I need to go back to my faith in Christ and rebuild that part of going, "Okay, I'm understanding who God is a little better now. I'm walking with Him a little closer now. He's giving me peace that I never thought I could have." Right? He's helping me and shaping me in what that may look like. And He's molding us into His image. And so as we think about that though, God is not trying to make all of us this uniform robot. We all look the same and all these same ideas, right? And Ephesians 4, He actually says, "I'm giving you all different gifts, right? And you're not all going to have the same gifts so that you need each other, right? So that you have to lean on each other and work together to build up the church. It doesn't become all centered around one person. In fact, it says, "Jesus is the head of the church and we are His body, the body of Christ." And so when we talk about church and how important church is and walking together, it's because God will use the church to strengthen each other, to equip the saints for the work of service. And so sometimes I'll hear like, "You know, I love God, but I'm just really not a church person. I'm not sure about the church." And imagine like we're hanging out and just like, "Hey Daniel, man, I love hanging out with you. We're good friends and we're together in this, but I don't really like your wife, right? Like, I don't really, like, can we still be really close and still?" Right? Like, all of us are in the room like, "No, that will not work because we are one. We are together in this." And it's like me looking at God and going, "God, I really like you, but you're bright. I'm not sure about you, right?" And can you imagine just the intensity of that of going, "No, we're the bride of Christ. We're the body of Christ that God is working through us. What a privilege that we get to be that." And then God saved us, pulled us out of the trenches, saved us from hell, and said, "I'm going to take your place and now I'm going to give you gifts that the church needs." Think about that for a second, right? He goes, "This person needs to be in this generation in this localized context. And then in this church, because they have this gifting that that church needs at that moment and that season, think about the complexity of God and how He loves His people so much of going, "I'm going to bring that person in here and this person does this." And when I have the privilege of when we plant the church to see that God brings the right people, you've heard me say this, if you've been coming here for a while, God brings the right people at the right time and it happens all the time. Because God is orchestra. He's the head. He's like, "Yep, they need that here. I need to place that on their heart here, because I need to build His church and strengthen this and bring this gifting here. And God begins to strengthen His church that way because we need each other. He's called us as believers to walk in unity under the name of Jesus. But it's coming to realize the ultimate goal, the place that we're all headed, is to help each other grow to be more like Christ. That's where we're headed as He's molding us and shaping us into this image of who He is. And so He has uniquely gifted us. If you take notes, we are uniquely made in the image of God to accomplish His purpose. You have the personality that God has given us, but also we're molding into His image and is using those gifts and talents and resources and all of those different pieces. And all of us are going to lead this place, and not all of you are leaving as I'm going to be the lead pastor of a local church, but you're going to head off into your jobs, but as you head off into your job and your area and your place, God has taken His image, the body of Christ, into that place. And so the question becomes, how would Jesus lead wherever I am going? How would Jesus lead my family? How would Jesus go to this job and lead this particular department with this particular group of people in there? How would Jesus parent these kids in this context, in this era, in this day, in this time? How would Jesus be the CEO of this company? How would Jesus run His social media? How would Jesus begin to lead it because I'm being shaped and molded into His image? Then we have the unique privilege of being His image in Christ. And so the best version of you, the best version of me is found in Christ. The best version of you and the best version of me is found in Christ. And the more I grow to be more like Christ, the more I'm growing into who He has created and made me to be. And so I experienced this in Him and through Christ. And so we may begin to ask the question, well, how do I do that? How does God begin to mold me and shape me into that image? We've talked about some of the practical examples of the church. And as we head into the next few weeks, we're going to dig more into Ephesians chapter 4 of what that looks like. The foundation of the church, where should we be headed and what God has called us to do? But in that same Sermon on the Mount, God gives us the first and the major step that you and I can take every single day of our life. And Matthew chapter 6 verse 33, and he says, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." He's saying, "Seek me first, right? And seek, take this first part of the year, take the first part of your day, take the first and foremost, place me at the center and seek me first. And then you will have a filter, right? Then you will know, then you will have the right solid foundation as you build and as you work and as you interact with other people. He'll begin to teach us how to do all of those different things. And James chapter 4, he says, "Draw near to God, and I will draw near to you." And we begin to see this picture that God is telling us, "Seek him first in his righteousness." I came across this quote in a simple paragraph. I'm going to read it for you, C.S. Lewis and mere Christianity. And he's talking about what God is doing in our life. And this is what it says, "Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps you can understand what he is doing. He's getting the drains right, he's stopping the leaks in the roof and so on. You knew that those jobs needed doing, so you're not surprised. But presently, he starts knocking on the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is he up to do? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of. Throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers or making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage, but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself. Ooh, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the presence of God is coming to live and dwell with us. Love and joy and peace and patience and gentleness becomes the fruit of growing more Christ-like. He helps us and walks with us in all of those different pieces. And the Holy Spirit uses the disciplines that God has given us to mold us into his image. And I see this a lot of times in our Christian life and our Christian walk. And we give our lives to Christ and we just all of a sudden turn on fire. Because God saved me, he redeemed me. I want everybody to know him and I'm so excited. Send me on a mission trip, send me to this camp. Like, let's go, right? Because he's molded us. And I pictured that first half of that C.S. Lewis quote. It's like, yeah, I knew that needed fixing. I knew that part of my passing to help. And I needed to heal from this and all of that. And then 10 years in, all of a sudden we kind of grow stagnant or complacent or whatever that may be. And all of a sudden God starts moving in and you're like, oh God, what are you doing there? Like, why are you trying to change that part of me? Why are you telling me to let that go? What are you doing here? And it's because God never stops working on us. It's the promise of the process. He said, I'm going to continue to mold you and shape you into that image. And so he goes, I may need to renovate that because there's some things in there that you may not realize that are growing up. There's some pride in there or some selfishness in there. There's some comfort in there that you're settling into this world, right? Whatever that may look like and God begins to change that up so we can walk in faith and trust him and walk in his goodness and in his grace. And so as we start off this year, my challenge, my hope, my prayer is for us to go, we're going to seek God first. God, what do you want to do this year? What do you want to do in me this year? What are you doing in me right now? Maybe what was going on last year that I'm still trying to hold on to, but God's saying, I just need you to let go of that and trust me with what's next. Or maybe there's something in us that God's going, look, I'm going to be shaking a lot of things. I'm going to be moving a lot of rooms here and this here because there's some things deep down in the foundation that I want to heal in you right now and through this time. And I'm not a big believer, look, I know eventually the best is yet to come, but you're not going to hear me up here saying that all the time because you may be walking into the toughest year you've ever experienced in your human life, but I'm here to say, even in that season, God can grow us into maturity, right? That's what He's after growing us into maturity and to Christ's likeness and He can do that in every season and even during our suffering and our hurting and the trials and the storms. God will use it to strengthen our foundation and our faith in Him and we cling to Him and we realize in those storms to go, wow, God you really are strong enough to hold me. God, you really are strong enough to give me peace during that time. You are strong enough to give me comfort. You are good and you show up at the right time and bring this person to say this and to do this. God, I didn't even think I was going to make it, but hear Him. You got me here to this day. You got me here to this next day and I'm seeing what you're doing in that. And God begins to show us where He has called us to, but I'm not the Holy Spirit and I can't speak for everyone in this room. And so as you seek the Lord first and ask Him, God, what are you doing in my life? How are you walking in this? And maybe it's taken open of a journal and just opening up. You got the blank pages there, God going, God speak to me. I need to reevaluate some of those things in my life and God may ask us to eliminate some things. He may ask us to pick up some things or change some things or whatever is added in this spiritual discipline. One of the things that the Holy Spirit led me is that I want you to fast more this year. That's one of the things that God kind of impressed on my heart. But the comfort, the human side is like, God, I like to eat, right? Like I'm getting complacent in that. But we read in Scripture what supernatural things begin to happen in our relationship with God when we enter into a relationship with Him. And so He's molding us and shaping us into those things and the process never stops because He's continually molding us into us. That's the ultimate goal is being into the image of Christ. We're going, God, do what you need to do in me. I'm trusting you with my life. I want to experience all of you and what that may be. So as we evaluate, as we take a moment just to pray and ask God and reflect and if you're married, maybe that's a great conversation between you and your spouse of going, hey, this, maybe you share. This is what I feel like God's leaning in my heart and you share with them and they share with you. And you begin to pray about that together or maybe you sit down with your kids and begin to talk about it or your small group. It's a really great opportunity to sit down and go, hey, I really feel like God's doing this in me this year. And I'd love to talk about it and share that with you and walk with you in this. And as God uses His entire body to build it up into unity, into growth and spiritual growth of what that looks like. And so as I pray here this morning, I just want to pray for us as God to continue to give us wisdom, continue to give us direction. But for us to stop to go, God, I'm seeking you first. You're at the center of it all. Do your will. I want to build a strong foundation in you and you may be sitting here and going, Daniel, I hear all of that, but I need to stop and surrender my life. I can't be molded into the image of God because I don't know Jesus. I never started a relationship with Him. And so I want to pray with you here this morning and you can surrender your life to Jesus here this morning. Let's pray together. I invite you to pray this prayer with me if you've never given your life to Christ before and it goes something like this, your Heavenly Father. God, I realize that I have missed the mark. God, I realize that sin has separated me from you, God. Jesus, I believe that you took my place on the cross. I believe that three days later, you rose again. Jesus, I ask that you would save me and continue to change me, continue to do a work in me, God. I trust you with my life. If you prayed that prayer here this morning, I'd love for you to fill out a connect card and stop by the connect center. We'd love to talk with you and walk with you, but let's pray to the church. Lord, thank you so much for your goodness and your grace. God, I pray that you would speak to our hearts here this morning. Guide us as we seek you first. We seek you first as a church. We seek you first as Christians. God, we're giving you the keys to the house. We're opening up every single door. God, have your way in us. I pray that the Holy Spirit would move and work and I'm praying. Maybe there's somebody in this room, God, that needs to experience your supernatural peace. God, I pray that you would shower them with your comfort and your peace right now. God, I pray if somebody in their past, they're just clinging on to that. I pray today is a monumental day where they make the decision. I'm letting that go, and God, I need you to start healing that in me now. We lay that at your feet, Jesus. Maybe there's somebody in this room that they have been filling the tub for a while, that God's calling them to lead something, to do something. That God's giving them this gifting, but maybe we've gotten comfortable, maybe we're kind of just sitting back. God, I pray right now that you would give them the boldness and courage to step out in faith of going, "Okay, God, I'm not really sure. I don't have all the answers, but I'm trusting you." God, help us to walk in that. We surrender it all to you. We seek you, Jesus. We ask this in Jesus' name, and everybody said, "Amen, let's stand and continue to worship together."