TONY EVANS HOUSE
Tony Evans - How to Repair a Broken Culture Tony Evans at the Museum of the Bible
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About 1-800-Granger, click Ranger.com or just stop by. Granger for the ones who get it done. We are here to hear the teaching and preaching of Tony Evans. I feel like he's truly a brother, not only in Christ, but we're both from the same hometown. He's from Dallas. I'm from Dallas, and he's a delightful human being, as you all know him. Our mission at the Bible, at the Museum of the Bible, is to invite all people to engage with the transformative power of the Bible. We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and it's more than a dusty old book on your grandmother's coffee table. Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of the Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books. He has a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and has been named one of the 12 most effective speakers in the world by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full Bible commentary in studybook and study Bible by an African American in the United States. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Evans, can be heard on over 1400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Your presence here tonight indicates you've certainly heard of Tony Evans. You've made me see that it's great to be here in the Museum of the Bible. Isn't this a fabulous place? It is, it is. I appreciate Mr. Hargrove inviting me. He called me and asked if I believed in free speech. I said, "Yes." He said, "Come give one." So I'm very gratuitous for this opportunity. It has me to comment and share some things with you. You know, it's the job of the encoder, which is the sender of the message, to reach the decoder that is the receiver of the message without the message getting lost in translation. So we're going to spend a few moments doing that tonight. I don't want the message to get lost because then people get confused because I don't want to be like the guy was in Chicago. It's like freezing in Chicago. He couldn't take the cold weather anymore. So he decided to leave Chicago and go to Hot Sunnywell in Florida. His wife was away on a business trip and he wanted to email her, tell her, "Don't come back to Chicago, the weather's too bad, but to meet him in Florida." So he got, he got his computer to email her, but for some reason he forgot her email address. So the note didn't go to his wife. It went to a little old lady in Iowa and she was a pastor's wife and her husband had just died the day before. So you know, she's very sad and for loining. So when she read the mistaken email, she screamed and fainted. She was just laid out on the floor. The loved ones came in and heard this thump and wanted to know what in the world was going on. Then they read the mistaken email that had been sent to her. They understood why she fainted. The first line said, "My dearest darling, just want you to know I've arrived safely." The second line said, "The second line said, 'Looking forward to you joining me tomorrow.'" Sign your loving husband, P.S. Shaw is hot down here. So it's very important that we communicate. So I'm glad to be in this beautiful museum, this beautiful Roman house. God has taken the Green Family, Hobby Lobby, and their friends to put one of the most magnificent tributes to God and his word in the world right here in the Capitol, Washington, D.C. So some years ago, I had a problem in my house. I had a problem in my house. There was a crack in the plaster of the wall, the crack in the plaster of the wall, and it needed to be repaired. So I called a painter over to fix the crack in the plaster on the wall in my house. He came and he took off the old plaster, put up the new plaster, repainted it. It looked brand new. I was happy. He was happy. I paid him. He went home. A month later, the crack reappeared. So somewhat evangelically ticked off. I called him back and asked him to fix the crack in the plaster of my wall. He came and he redid it. It looks like everything was going to be okay. But then about a month and a half later, the crack reappeared. This time with his niece's nephew's uncle's aunts and cousins. I had a family of cracks on the side of my wall. So I figured I needed me a new painter because this was not working out. So I called another guy over to fix the crack that keeps on coming back in my wall. The new painter came over. When the new painter came over, he looked at it, looked at it, looked at it, looked at it. And he said, "Sir, I'm so sorry. I can't help you." I said, "Uwa, excuse me?" He says, "I can't help you." I said, "Well, why not?" He says, "Because you don't have a problem with cracks on your wall." So I looked at the wall that I didn't have problems with. And I said, "Wait a minute. I see a crack. You see a crack. All God's children see a crack. There's a crack on my wall." Oh, he said, "Yeah, there's a crack on your wall. I'm just saying that's not your problem." He says, "Your problem is you have a shifting foundation. The foundation under your house is moving. What you're looking at are symptoms of a much deeper problem." He said, "If you don't solidify your foundation, you will forever be doing patchwork on the cracks on your wall." When you look at our world today, there are cracks everywhere. There is brokenness everywhere. And all manner of efforts are being put in place to try to fix the cracks on the walls of our lives, our culture, our relationships. If I wasn't doing what I do, I'd probably be a non-Christian secular psychologist or psychiatrist, because then I could charge people $300 an hour to tell them why they need to come back next week, because the patchwork never ends, only to be replaced." He said, "The foundation is not solidified." And because the foundation is not solidified, you can make things look better for a while. You can reach into your pocket, the bank, or the treasury of the United States to fund it. But the patches will keep on reappearing because your foundation keeps moving. So the question on the floor tonight that I would simply like to summarize is there need to be a radical return to a solid foundation. Jesus tells a story to conclude the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher, whoever proclaimed Jesus Christ himself. He comes at the end of the sermon on the Mount, and he tells a story about two men. And I simply want to ask you what is your favorite place to have fun? Chumba Casino. They have hundreds of social casino-style games to choose from, with new games released each week. You can play for free, and each day brings a new chance to collect daily bonuses. So join me in the fun. Sign up now at chumbahasino.com. Sponsored by Chumba Casino, no purchase necessary. VGW Group. 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I've been able to live my normal lifestyle and I've lost 20 pounds already and I've never felt better. It changed my life. And here's the best part. Your insurance may cover 100% of the cost of your medication. So go to trylifemd.com to have your eligibility checked right now. Get started today at trylifemd.com. That's T-R-Y-L-I-F-E-M-D dot com. Is your vehicle stopping like it should? Does it squeal or grind when you break? Don't miss out on summer break deals at O'Reilly Auto Parts. "When we have completed our moments here together, which person are you?" He says, "Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against the house, yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house and it fell and great was its fall." There are a couple of observations I want to make about this story. The first thing is the comparison between the two men. The first comparison is that both men shared the same dream. They both wanted to build a house. They both had the same vision, anticipation. They both were looking toward the same goal. They wanted to build a house. Now, in the Bible, to build a house can refer to a number of things. As it is here, to build a house means to build a life. Both people wanted to build a life. Nobody wants to live a failed life. Nobody wants to look back over the trajectory of the life that they lived and to have lived it without meaning and purpose and emptiness and shambles. They both wanted to build a life because a house in the Bible is used to refer to an individual's life. The word "house" is also used to be building a family. Nobody goes down the aisle pre-planning a divorce if they're serious about a relationship. Yet when you look at the shambles of families today, it becomes clear that the house is not being built well. So, to build a house can mean to build a home, to build a strong marriage and raise strong children and have strong intimacy and unity and productivity is called a house. The Bible talks about the house of David. That's his immediate and extended family. Or to build a house in the Bible can refer to building a ministry because after all the church is called the household of God. So it can refer to building a church, building a ministry. No ministry wants to collapse. No ministry wants to be insignificant. No ministry wants to not be impactful. It is to build something that will stand the test of time. We be impactful, productive and be transforming in the lives of people. So it can refer to building your life, your home, your ministry, or building a house can refer to building a nation. Israel was called the house of Israel. Nations are called the house of that nation in the scripture. So it refers to building a society that is stable and wholesome and meaningful and productive. So to build a house can refer to building a life or a family or a ministry or a nation to build it well. So both have the same dream and I suspect that most if not everybody here has had won all four of those dreams. That you want your life to matter, that you want your family to be strong, that you want your ministry to be impactful and for God's sake you want your nation to come back together. I am sure all of us share the same dream. Not only did they share the same dream, they came to the same event because Jesus said both men heard these words of mind. So they were both listening at the same time. They were both listening to perfect proclamation because a perfect God can only produce perfect truth. And since Jesus Christ is the perfect Son of God, he can only proclaim perfect information. They were listening to his word. Both men heard these words of mind as you come through this facility. You are confronted with the word of God in a multiplicity of manners and mechanisms and historicity and all of the nuances and idiosyncrasies that come with an understanding of all that this book and the truth of God has meant throughout the ages. It says and they heard these words of mind. They were both exposed to the truth because that was all they could get from the speaker. So both had the same dream. Both were listening to the same information. But there's a third thing. Both were sharing the same struggles because it says both of them face the storm. A storm in the Bible is a negative set of circumstances that are having deleterious impact and influence on your life. When you see storms use that way in Scripture, it is referring to negative realities that you face. You are either in a storm, just come out of a storm or get ready to end a storm, okay? Because it does rain in life. We have gone through a period in our own life and family of storms that over the last two years losing eight of our family members, six months apart. My father and my wife, one month apart, we have come through a series of agonizing storms and unfortunately in this world it rains. You don't like it. You don't want it. But the reality is you can't always control it. And it says the rain hit both of them. I would love to come here to Washington tonight and tell you, "Follow Jesus and it won't rain." But that wouldn't be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Most of us have lived long enough to know that the reality of storms do come. And they do make you wet. They do hurt. They do cause pain and headache and heartache and life ache no matter what level that storm is on. So both share the same dream. They wanted to build a house. Both listen to the same message as you are tonight. And both faced the same trouble. But that's where the comparison ends and the contrast begin. Because one man is called a wise man and the other man is called a fool. Wait a minute. That means that a fool can have a dream and a wise man can have a dream. It means that a fool can listen to a message and a wise man can listen to a message. It means a fool can be in the storm and a wise man can be in the storm. So just cause stuff is the same, that means you are the same. He says one was a wise man and one was a fool. And the difference between the wise man and the fool had to do with their foundation. It says where they built their house. A foundation is where you start. It is the beginning point. It is your point of reference. It is the point where you elevate from. It is where you go first. You can always know how high a building is planned to be built by how low they drill down. You cannot build a foundation, a skyscraper on the foundation of a chicken coop. Because it is not assigned to be able to hold it. See a lot of folk want skyscraper lives on chicken coop foundations. A lot of families want skyscraper homes on the chicken coop foundation. A lot of ministries want skyscraper ministries on the chicken coop foundation. And a lot of folk want a solid nation on a chicken coop foundation. And you can't build something that big or something that shallow. He says that didn't start in the same. I'm Victoria Cash and I want to invite you to a place called Lucky Land where you can play over a hundred social casino style games for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. So what are you waiting for? The best way to discover your luck is to spin. So go to luckylandslots.com. That's luckylandslots.com and get lucky today at Lucky Land. No purchase necessary. BTW Group, boy prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. Is your vehicle stopping like it should? Does it squeal or grind when you break? Don't miss out on summer break deals at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Place. Now one built this house on rock, the other built this house on sand. Rock foundations take time. Sandy foundations are quick. Rock foundations are expensive. Sandy foundations are cheap. In other words, if you're going to build a solid foundation, you have to be serious. You can't be casual. You can't be just at the top level. You have to be willing to go deep with this thing if you want to go high. One man was a wise man. He built this house on a rock, the other built this house on sand. And what made the difference? It wasn't the information because it says both heard these words of mine. So both were listening, but they weren't listening the same way. Both were hearing, but they weren't hearing the same way. It says the wise man built this house on a rock because he acted on what he heard from the word. The fool heard it but did nothing with it. And therefore he's called a fool. The Bible has a lot to say about the difference between a wise person and a fool. Wisdom and foolishness in the Bible has nothing to do with degrees, academic acumen. It has nothing to do with what you have accumulated in terms of information or book knowledge. Wisdom in the Bible is your ability, capacity, and responsibility to apply God's truth to life's decisions. Foolishness in the Bible is the refusal to apply God's truth to life's decisions. You can hear it all day, but if what's in your head doesn't germinate down to your feet, you are a fool with information. He says the wise man acted. If you were to come to me and you were to say, "Tony Evans, my life is in shambles. What should I do?" I would take God's word and I would give you what God says about whatever your problem happens to be that's put your life in shambles. Then I would give you practical steps to apply what the Bible says about your shambled life. Then I would ask the Holy Spirit to empower your obedience to the word to bring your life back in order. If you brought to me your family that was in shambles, I would take the same book that I use with your individual life. I would show you what God says about marriage and family or whatever the issues are. I would give you practical steps to apply what the Scripture says about that situation. I would then ask the Holy Spirit to empower your obedience to the word to bring order back into your home. If you brought the leaders of your church to me and said, "My church is in shambles," I would take the same book that I use with the individual, the same book I use with the family, and I would apply it to the leadership of your church and ministry. I would give you practical steps to apply the truth that we learned. Oh, that's the Holy Spirit to empower your obedience to the truth to bring order back into your home. If you brought to me the Congress of the United States located in Washington, D.C., let me explain some. I wouldn't change books. I would use the same book I use with the individual, the family, and the ministry since the Bible says in Romans 13 that God is the creator and sustainer of government, I would use that same book to tell political leaders what God has said, giving practical steps to implement it as the Holy Spirit to bless their obedience to bring about the change in the nation that the nation needs because it is now returned to a theistic bibliocentric orientation to Scripture because there are two answers to every question, God's answer and everybody else's. And everybody else is wrong. God has spoken and he has not stuttered. And it is because of our refusal to take heed to his word that we have foolish people in foolish families serving in foolish ministries that are part of a foolish nation. When there is the abandonment of a divinely ordered foundation, chaos will erupt. And no matter what programs you put in place, what funding you give to it, if it abandons divine truth that has been established by God based on his word, then you are in for trouble. Now what a lot of folk want to do is they want to have Sandy Rock. See what they want to do is they kind of know they need the rock, but they also want some sand. They want some of God and some of them. They want God in the invocation and the benediction as long as he stays out of the stuff in between. So they want a little sand and a little, you know, a little rock and they want to to mix it up. You know, I don't, I don't, I'm not in the apples. I'm an orange and banana guy. I'm not an apple guy, okay. Except at the Texas State Fair. Now I'm in the damn apples because then my candy apples at the Texas State Fair, okay. Now I don't normally like apples, but at the Texas State Fair, I like the apples. But my doctor tells me once I eat a candy apple, it is of absolutely no nutritional value to me. Because once it gets dipped in liquid sugar, I've canceled out the benefit because of the sugar. What we want to do is hear God's word, then dip it in human opinion, dip it in popular thought, dip it in woke ideology. We want to dip it in secular thinking. And we think the word doesn't work. And the only reason it's not working is that you've diluted it with man's form of thinking that contradicts it. When I first, there's a camp in Dallas called Pine Cove and Pine Cove is a very famous guest, probably the largest summer camp in the country. It has like 35,000 kids that just come doing the summers. That's a big game. And the first time I learned to ride horses was at Pine Cove, okay. Now I had seen enough westerns to know what to do. I had seen enough westerns. I knew I had seen gun smoke and the rifleman and bonanza, you know. I had seen enough westerns to know what to do. I knew how to go. "Get it up, high, kick it." I knew what to do. I'd seen enough westerns to know what to do. So they brought me my horse. I went, "Get it up, high, kick it." But my horse had issues. It go two steps forward and three steps back and two steps forward and three steps back. I called the Wrangler over. I said, "Hey, I need another horse because you didn't put me on crazy horse. I need another horse." It said, "What's wrong?" I said, "This horse, it's confused. It's horses confused. It goes up. It comes back. It's horses confused." The Wrangler looked at me and he says, "It's not the horse that's confused." It's not the horse that's confused. I said, "What do you mean, a horse guy?" I mean, I go, "Hi, get it up, kick it. Ha, get it up, kick it. Ghost, come to steps, goes back." The Wrangler looked at me and said, "You can't go. Ha, get it up, kick it while pulling back on the reins. You can't do that. You've confused this animal. You don't know whether to go forward or whether to go back." See, a lot of people want to use God's name while they pull back on the reins. He says, "You must act on what he says. The Bible must get activated." Now, it is a lie because it's the word of God, but it's not a lie for you until you activate it. Without activation, I see a lot of my brothers and sisters in the flesh here, African-Americans. Some of you non-African-Americans want to be appreciated, but my brothers and sisters in the flesh, y'all remember Jerry Carroll. Most of us, when we had had war Jerry Carroll back in the day, now you had to go through a lot to get your hair to do a Jerry Carroll back in the day, okay? Now, the Jerry Carroll kind of slipped your hair and curled it up and, you know, it did all that. So the problem is that the hair would get dry. The hair would get dry when you put these chemicals in it to get the Jerry Carroll. So all of us in the African-American community, we had to go to the store to buy curl activator. Come on, am I telling the truth? Come on, tell me, okay, all right. You had to go to the store and you had to buy curl activator because your hair would get dry and you needed to spray the activator on to get the light. With the Lucky Land Sluts, you can get lucky just about anywhere. This is your captain speaking. We've got clear runway and the weather is fine, but we're just going to circle up here a while and get lucky. No, no, nothing like that. It's just these cash prizes out of quick. So I suggest you sit back, keep your tray table upright, and start getting lucky. Play for free at Luckylandsluts.com. Are you feeling lucky? No purchase necessary. BGW Grabboid were prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. Back in the hair. If you didn't use the curl activator, your hair was a hot mess because it hadn't been activated. Well, God's word wants to be activated. It just doesn't want to be read, thought about, hovered over. It wants to be activated so it can shine in your existence. My own, Anthony, one Christmas I brought Anthony a bicycle, and I brought Anthony a bicycle. When you had to do it yourself, this is before Walmart and all that, well, you had to put the bicycle together. So Christmas Eve, I'm out there to put the bicycle together. Now, I'm working on my doctorate degree. So I'm a smart brother. I'm working on my doctorate degree. They gave me an instructional manual to how to put the bike together. I know how to read. I'm intelligent. I've got already a BA. I've got a master's working on a doctorate. I can do this. I can do this. I'm smart. So I take the book and I look at it and the book is pretty thick. So I decide I don't need this. I don't need this. I'm an intelligent black man. I don't need this. So I start using my human reasoning to put the bike together eight hours later with just the handlebars on. My late wife, Lois, came to the door and said, "Could it be?" She said, "I want to respect you as my husband." But I do have a question. "Could it be?" Just maybe. The bicycle maker knows more about bicycle fixing than you do. Just could it be that? So I want to ask you a question. Could it be that the life maker knows more about life living than we do? Could it be that if we tune back in to what he has to say based on his word on every issue in life that life could take on the shape the creator intended it because we stopped canceling the word with human opinion. When we decide to stop mixing diesel and unlet it, when we decide to stop mixing, you know, I was for my 30th wedding anniversary, Lois and I went to Europe and we were taking trains around certain places and we came to Pisa. Now there's only one thing in Pisa. There's only one thing. The leaning tower of Pisa. That's the only thing. What are two things in Pisa? There's the leaning tower of Pisa and then that people selling replicas of the leaning tower of Pisa right there. If you've ever been over there, you know, okay, people come from all around the world to watch a building do this. They come from all around the world to watch a building lean. When we were there, they had ropes around the bottom of the building because it was leaning one 20th of an inch every year more and so they had to stabilize it. So they put ropes around it because it was leaning and if they didn't solidify the foundation after a while, after so many years, it could collapse. So they had ropes around it to stabilize the foundation. Now what you need to know about the leaning tower of Pisa is it's only a tourist attraction. I mean, you can't do much with it. It's a tourist attraction and that's because it's leaning. Now a lot of people don't know why the leaning tower of Pisa leans. So let me tell you why the leaning tower of Pisa leans. The leaning tower of Pisa leans because it's located in Pisa because Pisa means marshy. In other words, it wasn't built on a solid foundation and it's been leaning ever since. When you try to build something outside of God's word, you're going to be leaning. And yeah, you may get some systems in the culture to put ropes around you to keep you from falling but that does not solidify your existence and you wind up being a tourist attraction. He says, "The wise man," for most people, the Bible is like the Queen of England. The Queen of England gets a lot of clout. I mean, whether she's in town out of town, the flag is raised, the flag is lowered. When her caravan comes up the street, people pull over. She gets a lot of clout. She just has no power. See, she don't make laws. She don't determine laws. They pay her homage. The Prime Minister comes and sits with her once a week and lets them know what's going on. But she doesn't get to make the final decisions but they pay homage to her. See, a lot of people pay homage to this book but don't want it to make any decisions. Don't want it to be the basis for decision-making where they surrender their will to this will, their plans to this plan, their definitions to this definition. We wouldn't be confused about the race issue. In fact, they technically incorrect for me to call myself a black Christian. You call yourself a white Christian because then you make black and white and adjective. You make Christian the noun. The job of the adjective is to modify the noun. So if you got Christian in the noun position, you're calling the adjectival position. You've got to keep changing the noun of your humanity, the noun of your Christianity to fit the adjective of your humanity. You must always put your Christianity in the adjectival position, your humanity in the noun position so that if anything changes, it's a noun of your humanity not the adjective of your faith. See, when you start with a biblical frame of reference, it doesn't take you a hundred years to solve a problem. It takes you just the time it takes to act on what God has said. He concludes by saying that the storm came. Interesting storm. It says the rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and slammed against both of their houses. Now if you have rain coming down, flood coming up and when it's so strong, you cannot go to the house, that's a hurricane. That's a hurricane. It's not just a rain storm. That's a hurricane. That's a hurricane season. You know what hurricane season is? When all hell breaks loose on your world, hurricane season is where you are overwhelmed with life or pain or anguish. I would love to say, Lucky Land Slots, asking people what's the weirdest place you've gotten lucky? Lucky? In line at the deli, I guess? Uh-huh, in my dentist's office. More than once, actually. Do I have to say? Yes, you do. In the car, before my kids' PTA meeting. Really? Yes. Excuse me, what's the weirdest place you've gotten lucky? I never win and tell. Well, there you have it. You could get lucky anywhere playing at luckylandslots.com. Play for free right now. Are you feeling lucky? No purchase necessary. VGW Group, reviewed by law 18 plus terms and conditions apply. That if you listen to this word, it won't rain. But he said it did rain and it rained on both of them. The wise man and the fool. The difference was the result. One house stood and one house fell. One house made it and one house didn't. Now, let me explain something. You can't fix the foundation in the storm. You can set it before the storm. You can repair it after the storm, but you can't fix it in the storm. You just got to ride out the storm if you haven't already solidified the foundation. See, everybody wants God when their world crashes. God says, I want to be your foundation before your world crashes so that when the storm comes, your world does not crash and you ride out the storm. You remember in Mark 4 when Jesus was crossing, he said, let us go to the other side and they got in the boat and a storm came. The Greek word was lilac. That's a wind storm. And these fishermen were scared to death. So it had to be a bad storm because they were fishermen and they're halfway across the Sea of Galilee and halfway across the Sea of Ladder storm comes and they're panicking. They're panicking and they look and Jesus is asleep in the stern. He's asleep in the stern and I'm in the storm. Now, if the truth be told, sometimes it does feel like Jesus is asleep on you because you're in trouble and he knows where to be found. So sometimes it does seem like Jesus is asleep on you, but he's not just asleep. He's snoring. We know he's snoring because he's on a my pillow. That's what it says. It says that he was asleep on a cushion. Now, if you own a cushion, that means you meant to go to sleep. You're not just nodding. You're intentionally snoring. It says he was asleep on a cushion. He got a my pillow. So he there and he's sleeping on a cushion and so the disciples come and they shake and bake him. They wake him up. They say, and they ask what we always ask when we going through stuff, carrots, not that we perish. How can you sleep on us at a time like this? It says they had to arouse him, which means they had to shake him up. They couldn't just say, Jesus, it's time to wake up. He was too sleepy. They shook him to get him up. They had to rouse him up. And when he got up, he said to them, why are you so timid? Now, that sounds a little bit in our humanity, a little bit insensitive. They're bailing water out because they're scared. They're going drowned. Here come Jesus going to say, why are you so timid? I could see Peter now because he didn't want to talk. So I could see Peter now saying, Jesus, maybe we're timid because we're getting ready to die. Gee. He says, oh, ye of little faith. But wait a minute. Jesus, wait a minute. Are you being impractical here? I mean, this is our circumstance. We're in a storm. The thing is going to flip the boat over. We don't know whether we're going to live or die. How can you be so insensitive? Oh, ye of little faith. Why did he say that? Because before they ever left, he said, let us go to the other side. Not let us go halfway and not make it. He said, I could see them now like a lot of us in church. Jesus said, let us go to the other side. We'd be saying, other side of the side of the side. Jesus said, we're going to make it to the other side. Praise God. Hallelujah for the other side. The other side of the side of the side. Hallelujah. The other side. The other side. I can see us saying the other side right now. It's easy to hear God's word and not pay attention. Because if they were paying attention when they saw him get, here's my pillow. They would have gotten them my pillow because they would have remembered. He said, we're all going over to the other side. The principle here of this story is simple. Your foundation determines your future. Your foundation determines your future. Fixing a broken window is one thing. Having to repair your foundation is a whole nother ball game. Fixing your roof is one thing. Fixing your doors. All important, but those are insignificant compared to having to jack up your foundation because everything else is resting on it. God intended that all of life would rest on his word in the four categories of his kingdom, personal life, family life, church life, civic life. All four of those, we call it our ministry, the kingdom agenda, the visible manifestation of the comprehensive rule of God over every area of life. 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