.  Living Hope Fellowship Church....Sermons by the Pastor 

MAKE SURE YOUR FOUNDATION

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

            2 Samuel 24:18-25 tells us how David went to make an altar to the Lord in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.  It was to offer a sacrifice to God to stay the plague that was on Israel.  Araunah offered it to David for free, but David told him no in Verse 24:  “And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. . . .”

            Seventy thousand people died in the plague.  David entreated the Lord, and God opened his eyes and let him see in the Spirit realm.  He saw the destroying angel with the sword in his hand standing over Jerusalem.  God told the angel to stay his hand at least until such time as He could find a petition from David to stop it.  This is a typecast of what goes on all the time individually and even internationally in the spirit realm. 

In Luke 14:28-30 Jesus says, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?  Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.” 

Verse 33 says, “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”  There is a price to pay for serving Jesus.  At this time multitudes were following Jesus, and Jesus culled the crowd!  God culls our thinking of things that are unprofitable and brings our attention to our lack of understanding so we will seek His face. 

There is a story of a rich building contractor who had his son-in-law build a house for him.  The young man didn’t put a whole lot in it, spent about half of the money, and kept the rest.  When it was done, the father-in-law gave him the keys, and said it was his.  Jesus said we need to count the cost, because the way we take and the way we do will affect us.  We can be an example of godliness and holiness or we can be an example of stupidity and hypocrisy. 

We could not do enough to buy our salvation.  Jesus paid that price.  However, once saved, we are building a house for God.  The Lord gets the glory as we labor.  The reason we don’t go further on in God is that we have taken discounts.  Luke, Chapter 16, tells of the unjust steward who wasted his lord’s goods.  He gave the creditors discounted rates, so he would be received in the houses of the people if the Lord put him out of stewardship.  There is no discount to heaven or the things of God.  God has called the church to press on in, individually and collectively.

You cannot pray through without it costing you.  Something is in the way that you are not willing to give up.  There has to be a surrendering to God, not a compromise.  Jesus said if you are going to be His disciple, He has to be number one in your life.  Jesus paid it all, so all to Him we owe (see 1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Exodus 15:3 says, “The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.”  God has set us up for war.  If you are to fight in a war, you have to go through     BASICS and other training, or the enemy will eat you alive.  2 Corinthians 6:17 says, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,” 

I’ve helped build houses.  When the storms come, I get to thinking, I hope I drove enough nails in that thing!  It will cost MORE to put a few more nails in it.  You want a fine tall tower, a fine tall witness, and you want to be able to move people for God.  Dig your foundation DEEP, because the more you put on that foundation, the deeper it needs to be.  The foundation of a building is not impressive, but everything you see up later has got to set on it.  If your foundation is not right, your light fixtures will be shaking down one of these days. 

I am not trying to discourage anyone, but if I can make you doubt your salvation, then you need to pray through about it.  If your foundation is strong, there is nothing anyone or any devil can do to make you think otherwise.

You have to know that you know that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that you are going to stick with Him no matter what.  David said he stuck fast to the testimonies of the Lord.  Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Peter 5:10 says, “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”  You will suffer for the Lord for a while.  You aren’t everlastingly building your building.  Once it is built, then you operate and live in there. 

God says tribulation is coming.  The word tribulation is derived from a word that means “to press, oppress, and - a nail studded board used in threshing!”  When the pressure is on, what is in you will come out of you, so make deadly sure of the God you serve. 

James 5:16 says, “. . . The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”  There are levels of prayer – ask, seek, and knock (see Matthew, Chapter 7.  If you ask and seek and it doesn’t happen, you have to start knocking and hammering the devil that is guarding your blessing to keep it away from you!

David said there was no way he was going to deal with God without it costing him something.  It makes it precious.  If you aren’t prayed through, admit it and get in the altar, and get a deep foundation.  When all hell comes against you, God will hold you.  There won’t be a devil in hell that will stop you.

Acts 14:22 says, “. . . we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”  God made it that way on purpose to make us sincere.  We are in the fire.  He is trying us to see if we have any dross to come to the top.  I don’t like it, but if I go around it, what I run into later is a whole lot worse.  We may as well face it head on.  If we seek God with all of our hearts, we will find Him (see Deuteronomy 4:29).

Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”  Come what may, I am going on for Jesus.