The Church's True Foundation

You can turn to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 16, if you would, while you're turning there.

Let me just say, in 1866, Samuel Jones penned down the words to what would become a very popular song or hymn of the church. The first verse of that hymn simply states, the church's one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is his new creation by water and the word. From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought her and for her life he died. Pins down the words that well describe and speak of the passage that we're going to look at and the topic that we're going to discuss today. The church's true foundation.

I think it's always good for us to remind ourselves of what the church is, how it came to be, how it was bought, all of those things. And I want us to look at that a bit this morning out of Matthew chapter 16, very familiar passage to you, beginning in verse number 13. We'll backtrack a little bit here in a moment, but let's read the text. Stand together with me, if you will, while we read out of God's word and see what he has to say to us today. Matthew chapter 16, begin with me in verse number 13. When Jesus came, or literally was coming, into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. But Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Pray with me. Father, again, thank you for who you are. We praise you for who you are today. And thank you for the grace you've given to us that enables us to come together this morning to worship you and to honor your Son. And so, Father, now as we look into your Word, I ask that you will, first of all, give us liberty, discernment from your Spirit to preach your Word today, to project your heart for us today. And then also that you will open our spiritual hearts and eyes and minds to be able to understand what you're saying to us, but also to make the application of it to our lives and to our church. And we'll thank you for it and praise you for it now. In Jesus' name, for his sake we pray. Amen. Thank you, and be seated. The events of the passage that we just read really are set up in chapter 15. If you want to flip there just a moment, you can.

In chapter 15, Jesus is being dealt with by the scribes and Pharisees, and they ask him a question concerning his disciples. Always keep in mind the idea that everywhere Jesus went, those religious leaders and hierarchy of Judaism were always doing what they could to try to snare the Lord Jesus, try to put something in his path that would trip him up, if you will, so they could make accusations against him. That's what they do here. So notice with me, if you will, in verse 1 of chapter 15, then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread.

But he answered and said unto them, Why transgress ye the commandment of your God by your traditions? For God commandeth, saying, Honor thy father and thy mother. He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, it is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me. And honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

Ye hypocrites! Well, did Isaiah prophesy, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and on earth be with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Now notice that verse, verse 8, is the heart of what's happening here. He speaks of the fact that here's the scribes and Pharisees bringing this accusation about why in the world do your disciples transgress the law, or not the law, but the traditions of the elders by not washing hands. And Jesus just simply brings out the reality that what has to take place is not a matter of outward things, but it's a matter of the heart.

Everything that has to be done needs to proceed from the heart. Now, in reality, I think we can say that's what's happening here. We see the heart of the Pharisees and what it's engaged in when they bring the accusation, if you will, against the Lord Jesus in that question. But Jesus is wanting us to see that everything that transpires in our lives, everything we do, whether it be for God or anything else, for it to be effective, it must proceed from the heart. Now keep that in mind as we progress through what we're looking at this morning. So the events of Matthew 16 are set in motion here.

In chapter 16, the first few verses, notice something else that happens here. The Pharisees also were the Sadducees, and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. Now realize what they're doing here. They want to see Jesus do something they consider a sign from heaven. There's precedence to this. It's happened before in Israel of old.

Samuel caused it to thunder and rain in 1 Samuel 12. Isaiah caused time to stand still. God sent manna from heaven through Moses. All of those things are signs from God that these were the men of God.

Now the Pharisees want this of the Lord Jesus. Show us a sign. What they're really saying is, do something here to legitimize what you claim to be. You claim to be Messiah, so show us something miraculous, some sign from heaven that declares the reality of what you're claiming to be. Legitimize it. Now, I want you to notice the response of the Lord Jesus.

He answered them and said, when it is evening, you say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red, and in the morning it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and lowering.

Oh, you hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky, but can you not discern the signs of the times? Now look at his statement here. A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.

There shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas, or Jonah. Realize that's a sign or indication of judgment, if you will. And he left and departed. And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Now we'll look at that in a minute.

They want a sign. They want something to legitimize what Jesus said. Key for us today is, he did not give them that sign.

He said, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. That's all he says. He doesn't give them what they want. Now, following up with that, we find that the disciples, the apostles, if you will, question in their own mind, thank you brother, question in their own mind whether or not he really is the Christ.

He gives them some spiritual truth here. And they just don't get it. On this trip, they had forgotten to bring bread. They were getting hungry. They're Baptist men. Amen? They're getting hungry.

But they forgot to bring anything to eat. Jesus makes a statement here. He said, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Ah, leaven. Mention the word leaven. You've got to think of bread.

Amen? It's like my wife at our house. She read a long time ago some little article that said, The key to a man's heart is through his stomach. More so, if you really want to draw him to you, it's beef and onions in the skillet. Amen?

And the aroma of that, and true enough, you know, when we come home from church or I've been somewhere and come in the house, Oh, I tell her it smells so good in here. And she says, onions.

Onions in the pot. Amen? Yeah. But they don't get it. They're thinking he's talking about bread. Jesus rebukes them for that. How is it that you don't understand that I spake it not to you concerning physical bread that you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?

Then all of a sudden they got it. They get it. So that kind of sets the stage for us here. Even, I think, even in the apostles' minds, many of the other disciples as well, even in their heart and mind, after seeing the confrontation with the Pharisees and other opportunities that Jesus had to prove he was who he claims to be, there begins to rise a doubt in the minds and hearts of even some of the disciples.

John 7 tells us that. Is he really the Christ? Jesus now withdraws with them and heads towards Caesarea Philippi.

Caesarea Philippi is a largely Gentile region. He goes there now with his apostles. And he's got a purpose in doing that.

As they approach the area where they're going, we find that the setting there is a mountainous area. And they say that there's the portion of that area where there is a large thousand-foot rock cliff, if you will.

That's an old ancient castle now. But there in that region, away from Galilee, away from Jerusalem, away from the temple, from the priests, from the scribes, Pharisees, all of that, they go into this largely Gentile region.

And it's here that Jesus introduces to the apostles the idea of the church. And then as well begins to lay its foundation.

It's in the shadow, if you will, as well, of the mount that's going to become the mount of transfiguration, Mount Hermon. Yeah. Yeah. Where the glory of Jesus, the glory of God in Christ, is manifest.

And that's the place where now he comes to introduce something new to these men. He calls it the church.

And so having withdrawn with his apostles to that Gentile region, he asks the question of them, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

Now put that in the context of what we've seen. With the questions, with the tempting of Jesus to legitimize who he is, to show some sign, and yet he does not.

He never has done that. He's made statements, but that's all. No proof. Who do men say that I am? People that have seen me, the multitudes that have heard me, they've watched the things that I've done, even the miracles performed.

Who do they say that I am? Because you realize, everything about him shows that he's quite different than anybody else.

Who do they say that I am? Well, some say, you're John the Baptist. Reincarnated. Some say, you're Elijah.

Or, one of the Old Testament prophets. That's who they say you are. But realize in that, still a man.

Still a man. Quite different, but still simply flesh and blood. Then he turns to his apostles. Those that have been with him, probably close to 24-7, for a good while now.

They've not only heard what he said publicly, seen the miracles performed publicly, but in those close, intimate times of teaching that he shared with them, all of those things that he saw, they saw of him, and experienced of him, he asked them, but about you, as far as you're concerned, who do you say that I am?

Boy, that's a good question, isn't it? Good question. Who do you say that I am? Notice the one that responds here. It's the one that is probably the closest of the inner circle of the apostles with Jesus.

Jesus. And that's Peter. You know, God's done so many, or Jesus did so many things with Peter. And he's the one that rises up.

Now, it seems strange for a moment. When we think about the reality that built up inside these men was a bit of a question. Is he really who he says he is?

But just like that, Peter arises, speaks up. Fellas, who do you say that I am? You're the Christ.

The Son of the living God. That's who you are. You are the Christ. The Son. I'm not just the Son of God, but the Son of the living God.

Now, look how Jesus responds to that. He says in verse 17, Blessed art thou, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed that unto you, but my Father, which is in heaven.

He's revealed that unto you. The only way, at that moment, that Peter could make that definitive statement, was because of the Spirit of God working within his heart and his mind to put all of it together that he's experienced of Christ, to be able to say, you are the Christ.

Because you see, the evidence demanded that a deep-seated conviction declare the truth of who he really is.

You are the Christ. And that is not just a mere definitive statement. That comes from the heart of this man, this impetuous, red-headed fisherman.

Because the Spirit of God had impressed within his heart in all that he saw and experienced of Jesus that he is indeed the Christ.

And then as the Christ, as the Messiah, as the Anointed One, he is the Son of the living God. That's who he is. Now folks, listen to me.

It's good to recognize that Jesus died for our sins. Because we're sinners in deep need of being saved.

And the only way that we could be saved is for his death, burial, and resurrection to be a reality. And it's good to trust him as such. But the fact of the matter is, in order for us to go beyond just the fact of being saved, we've got to come to that same deep-seated conviction of who Jesus really is.

It's got to come from our hearts, not from our minds. It's got to come from the heart. We have got to let the Spirit of God do such a work within us that we come to the deep-seated conclusion that no matter what anybody else thinks or declares, he is the Christ.

He is the Son of God. And I've devoted my heart, my mind, my life, everything about myself to Him.

Now, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Luke says, you are the Christ of God. Yes.

That's how he puts it. All right? Now, notice what he says. The pivotal response to that from Jesus. No surprise of what was going to happen.

Jesus wasn't surprised that Peter would make that statement. Jesus well knew that it was the Spirit of God that had buried that within Peter. But look how Jesus responds.

Verse number 18. I say unto you, thou art Peter. Petros is the Greek word.

Do you know that well? And upon this rock, Petra, I will, literally, I will be building my church.

Peter, you're the Petros. Now, get this idea.

And remember, remember, more than, you know, good possibility anyway, that in the setting in which they were, were, were, were, conducting these things.

remember the thousand foot rock, rock cliff that's there in their, in their view. That no doubt, Jesus very well could have that in mind when he made this statement.

Because, amongst all of that, were other small peaks, if you will. Jesus says to Peter, you are the boulder.

Alright? The end of you, if ever, and many of you, have no doubt traveled in mountainous regions, you go tooling down the highway, and all, all of a sudden, you see this warning sign, landslide or rock slide, and you come to this area where there's been a rock slide, and there's great big old boulders, it takes big front end loaders to move.

Get that in your mind for Peter. You are a Petros, Peter. Then he says, and upon this Petra, think of the rock of Gibraltar, think of that thousand foot tall mountainside, I will be building my church.

Now, a lot of, a lot of different thoughts, ideas, conversation, about who, the rock upon which the church is built. But you look at Scripture, and it's very clear.

Psalm 118 says, the stone which the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, it's marvelous in our eyes.

And Isaiah 28, verse 16 says, therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, and he that believeth shall not make haste.

Talking about Messiah to come. The church, the foundation of the church upon which that assembly will be built is the person of Christ Jesus in all that he is in the Christ of God.

That's upon what the church is built. That's its solid foundation. Upon this rock, I will be building my church.

Of course, entrance into that new assembly comes through genuine faith and confession of the person of Christ as Lord and Savior.

Gives us entrance into that new assembly that's coming. It provides, and that genuine faith in Christ is from a conviction that transforms the heart and the mind of the believer into yieldedness and submission and obedience to the person of Christ.

Now, there's the question I think we need to look at. We'll get into this later in another time more completely. Is our quote-unquote belief in Christ Jesus to such a degree that it has transformed us?

You know, there's a lot of things about transformation. That's another study. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

There's the thing we need to recognize. You know, transformation of heart and mind is not just the idea that we think differently. It's part of that. You know, we don't think the way we used to think.

We used to think fleshly things, earthy things. Now, we think spiritual things. That's part of that, no doubt. But it goes farther than that.

True transformation brings us to the point that we're ready and willing and desiring to and then we follow up on the idea of yielding ourselves to God.

Lord, here I am. Do what you want to with me. And then, submit to Him. There's two different things.

Yielding and submission, two different things. Submitting to Him is saying, alright, God, I've yielded to you recognizing who you are and your right and authority over my life as Lord, but now I submit to you.

Anything you want to do with me, I will do. Don't raise your hand, but let me ask you the question. How many of us here this morning, yeah, it's still morning.

How many of us here this morning when we wake up in the morning, one of the first things we think about is, God, what is it you want to do in my life today? What do you want me to do?

How foremost is that in our heart and mind? You see, that's what submission is. How do you, God, want to use me today to glorify your Son and yourself and to accomplish your kingdom purposes?

Most of the time we get up, our eyes finally get open and we're saying to ourselves, oh, Lord, it's Monday. Gotta go to work.

How many think that? How many are telling the lie? Yeah, yeah, gotta get up in the morning. Ah, some of you might be glad to go to work, get out of the house.

Amen? But, and then we go through our routine getting ready for work or whatever the day holds for us. Sometimes without even considering, God, it's your day.

This day, even though it's not Sunday, it's your day. This is the day the Lord has made. You know, while we're there, realize with me that that passage we misused so many times.

That day the Lord has made is the day of crucifixion. The day His Son is crucified. This is the day God has made because it's what He has determined is His purpose, His plan, His will for the day.

so we will rejoice and be glad in it, no matter where that may lead in satisfying the will of God. Yeah. This is the day the Lord has made.

Alright? And then get up, get ready for your normal routine but keeping an eye out on what God wants to do with you throughout your normal routine and then look for the times and be aware of the fact He may change your routine.

He may interrupt your routine. He may want to do something completely different than what you had planned for the day. That's submission.

God, I'm ready to do that and that obedience is doing it. Amen? Doing what He tells us to do.

Upon this rock I will be building my church. My assembly, my called out ones using the word ecclesia there delineates it from the idea of it being the normal course of Jewish community such as the synagogue.

This is something new. It's not those that are a part of the synagogue. This is something new. It's an ecclesia. It's a new assembly that's now in union with the person of Christ.

Now, notice with me if you will. Upon this rock and all that I am as the Christ, I will be building what?

My church. Look at the note of possession there. I will be building my church. I know we know this, but I think sometimes we forget the reality that what you've got here as Highland Park Baptist Church is an assembly that God has put together.

Amen? It's not the idea per se. I don't even know the background of how this thing actually started, but it's not the idea that somebody just all of a sudden thought, man, you know, this little corner up here by the highway, we need to put a church there.

It just needs to be a church there because there's not one too close to it. So this area needs a church. So let's go start one. Now, that might have been the mechanics of it.

I don't know. But in reality, it's God that has done the work, no doubt, of impressing upon hearts and minds that I want a church here.

I want a place here where people that are saved can come and worship and honor me. And so it started. And so God goes through the process of bringing into this place those that He wants to serve Him together in this place.

But it's His place. Amen? It's His church. Never forget, I may have shared this with you before, but never forget when my youngest daughter lived in Hawaii in Honolulu.

Went there to visit her one time and they took me to a little, a very small Baptist church, Southern Baptist church, right downtown Honolulu.

I mean, in the midst of everything else, all the hotels and businesses and everything else, here's this little building, small building, but it's a Baptist church.

We went there, it was a Wednesday night, we went there to attend services. Small group of people, and we were sitting there singing, they loved to sing, Hawaiians loved to sing, they loved to sing, and the pastor got up and spoke, and while all that was going on, I thought about this for a moment, and on our way there, Darla drove us around the corner to show me where there was a, uh-huh, there was, wasn't called a mosque, I don't think, but anyway, it was a place where monks, Buddhist monks, no, Tibetan monks, these were Tibetan monks, were, were, had their places, right around the corner from this

Baptist church, we had seen one of them cross the street, and Darla said, there's one of them right there, a Tibetan monk, and while we were sitting in that service, I thought about this small little Baptist church, being right here in the middle of all of that, in the middle of downtown Honolulu, just around this gigantic edifice of Tibetan monks, and the thought came to me, right here, this little church, this is God's place, this is God's church, this is God's place, right here in the midst of all of this, to bear witness, to bear testimony of the reality of who Jesus is, church, and the same goes for Highland Park Baptist church, this is God's church, it's

His church, it's His possession to do with whatever we want to do, no, whatever He wants to do, it's His church, yeah, don't ever think He doesn't know where you're at, amen, don't ever entertain the idea that He's forsaken you, as long as you're walking with Him, it's His church, I will be building my church, for you see, Jesus is the head of the church, Ephesians chapter 1, turn there with me just a moment, Ephesians chapter 1, Paul, is telling the believers at Ephesus here how He prays for them, and what His desire for them in His praying is, and He says in verse 15, wherefore,

I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, love to all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of the glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Now, catch that with me if you will. Paul said, I desire that God does such a work in you, that you have a knowledge, a working experiential knowledge of Christ Jesus, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ, now notice, when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in the world to come and hath put all things under His feet and notice this, in all of that that God has done in

Christ and through Christ to Christ literally made Him sovereign over everything, everything under subjection to Him, then He said, He gave Him, Christ Jesus, to be the head over all things to the church.

Now, He's raised Him, He's raised Him to sit on His own right hand, alright, He has put everything under His feet, literally the idea is everything that exists is under subjection to Him.

Now, in all of that, God gives Jesus, in all that He is, to the church, as a love gift.

Amen. man, yeah, God gives Jesus as a love gift to the church, in all that He is.

Now, continue on with me here just a moment. Yeah, gave Him as that love gift to the church.

how does He do that? What does He do in that?

What, you know, a gift. A lot of times, churches will give a love gift to their pastor for various reasons. Usually, it's a monetary gift, which is good.

People give gifts to one another. What do you do with that gift? Does anybody here, when you receive the gift, whether it's from friends, whether it's from your children, whether it's from your spouse, they hand you that gift, and you take that gift, do you ever just sit there and just look at it?

especially you ladies when it's something you think is special from hubby, how long does it take you to open it?

Amen? Amen? How many wait? Let me see your hands. How many wait to open it? How many open it just the moment you get it in your hands?

Yeah. Yeah. The rest of you are kind of in and out. Yeah. And then you open that gift and you see what's inside.

And if it's something really special, oh, women will say, you shouldn't have, you shouldn't have, or how much does this cost?

Amen? Yeah. That's just the way it is. Amen? Yeah. But you enjoy it. You're thrilled with it. God gave Jesus in all that He is as a love gift to the church.

I think sometimes we've still got Him wrapped up. Because look how this unfolds. He gives Jesus to the church.

in verse 22 again. He's put all things under His feet, gave Him the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the church, figuratively, the body of Christ.

Look what else? The body of Christ, the church, being the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.

All. Think about that a moment. Ladies, go to the grocery store one particular day during the week, and you get all those things you need and you take it home and you stick it all in the refrigerator.

Later on, the husband comes home or the kids come home from school. The first thing to do is head toward the refrigerator. Open that thing up.

Boom, boy, it's full. Amen? There's no room for anything else. It's full! reach in there and look around and see what you want and grab it and take it.

God is saying here, Jesus is saying here, yeah, that when God gave Jesus to the church as a love gift, He filled the church with all that Christ is.

Remember when Paul wrote his first letter, I think it was, to the church at Corinth, he says to them, you've come behind in no gift. God has given you everything you need.

And what he's showing us here is God has given us everything we need as a body, as a church, to complete the mission and the task that He's set for us to do.

Our problem is, we're not taking advantage of the gift that He's given us. We're not utilizing that. I'm, well, nothing amazes me anymore.

But I, it just kind of blows me away anymore. Going from place to place, church to church, seeing what I see, hearing what I hear, and realizing that so much of the stuff being done in our assemblies today are done in the power of the flesh and not in the fullness of the Christ that we're filled with.

and that's what we need. In a meeting the other day in Oakland City, our search committees were down there interviewing some guys and one of the guys made a statement that I'd never heard before.

I loved it because it speaks volumes. He's talking about churches that are having troubles and difficulties and some churches that are about to die. And he says, I don't see in the scripture anywhere where we have the right to close the church.

But then he quoted G. Campbell Morgan. I had never heard this statement before. G. Campbell Morgan makes a statement somewhat that says, we cannot bring revival.

But what we have to do, is to raise our sails so that when God desires for the wind to blow, our sails catch the wind.

Hear what he's saying? We're in the boat and we're out there on the lake, but we're not going anywhere. Not going anywhere.

the problem is, we don't have the sails up. Now, we put the sails up, but you might be in a dead calm sea.

No wind. Do you take the sails down? No. You keep them up. because at some point in time, the sail, the wind is going to blow.

And those sails are going to catch that wind and move the boat. You see, what we've got to do, that wind, of course, is the Spirit of God, at work within His people.

And I believe, I believe in this generation, as long as a church is honoring God the best they know how to, God wants His Spirit to move within that church.

But we've got to get our sails up. We've got to have our lives so governed that when the Spirit of God moves, we know it.

And He knows that our sails are up. He knows that He can speak to our heart, because we're in tune with Him, we're yielded to Him, we're submissive to Him, we want to be obedient to Him.

And when it's time for Him to move, He moves in those sails, and we're ready to go, and God produces what He wants to produce through all of it. Yeah.

Oh, we've got to get our sails up. Paul, is it not, to the church of Philippi, made this statement, work out your own salvation.

Yeah, Philippians chapter 2. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now, that's in verse number 12.

He's not saying there you work for salvation. That term simply means in the original bring your salvation to its ultimate conclusion and purpose.

whatever God saved you for, whatever He purposed in your life, those good works the Scripture talks about that He's ordained us to from beginning of time, to bring those to pass.

Work it out. Bring it to its accomplished purpose. So when the day comes we stand before Him, He'll look at us and say, well done, good and faithful servant. That's what Paul did.

That's why he was able to say, my time is at hand, I'm ready to be offered. For there is laid up in store for me a crown of righteousness, the victor's crown, which the Lord shall give, and give to all those that love His appearing.

because we've been faithful. We've had our sails up. And the Spirit of God has caught our sails. And we've gone with it, submitted, and obeyed.

And that's what we've got to have. Upon this rock, I will be building my church progressively.

I will be building, as the original, my church. And the gates of hell, the gates of Hades, shall not prevail against it.

The gates of the place where the elders of the town meet and discuss city business. He's saying all the stratagems and efforts and plans of hell will will never overcome the church.

It'll always be there. Amen? Amen? Because after all, one of these days, Jesus is going to come and rapture it out and take it home to be with us.

We've got a great foundation. We've got a sure foundation. foundation. The rock, Christ Jesus, and all that He is. And we're built upon that rock.

I'm going to mention this in closing while I'm thinking of it. I get this little newspaper in the mail every quarter. It's called Old News.

Old News for old guys, you know. But what it is, it's stories from way back yonder. 1700s, 1500s, 1800s. This recent story that I read was about the building of a lighthouse.

I don't even forget where it's at. But the interesting thing was it was in such a place, so many, so many, it was over in Europe somewhere, so many ships were being wrecked 500 or so a year in the stormy season because they couldn't tell where to go to get into the harbor.

So this architect determined he's going to build a lighthouse. And so there's this great big, great big rock edifice that comes out to a point, kind of a peninsula, but it gets covered with water about 20 feet in the rough seasons.

He's determined to build a lighthouse there. And so he gets all the permission and gets a guy to help him design it and work it and stone cutter and everything else.

And they determine how they're going to do this thing. But I thought it interesting. They didn't just go and set it up on top of that rock. They, and this is back in the 1800s, they cut into the top of that rock, two foot deep, a circle big enough to be the base of that lighthouse.

And then they got these boulders that weighed tons, brought them in and cut them just right, and placed the first layer in that hole.

Dovetail together type thing, so that every layer that's placed upon top of that has that footing.

The first row of boulders of rock laid in that hole, footing, to the point where when that thing was finished, 70 foot high or however tall it was, it in essence was a part of that rock.

See, you couldn't separate it because those stones were interwoven into each other and its base was cut into the rock, set into the rock.

Good picture of what the church is. I've got to save that article. I just thought about that. That's a good picture of the church. Yeah. Not just cut into the rock, but a part of it.

That's what he was telling Peter. Peter, you're a little boulder. I'm the rock, but you're part of me. Because the boulder is part of that rock.

rock. And that's what we are as the church. We're the church, the body of Christ, His fullness at operation so that the world can see the fullness of Christ at work.

They won't know what it is. They don't have to know what it is. God will do the work within their lives of drawing them to that. Let's be the church.