From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Hey, maybe your home has been built on sand and it's a cracked slab. But you know what? God is a God of grace. He's a God of second chances. He's a God of might and miracle. If you'll come to him and leave the pigsty and come to him and say, "Lord, I want to do it your way and I want to build on your word and I want to build on your ways," he says, "Great, that's what I want for you. Come and let me help you."

Larry Nobles: Across America and around the world, families have gotten so far away from God's design of how homes should function. And so now families deal with all sorts of problems. And we wonder why we have the problems we have. Is your family being built on a cracked slab? Listen, none of us build on a foundation that won't sustain a structure when it comes to a house. Yet many do that when it comes to our families.

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. And the lesson today is called, "Are You Building on a Cracked Slab?" and it's from the six-message series, Modern Family: God's Wisdom for Today's Families. If you miss any of these lessons for the rest of this month that we will be airing, please go to fromhisheart.org to listen to the ones you've missed. And there too you can download a free MP3 of any broadcast and also the sermon outlines from Pastor Jeff. Right now open your Bible to the book of Psalms. Here's Pastor Jeff to continue this insightful lesson, "Are You Building on a Cracked Slab?"

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now, in Psalm 89, we get insight into the right foundation for a life, for a marriage, for a home, for a family. The scripture says, "The heavens are yours. The earth also is yours. The world and all that contains you have founded them. The north and the south, you have created them. Tabor and Hermon, which were mountains, shout for joy at your name. You have a strong arm. Your hand is mighty. Your right hand is exalted. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Lovingkindness and truth go before you.

How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound. Oh Lord, they walk in the light of your countenance. In your name, they rejoice all the day. And by your righteousness, they are exalted. For you are the glory of their strength, and by your favor our horn is exalted. For our shield belongs to the Lord, and our king to the Holy One of Israel."

Now, verse 14 is a key verse because it gives us wisdom and insight into how God sets things up. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Lovingkindness and truth go before you. That's God's sure foundation. Righteousness and justice, lovingkindness and truth. So if you, if I, want to have a life, want to have a home that is solid, that is sure, that's not a cracked slab, we need to build like he builds. We need to have a foundation like he has a foundation.

Here's our question. What is the right foundation to build your life and home upon? Two pieces of the foundation. Piece number one, build on the Lord's righteousness and justice. You want to have a good, solid foundation? Righteousness and justice. That's the foundation of God's throne. That can be the foundation of your life and your home. When you go to court, if you ever go to court, one of the things you want for certain is a righteous judge, a just judge, because a just judge will give a just and righteous verdict.

You don't want a crooked judge, because if you go up in the court of law and the judge is a crook, then the guy you're up against, he might have paid that guy off and that judge takes bribes and you're going to be ripped to shreds. Why? Because he's not just. God is a righteous judge. God is a just judge. God's throne where he rules is founded on righteousness and justice. And right and wrong weren't considered subjective issues, but they are today. They are today.

People look at right and wrong and they say, "Well, that's your definition of right and wrong. That's your truth, that's not my truth." You mark it down. Right and wrong are not subjective issues. I have up here a little device that's used in building, it's used in hanging pictures. It's called a level. You know, a level's just got a little bubble in it and you kind of mark it if you're trying to build a fence or you're trying to hang a picture. You put this thing on it to try and get it level or you put it this way to try and get it straight.

Well, here's the problem that you have and I have. We are sinners, and so our bubble is off. We don't see things the way they are really. And so we think, "Well, that's straight. Doesn't that look straight?" But my bubble's off. And it may look lined up to me like that's straight, but everybody knows that this isn't straight. Or do we? God knows it's not straight. God says, "Hey, here's my standard. Boom." But we say, "No, I like this standard better. That looks straight to me."

Right and wrong are not subjective things. Right and wrong are defined by God. He is the author of morality. He tells us what is right and what is wrong. He's the one that says this is straight, this is righteous, this is true, and this is not. We get that from God. It doesn't change. "I am the Lord, I change not." And because morality comes from the character and the nature of God, and God doesn't change, his word doesn't change, and morality never changes, and God's standard in his bubble of right and wrong, they never change.

How about divorce? Now I'm not trying to heap condemnation or guilt on anybody. What I'm trying to do is tell you that here is God's level. Here is the bubble. What about divorce? We live in a world today where 50% roughly of the people that get married get divorced. I married a couple one time, they had gone through all the counseling, and I married them, and four months later they got divorced.

There are three reasons why a person could get divorced and it be legitimate. Number one, the Bible says adultery. If there is continued adultery and there is no repentance, then it is permissible for you to divorce from that person. Number two is abandonment. Person takes off and says, "Forget it, I don't want to be with you." It's permissible to get divorced. Number three, although the scripture doesn't say a lot about this, but I think it just makes sense, it's abuse. If you're getting beaten on, God is not calling you to be anybody's punching bag. You need to get out of that situation.

But what do we have today? We have people that get divorced. Why do they get divorced? Irreconcilable differences. What does that mean? It means I'm unhappy. I'm not very happy, and what matters in life is that I be happy and so that trumps everything. Listen, Malachi 2:16, the Lord hates divorce. And here is why he hates divorce, because divorce destroys people and it rips people apart. And God loves you too much to let that go on and says, "Every time you do that and I see your pain, I hate that."

He doesn't hate you. He doesn't hate the divorce. He hates what divorce does to people and what it does to families. His standard is one man, one woman for life, until death do you part. That's God's standard. How about the hot button of homosexuality? You know, in the church and a lot of churches, they don't ever want to talk about this subject. You know why? "Well, that's kind of political." It's not political. It's moral. It's in the word of God. "Well, you might hurt somebody's feelings."

We're not trying to hurt anybody's feelings. I said that about divorce. I'm not trying to hurt anybody's feelings that have been divorced. And people who have been divorced would stand up and say, "You tell them how much it hurts. You tell them how much it hurts. Hey, I went through that with my mom and dad. My dad was cheating on my mom, and they were separated for two and a half years. And I saw my mom cry and cry and cry as a ten-year-old boy, and I wanted to fix it, and I couldn't fix it. I know how much it hurts."

So I'm not talking about something that I don't know about. And listen, when the scripture talks about premarital sex and when it talks about divorce and when it talks about authority, it also talks about homosexuality. God loves people caught in homosexuality. But let me tell you something about homosexuality in our world today. It is being crammed down our throat that homosexuality is good and normal and natural and people are born that way and it's not a sin, it's like being born left-handed. So you don't repent from being born left-handed.

It's not a sin at all. Man, you're on dangerous, dangerous ground when you do that. The scripture says that if you say we have no sin, and you say we have not sinned, you deceive yourself, 1st John chapter 1, and you call God a liar because God has said that's sin. And as a church, any church that would say homosexuality is normal, it's natural, it's fine, you just be that way, we're brothers, we're sisters, it's no big deal.

You're helping to send that person to a Christless hell. You're keeping them from God. Don't ever do that. Would you do that with adultery? Would you say to an adulterer, "That's all right, that's okay. I know you're committing adultery, but that's all right. I know you're sleeping around, but who cares, that's okay. That's a good thing, that's just the way you were born"? We wouldn't do that. And we dare not do that with that hot button issue.

I want you to see a scripture, 1st Corinthians chapter 6. The Lord says this. See, the big question with issues is not what he says or she says or the media says or Oprah says, it's what does God say. Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, those are people that have sex before they're married, nor idolaters, those are people who let things get in the way of their relationship with God, they have other gods before God, nor adulterers, those are people who cheat on their marriage vows, nor effeminate, that word means to be soft. That's the guy that acts like he's a girl. Nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. I mean, in my Bible, black print on white paper. Could it be any more clear?

Larry Nobles: Pastor Jeff will elaborate a bit more on this in just a moment. But first, in a world filled with noise and confusion, there's one unique platform where God's truth continues to break through, and that is radio. Every day people are driving to work, sitting at home or scrolling through stations when they hear a message they didn't expect and God meets them right there. That's the beauty of radio. It reaches people who may not be looking for him, but desperately need to find him. And he's there.

And even today it remains one of the most effective, cost-efficient ways to share the life-changing message of Christ. From His Heart has been broadcasting the daily messages of Pastor Jeff on radio for over 20 years. And it's been possible because of the support of our listeners who are blessed by the teaching and care about others receiving that blessing as well.

This month, for your gift to From His Heart of any amount, we'd like to say thanks for your gift by sending you Pastor Jeff's new three-lesson series, God and Money: What the Bible Says About Managing Money. For your gift today, we'll say thanks by sending you God and Money. It's available on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or an MP3 download. To get your copy, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-402-4253) or go to fromhisheart.org. And thank you for making it possible to reach people across this nation and around the world with the real truth of God's word. We are eternally grateful for you. Now let's return to close out today's message from the series Modern Family. The lesson is called, "Are You Building on a Cracked Slab?"

Dr. Jeff Schreve: What does God say about those sins? They're sins. Not the unpardonable sin, but they're sins. Fornication is a sin. Adultery is a sin. Homosexuality is a sin. All of those are sins. And he goes on to say to the Corinthians, "And such were some of you." You were adulterers, you were fornicators, you were homosexual. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I don't care what the sin, Jesus Christ can forgive, he can wash white as snow. The blood of Jesus is stronger than any sin. The only time that a sin can take you all the way to hell is when you refuse to accept what he says about it, when you refuse to repent and turn from sin. And you hold on to your sin, you can hold on to it all the way down, down, down, down, down to the pit of hell. But if you'll turn from it, if you'll do like the prodigal and say, "Hey, I'm coming to my senses," and you turn from that sin, whatever that sin might be, and you come, you'll find a father who loves you, who wants to forgive you.

Right and wrong are defined by God. "Forever, oh Lord, your word is settled in heaven." Isaiah chapter 5, verse 20, a strong verse for our world today. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Hey, make the choice to get your moral standards from God. In your family, you set up your home and you say, "God's word, what God says in this house goes." That's how we are going to calculate our bubble. It's not based on what we think, what we feel. It's what God says. The scripture says in Psalm 119:128, "Therefore I esteem right all your precepts concerning everything; I hate every false way."

Build on the Lord's righteousness and on his justice. Second piece of this foundation is lovingkindness and truth. Build on the Lord's lovingkindness and truth. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Lovingkindness and truth go before you. The word for lovingkindness is used a lot in the Old Testament. It's not used any in the New Testament. But in the Old Testament it's used over and over and over again. It's God's loyal love, God's covenant love with his people.

And one of the things you need to remember about God's lovingkindness, his loyal love, is that it's not based on conditions. It's an unconditional love. God loves people unconditionally. Look at verse 30 and following in Psalm 89. Scripture says God is talking to the sons of David and he says, "If his sons forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. But I will not break off my lovingkindness from him, nor deal falsely in my faithfulness."

I wrote in my Bible on verse 33, "Wow." Man, all that they're forsaking God, forsaking God's laws, forsaking God's judgments. And God says, "I'm going to visit them with the rod, there's going to be consequences to that, but I'm not going to stop loving them. I will not break off my lovingkindness from them." That is God. God has a heart of love for you. I don't care what you've done, I don't care where you've been, he loves you. And God has that kind of love for you. It's unconditional.

What do our homes need today? They need a foundation of love where mom loves dad and dad loves mom, and mom and dad love their kids and they say to their kids, "I don't care what you do, we're always going to love you. Always going to love you." But now notice this. God's love, it's not conditional, but it is inseparably linked to truth. Lovingkindness and truth, they go before God. They just surround God everywhere he goes. His throne is built on righteousness and justice and then before the throne and all around the throne, there's lovingkindness and truth. God's loyal love and truth.

You know, I told you the scripture doesn't use the word lovingkindness in the New American Standard in the New Testament. But there's a different word that's used in the New Testament. It's the word grace. When Jesus came, it says in John 1:14, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Grace and truth. J. Vernon McGee says, "What is grace? It's love in action." Love in action. And the Lord has both grace and truth. He's filled to the brim with grace and truth. Those things are linked.

Psalm 25, verse 10 says, "All the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness and truth." The scripture says that speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ. We're to speak the truth in love. Just as he was full of lovingkindness, full of grace and truth, love and truth, we're supposed to be like that. We're supposed to be like that to one another. We're definitely supposed to be like that at home. Now everybody in this room, you tend to have a problem just as I have a problem, keeping balance between love and truth.

And some of us we fall off that little tightrope, that little beam that you got to walk on, on either one of those sides. Either we become so much truth and not any grace or we become so much grace and not any truth. Randy Alcorn wrote a book on John 1:14, full of grace and truth. And he said this. "If you are all truth and minimize grace, you give people no hope for salvation. I mean, there's no hope for me, it's just you just beat them to death with truth. But if you give them all grace and no truth, there's no need for salvation."

"I mean, why do I need it? I'm great. Everything's just great. It's just greasy grace, it's just there for everybody. You don't have to do anything. God has no standard, just grace." There's no need for salvation. Those things are critical to keep together. He goes on to say this. He paints this picture. He says, "Truth is kind of like this. Suppose you're at a cliff. Truth puts up the guardrail. Truth puts up a sign that says, 'Be careful, there's a cliff here.' That's truth. But truth doesn't help you to drive better. And truth doesn't do anything if you crash. Just says, 'Well, we posted the sign, we put up the guardrail. Too bad for you.' That's truth.

What does grace do? Grace has an ambulance down at the bottom of the cliff and paramedics there, and they're there to help you when you crash. But grace doesn't put up the sign. Grace doesn't put up the guardrail. Grace almost invites you to crash." And that's why you need both grace and truth, love and truth, because those things work together. And we need to hold a balance between those things, and especially at home. Especially at home. That your kids know, man, there're standards in my home, but my mom and dad love me. And they love me enough to tell me the truth.

They're not just going to let things go. They put up guardrails, they put up a sign. And if I crash, they're there with the ambulance and the paramedics. They're doing both. You know, the Bible makes it clear, Proverbs 16:6, "By lovingkindness and truth iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil." How do you get your sins forgiven? By lovingkindness and truth. You gotta come clean. If you don't come clean, you're not going to get your sins forgiven. Both of those things. You come to God's love, God's grace, but you come broken, you come honestly, you come and say, "Lord, this is what I did." And healthy lives and homes are those that walk in love and truth. Those two things. Lovingkindness and truth go before God's throne. Lovingkindness and truth need to be all about who we are.

How blessed, Psalm 89:15, how blessed are the people who know the joyful sound. Oh Lord, they walk in the light of your countenance. If you create an atmosphere in your home that says, "Hey, truth is valued here, and there's grace here and love here and both of those things. And when you mess up, we're going to call you on the carpet, but we're going to trust you and we're going to love you and we want you to be honest with us." That's the way that Debbie and I focused on our parenting. And it worked really, really well for our kids to share with us what was going on, what they were struggling with, where things were falling apart for them. And they didn't try and hide it. They said, "It's safe to share that."

Make your home a safe place. You know, God sits on a throne of grace so you can come boldly before the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hey, maybe you've been a sand-builder for a long, long time. Maybe your home has been built on sand and it's a cracked slab. But you know what? God is a God of grace. He's a God of second chances. He's a God of might and miracle. If you'll come to him and leave the pigsty and come to him and say, "Lord, I want to do it your way and I want to build on your word and I want to build on your ways," he says, "Great, that's what I want for you. Come and let me help you."

Would you do that today? Would you make that decision to say, "Lord, I want to build on your righteousness, on your justice, on your lovingkindness, on your truth. And by your grace, enable me, Lord, to do it."

Larry Nobles: What a powerful message from Pastor Jeff on From His Heart today. Part two of the lesson, "Are You Building on a Cracked Slab?" and it's from the series, Modern Family: God's Wisdom for Today's Families. If you missed part one from last time, you can surely listen to and download that broadcast at fromhisheart.org. Click the "Listen" link on our homepage.

Time's gone for today. I'm Larry Nobles. Thank you for joining us and we have a special engraved invitation from our heart to yours to invite you back on Thursday for the next lesson in Pastor Jeff's series, Modern Family: God's Wisdom for Today's Families. It's a lesson called, "What Every Family Needs." That's when Pastor Jeff Schreve will again speak truth, love, and hope to a lost and a hurting world. And remember that no matter what, God loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more at fromhisheart.org.