The Sabbath-Rest for Christians — Zac Poonen

The Church as an Embassy of Heaven

We know that there are two kingdoms and the devil is called the ruler of this earth. The church is a little pocket of the kingdom of God in this foreign kingdom of this earth. It's just like an embassy.

You know another country has an embassy in this country. The people who run that embassy are not citizens of this country. So we got to see the church like an embassy of heaven on earth. And everyone who really recognizes his calling as to be a part of the church must see himself or herself as an ambassador for Christ to represent his foreign country adequately.

If an ambassador does something stupid or foolish or evil, it brings a bad name not only to him but to his nation, to his country. Think of any country who's got an ambassador here. You know people are watching carefully.

Every word they speak sometimes an ambassador of a big country may speak one wrong word or a foolish word. And it's in all the newspapers the next day. I don't know how many Christians take their calling seriously.

Spiritual Growth and Growing in Grace

Most of the Christians I have met are just playing the fool with Christianity. Even the good ones. And I find in them when I see many good believers, ten years later they are the same. And that's pathetic.

Ten years later. Imagine if you asked a child who's five years old, how old are you? Five years old. Son, which class are you? First standard. You ask him ten years later, how old are you? I'm 15 years old.

Which class are you? First standard. That's pretty serious. Even if he's in second standard or fifth standard, it's serious. But many Christians, in fact I'll tell you most Christians I have met, they are in pretty much the same class as they were when they were first born again.

It means you're not growing. And the reason is that they have not got grace. And I don't think they get grace because of another reason behind it. The Bible speaks about growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let me show you this verse in 2 Peter, verse 18. Grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And the previous verse, it says, don't be carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your steadfastness.

I'm sure you've read these verses many, many, many times. What does it mean? If somebody were to ask you, some new believer comes to you and says, brother, sister, you've been saved many years. Can you please explain this verse to me?

What does it mean to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ? It's very important. I believe the reason why many believers are in the same condition all the time, they were good believers 20 years ago, they are good believers today.

Can you think of something that you have overcome in your life which you were defeated by two years ago? That's something you can think of right now. Think of something you were defeated by two years ago, but you have overcome by the grace of God today.

And then think of something you were defeated by 20 years ago, like anger, and you're still defeated by today. Do you feel that serious? If you're defeated by pornography or lusting 20 years ago, and it's just the same, pretty much the same today, there's no improvement.

I'm not talking, asking whether you reach the mountain peak, but is there some improvement? That's growth. If there isn't, and you don't take it seriously, I'll tell you, you'll be the same another 20 years.

Not just the same, it could even be the possibility that you'd lose your salvation and not even know it. It's a wonderful thing to know ourselves the way God knows us. And I believe that God will reveal that to those who are desperate.

Seeing Ourselves in God's Light

I have many times desperately cried out to God and said, Lord, I want to see myself as you see me. Not the way people see me, not even the way I see myself. Because I could deceive myself. Other people only see 1 of my life.

They don't know anything about my life. Most of you know only 1 of my life. How can you give an assessment on that basis? So that means nothing. I know about 10 of my life. So I know more than you, 10 times more than you about my life.

But I still know only 10%. That's pretty humbling. That I can think I'm spiritual when I'm not. I can think I'm humble when I'm not. I can think I'm growing when I'm not. So it's a wonderful thing if we can come to God and say, Lord, let your light shine upon us.

That's why I've often said the greatest blessing God can give us is to give us light on ourselves. That we see ourselves. Because then he can make us more like Christ. The first step in any progress is to know ourselves.

See in the light of God. Not like psychologists say, look into yourself. But come into the light of God. And whenever you come into God's presence, you'll see yourself. Every man in the Bible you read, they came to God's presence, suddenly the light was so bright they fell down and John says at the age of 95, I fell like a dead man before the Lord.

I want to ask you, have you ever in your life, many of you have been born again many years, have you ever in your life even once fallen before the Lord like a dead man? Say, oh God, I'm a filthy sinner.

That's happened to me many times. I believe that's one mark of the fact that you know the Lord. Please take it seriously. You can't manufacture it. You can't go and sort of lie down and say, oh Lord, I'm nothing.

It's not that. It comes as a result of a revelation from God. All of a sudden, it hits you how holy God is. And how rotten and nothing you are. That's the first step to growth. And if we that, I don't think we can bear it every day.

But once in a while as God shows us that we grow spiritually. We see ourselves. So I want to help you towards that. See the Bible also says, Peter says in his previous letter, 1 Peter 5 and verse 5, that God gives his grace to the humble.

So if we want to grow in grace, we got to grow in humility. Because the more humble you are, the more grace you get. It's directly proportional. The amount of grace you get in your life is directly proportional to your humility.

Not how humble you think you are or how humble other people think you are. But how humble God thinks you are. That's the only evaluation that matters. How humble God thinks you are. I want to know. And this is an area where we can very easily deceive ourselves.

I think most of us sitting here would imagine that we're pretty humble. But through the years, I have found that if I'm humble, I'll get grace. And if I get grace, I get victory over sin. If there's any sin that you're defeated by, even once, it means at that moment you didn't get grace.

Face it. Because the Bible says in Romans 6, 14, sin shall not have dominion over you. If you're under grace. At that moment, you were not under grace. That's why you were defeated. Because is it possible that sin is more powerful than God's grace?

That is impossible. The Bible says where sin reigned, grace reigned even more. Grace is definitely stronger than any lust. Any lust. The worst. Take the worst. Grace is stronger than that. And you can't say that I got grace and I still got defeated.

That's a contradiction. That's like saying I painted white on the wall and it turned out black. How can that be? Look at your paint tin again. It's probably black. So if you were defeated at that moment, you didn't get grace.

And at that moment, you were proud. That's why you didn't get grace. Because grace is automatic to humble people. It's like saying you don't have to coax water down to the lower level. Water automatically flows.

You don't have to coax it. Say, come on, come on. It just flows. And God's grace is automatic even if you don't ask for it. He'll give you grace because that's a promise. God gives grace to the humble.

It's automatic. Like water flowing down to the lowest place. So, one of the tests for myself, I have taken this very seriously. To know whether I'm really humble for myself, not for other people. And for yourself.

Christ's Yoke and the Rest of the Soul

Is the test Jesus gave us in Matthew chapter 11. And I want to encourage you, dear brothers and sisters, to take this seriously. Because it can change your life, revolutionize your life, if you take it seriously.

Matthew chapter 11, verse 28 and 29. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. There is a close connection between humility and rest. Inward rest. We saw that it's only the humble who receive grace. And I'm desperate to get grace to grow.

And I need to be humble before God to get that grace. And the only way, one of the ways anyway, by which I can know I'm really humble, is that my heart is at rest. Whenever there is agitation in the heart, it's an indication we're not humble right then.

There's something we're proud about. And that's why that agitation has come. Maybe somebody rubbed you the wrong way and you thought too much about yourself. Your reputation was affected. Your children's reputation was affected.

And you got agitated. Or you heard somebody say something about you or your children. And the opinion of human beings was so important for you. You worship the opinion of people, naturally you get agitated.

God's trying to tell you, you're not worshipping me. You're worshipping the opinion of people. You deserve to be agitated. Because you're an idolater. An idolater is one who worships someone other than the true God.

And the Lord is saying to you in that situation, you are worshipping the opinions of people. When they were good, you were at rest. When they were bad, it upset you. Why does God allow it? To deliver you from that idolatry of the worship of others.

People's opinions. If you were humble. If you say, well, Lord, I'm a nobody. And like Tozer used to say, it's one of the favorite words. It comes to me many times when people say something good about me or praise me.

The words of Tozer come to me. Where he says, and Lord, and when you permit people to give me honor. Let me not forget in that moment. That I'm not worthy of the least of thy mercies. And that if people knew me, listen to this.

If people knew me as intimately as I know myself. They would not give me that honor. They would give it to somebody else. Say that when people praise you. And when somebody says something that makes you think you're great.

Isn't it true? If people knew you as well as you know yourself. Do you think they would honor you? If they knew every thought that went through your mind. 24 hours a day. Do you think they would come with that honor?

They come with that honor because they don't know. What all goes through your mind and heart. So it's good for us to humble ourselves. Before an almighty God. Who knows everything. And goes through our minds.

It's people who have known these truths. That people like Tozer knew. That made them great in the eyes of God. And the reason why people like Tozer discovered those truths. Was because the man was a worshiper.

A true worshiper. Not one who just came on Sunday morning. And sang a few songs in the meeting. That's not worship at all. That's just praise. Worship is something totally different. You got to do it alone before God.

And God is everything to you. And his opinion is the only opinion that matters. You're a worshiper of the true God. When somebody else's opinion also matters. You're a worshiper of two gods perhaps. Jesus Christ and this other fellow.

Whose opinion matters to you. And I'll tell you this. Most Christians I have met are idolaters. And the sad thing is. In many non-Christian religions they know they are idolaters. There's hope for those who know they are sick.

There's less hope for those who are sick but don't know it. There's less hope for those who are idolaters and don't even know it. But I'll tell you this. If only God's opinion mattered to you. And if God was the only one you worshipped.

Your heart would always be at rest. That's the mark of a humble man. He knows he's a nobody. He doesn't imagine he's a somebody just because somebody says he's a somebody. He doesn't imagine he's holy because people think he's holy.

People appreciate him, praise him. But it doesn't even produce a flutter in his heart. And this is one of the things which God has been speaking to me through many years. You don't arrive at this place overnight.

This rest. You know, way back in the beginning, right in the... Yeah, before I get there, let me show you here. Jesus said, learn from me. Learn from me. For I'm gentle and humble. And then you will also get the same rest in your heart that I have in mine.

Jesus' life was one of continuous rest. People would tell him, there's a storm. The boat's going to sink. Oh, it's okay. I have a father in heaven. He knew about the storm before I ever got into the boat.

It's okay, we'll take care of that. Or someone else comes in, go away from here. Herod's trying to kill you. He says, go and tell that fox, I'm going to do miracles today and tomorrow and the third day I'll be perfected.

He was never in a panic. He was wise, he was cautious. In one place it says in John 7 verse 1 that he didn't go to some... Go didn't go somewhere because they were planning to kill him. But a little later in the same chapter it says he went there because the Lord led him to go.

The father. And Jesus said, learn from me. Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. I see in Jesus a life of perfect rest. And I've seen very few believers in my life whom I can follow in that area who are always at rest no matter what happens.

You never see them agitated in turmoil. Things go right, things go wrong, it's all the same because their hopes and thoughts are anchored on things above and there's no disturbance there in heaven. It's only the things of earth that can disturb us and if you've got something, some attachment to things of earth then you'll be disturbed frequently.

Being Disturbed by What Disturbs God

Jesus was disturbed with the things that disturbed God. I do want to be disturbed with the things that disturb God. For example, when people make money in the name of religion. And Jesus saw that in the temple.

He was terribly disturbed. Because that disturbed God. But I'm amazed how so many Christians can watch Christian television and all these Christian preachers claiming to represent Jesus Christ and begging for money.

And Christians watch that and they're not disturbed. That amazes me. I said, they're not in fellowship with Christ. I mean, that disturbs Christ all the time. But these Christians who watch it, oh brother, you should have heard that message.

But did you hear what he said in the last one minute of the message? He was begging for money. Doesn't disturb them. They are not in touch with Christ. And these very same people, they'll get up from the television and go somewhere and they hear some bad comment about them, about them and they get disturbed.

Or somebody cheats them and they get disturbed. You can see that such people, their mind is not at all like the mind of Christ. Judas Iscariot was cheating Jesus all the time. Didn't disturb him. But when a few people were making some money in the name of God, that disturbed him.

It's a pretty good test. I ask myself, am I disturbed when I see things that are contrary to the spirit of Christ in Christianity? I see so many things in Christendom which are so contrary to the spirit of Christ.

I see Christians who are living under the old covenant all the time, singing old covenant songs and living an old covenant life. That disturbs God and it disturbs me. But I refuse to be disturbed. If somebody ruins my name or steals my money, that's not going to disturb me because it didn't disturb Jesus.

Sabbath Rest and the Lordship of Christ

Jesus said, learn from me. You shall find rest for your souls. So, in the very next verse, I want you to see this. Matthew 12, verse 1. He went through the fields on the Sabbath. It's very interesting that immediately after he spoke about giving rest to us, verse 29, you will find rest.

Notice these two expressions in 11, 28 and 29. I will give you rest. And I'll tell you something. He's the only one who can give us rest. You cannot produce it yourself. Any rest that you try to produce will only be temporary.

I will give you rest. When you get it from God, it's permanent and it's deep. And you will find rest if you cooperate with me and take my yoke upon you. That means the yoke of the two bullocks. He's the senior bullock, I'm the junior one.

I'm willing to walk in his will, do his will and not my own, not wander off getting rid of the yoke and going my own way. I will find rest. And if I don't find rest, it means I've not taken his yoke. And his yoke is easy, verse 30.

Immediately after speaking about that rest, you read a number of incidents of the Sabbath. There's a connection there. The Holy Spirit introduces a number of events that happened on the Sabbath. Immediately after that, one is the disciples picking grain on the Sabbath day and the Pharisees, no, it was permitted.

The Lord permitted people. You know that Old Testament law was like this. You better not try it today, but the Old Testament law was this, that you walk through somebody's field, you can pick grain, you can pick the oranges from his, or apples or whatever fruit there is, you can pick it.

Don't gather it into a basket. That's not permitted. But if you're hungry, you can go through anybody's field and pick. That's how the Lord taught rich people to be generous. That these poor people, because they're hungry, they want to eat something.

Yeah, that was great. That's because all Israel were brothers. And that's not true in the world today. It's true, it should be true in the church. In the church, we are brothers. And anyway, so it was permitted to pick the heads of grain, but the problem here was they're doing what is not lawful, verse 2, on the Sabbath day.

You can't do that on the Sabbath day. There was no law like that. Well, it's mentioned in the Old Testament that you're not supposed to work on the Sabbath day. And Jesus rebuked them saying, you fellas don't understand the Sabbath.

Didn't David, when he was hungry, go and eat the bread, which the law said must only be eaten by the priests? That was the law. That sacred bread in the tabernacle was to be only eaten by the priests.

And David was hungry. He ate it. And he didn't get killed, showing that the spirit of the law was more important to God than the letter. And he said, I want you to know this, that the Son of Man, verse 8, is Lord of the Sabbath.

And then, verse 10, you read another incident of the Sabbath where they questioned Jesus saying in verse 10, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? Isn't that work? And Jesus said, you hypocrites, if you have a sheep and it falls in a pit on the Sabbath day, will you wait till the next day to pull it out?

Won't you pull it out immediately? So what's wrong in healing a man? Isn't a man more valuable than a sheep? Verse 12, it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath day. So don't work on the Sabbath day doesn't mean you can't help a person.

You can work if it's going to help another person. But don't work to make money for yourself. That's the point. And then he said, stretch out his hand. You know, this disturbed the Pharisees so much, it says in verse 14, it's amazing words.

They conspired against him how they might destroy him. Why did they want to destroy Jesus? Because he broke the Sabbath. And they never understood the real meaning of the Sabbath, which was to find rest in God.

See, even today there are groups, some groups of Christians who teach that you got to keep Saturday without doing any work. And they don't keep it exactly like the Old Testament because you can't even light a fire on the Sabbath day in the Old Testament.

You can't pick up sticks on the Sabbath day. You read in Numbers 15 that a man was killed for picking up sticks on the Sabbath day. So all these Christians who say they keep the Sabbath today are the number one hypocrites because they're not keeping the Sabbath.

They're just making a law to compel other people to live according to them. But I'll tell you what the Sabbath is because it says in Genesis 2. Verse 2. After God had created everything, the seventh day, God completed His work.

And verse 3. He blessed the seventh day because in it He rested. The Sabbath was a day of rest. It was the word Sabbath and rest come right there in the beginning before sin. And remember this which I've often said.

The Sabbath was the first day for Adam. It was the seventh day for God. But it was the first day for Adam because Adam was created towards the end of the sixth day. The first part of the sixth day God created the animals.

And towards the end of the sixth day He created Adam. And Eve almost towards the end of the day. And so they became husband and wife and the first thing God told them was your first day is going to be a day of rest.

You're going to have fellowship with me, both of you, this day. You're not going to work in the garden. You're going to have a honeymoon with me for one day. You're going to be with me teaching man right at the beginning of his creation.

You've got to have fellowship with God first. That's number one priority in your life. And I don't mean just reading the Bible. There are lots of believers who read the Bible even for one hour every morning who don't have any fellowship with God.

They go through a ritual. I think the Pharisees read the Bible for one hour every day. They didn't have fellowship with God. Don't fool yourself that just because you read the Bible every day this excuses you.

No, we're talking about fellowship with God. Fellowship with God is not dependent on reading the Bible. Hearing God's voice is not dependent on reading the Bible. You have to have a clear conscience, a sensitivity to God's voice and you can hear God's voice without even opening your Bible.

You've heard me say this. Here is a holy husband reading his Bible in the morning, studying the tabernacle or something like that. And his wife is struggling with two, three children in the kitchen. And he's saying, oh God, speak to me.

You know what God will speak to him? Shut your Bible and go and help your wife. But does he hear that? No, he's studying about the tabernacle. This is the type of deception that goes on with a lot of people who study the Bible.

They don't hear God. I know God will definitely say to him, shut your Bible and go and help your wife. God says some surprising things. Jesus said some surprising things. He said, what's the use of you trying to keep the Sabbath when your sheep has fallen into the pit?

Won't you pull it out? It's exactly the same. Isn't your wife more important than a sheep when she's struggling with something? So many, most Christians have got this, you know, this legalistic, ritualistic idea of Christianity where they do certain things which cost them nothing.

Do you know it costs you nothing to come to a meeting on Sunday morning? In a country like India where there's freedom. I mean, if you were coming to a meeting in China, I would say, yeah, that would cost you something.

Or in a country where there's persecution. People have asked me, why do you take so long to baptize people in CFC? Whereas in the early church, they used to baptize them the first day. I say, if you were in China and you came to be a Christian, I would baptize you the same day.

Because I know you gain nothing by being a Christian. In the midst of the Jews, if a Jew wanted to be a Christian, when all the Jews hate Christ, I would baptize you the same day. But here in India, a lot of advantages in being a Christian.

Go and ask all the people in CFC. They have prospered financially, they've got brothers to come and help them when they are in need. It's wonderful to be a Christian here. And people may be coming to this church just to listen to a good sermon.

Or to belong to a good church where we help one another. I don't know whether they love Jesus, whether they want to follow the Lord. There could be 101 other earthly reasons for their following the Lord.

There are a lot of people who've been in CFC here for 25 years who've done almost nothing for the church except come to the meetings. And get some help when they are in need or somebody is sick in their family.

I wonder whether they should ever have got baptized at all. That's why we take time. But it doesn't cost us anything to come to a meeting. What does it cost you, tell me, to spend one hour with the Bible in the morning?

It costs you absolutely nothing. A Christianity that doesn't cost us anything can fool us that we are pretty spiritual. So, one way we can avoid deceiving ourselves is by checking, is my heart always at rest?

Testing the Foundation Through Life's Storms

Does the storm shake the house? If the storms of earth are shaking your house even now, can you imagine one day when God himself shakes heaven and earth, what will happen to your house? Jesus said how these two builders built the house.

And if I were to paraphrase those two, you know, it's at the end of the Sermon on the Mount where the foolish man built his house. And if I were to paraphrase it, I would say like the foolish man thought, well, the important thing is what do other people think my house looks like?

I've got to build a house where people really look at it and say it's great. Never mind whether the foundation is good or not. So he spent his money on the superstructure, what people thought. The wise man said, hey, I'm not worried about what people think.

I've got the same amount of money. I can't build a grand house like him because I'm going to spend a lot more blasting the rock for the foundation. He looked foolish in the beginning. But when the storms came, the flood came, you discovered who was wise.

And I'll tell you this, as long as there's no storm or flood in your life, you may look wise. The test of your wisdom is only when the storms of life come. When things go wrong in your house, when somebody is seriously sick, when the money runs short, when you have problems in your work, then you discover whether you're wise or not.

Then you discover whether you're at rest or not. When the doctor gives you a bad report about your sickness and your physical condition, then you'll know whether your house is built on the rock or on the sand.

But otherwise, everything's going smoothly and you're getting a good salary and you've got a good job and everything's going smoothly in your home and you come along and you're respected in the church.

You don't know. So thank God for the little shakings, for the little winds before the great storm comes. Because if my life is shaking now, Lord, thank you for showing me. My foundation is weak. I can set it right now before the great storm and flood come.

I'm not at rest. I'm agitated with little things. So the Lord once told Jeremiah this. If you turn to Jeremiah chapter 12, you know this is one of the big questions that many people ask. It's a question that the psalmist asked in Psalm 73.

It's a question that Job asked. And it's a question that the great prophet Jeremiah asked. In the latter part of verse 1, he says, I want to discuss matters of justice with you. Imagine discussing matters of justice with God.

Why do wicked people prosper? Why do bad people have it so good? And why do these corn artists make such a lot of money? It looks as if you have planted them. They've taken root and they grow. But you know me, Lord.

And it says here in the Message Bible, you don't let me get by even with one single mistake. One single thing. You pull me up immediately. Why don't you make these crooks pay for the way they live? Why don't you drag them off like sheep for the slaughter instead of allowing me to suffer even though I'm such a righteous person?

Look at all these people. They live wicked lives. They have nothing to do with God. The last part of verse 4, they think God has nothing to do with them. You know what God's reply is? God replied, Jeremiah, so Jeremiah, if you get exhausted in running with men, how will you one day run with horses?

I'm trying to train you to be a better runner, to be more spiritual. You're running with a few men and you got exhausted. How will you run with horses? If you can't keep calm during times around you which are not so difficult, what's going to happen when troubles break loose in this country?

Yeah. In a world where relatively you have enough money to live, you have food and drink and shelter and there's no persecution against Christians here and nobody's storming into the church with all their banners and driving people out like has happened in some of the village churches around.

And in such a situation of calmness, you are agitated, you're upset, you get angry. The Lord would say to you, what is your Christianity worth? What's going to happen when the dams break and the floods come?

Are you worried why the wicked prosper and righteous people have it so difficult when bad things happen to good people? You wonder? Didn't disturb Jesus. A lot of bad things were happening to good people around him.

Even John the Baptist was killed. And people like Herod, the wicked Herod, just continued to go strong. I want to tell you something about what's going to happen in the days to come. There are so many people around the world who are disturbed because of the economic shaking going on right now.

People have invested a lot of money in the stock market, have lost a lot of money, 50 of their money is gone. Many people, thousands of people in many countries are losing their jobs. What should be the attitude of believers in these days?

And I'll tell you something. Things may get temporarily better, but in the long run, they'll get worse. And listen to this. In Hebrews chapter 12, it says in verse 26, it's talking about the old covenant days in Mount Sinai when His voice shook the earth.

God spoke in those days, it shook the earth. But now He has promised, Hebrews 12, 26, chapter 12 and verse 26. He says, the promise is now I will shake not only earth, but also heaven. And this expression, once more, yet once more, denotes the removing of all things that can be shaken, which means all created things, so that those things which can never be shaken will remain.

There are two types of foundations on which you can build your life. One is on things that can be shaken, and the other is on things that can never be shaken. That's the meaning of the parable which Jesus spoke about the wise and the foolish man.

Apply it to this verse. There are things that can be shaken, and there are things that cannot be shaken. And you can build your life on one of them. We can use many things in the world, but if you build your life on it, it will collapse one day.

If not today, pretty soon in the future. And it's when you build your life on those things that all the unrest comes in the heart, the shaking. So when you begin to shake because something you read in the newspapers, that's an indication your life is on the wrong foundation, and God's giving you a little warning.

Learning from Small Trials Before Greater Shaking

I remember the days when I used to have a little toss from my scooter. Never hurt anybody, but I scratched a little. Never broke a bone or anything. But I would ask the Lord, Lord, what are you trying to tell me through that?

And the Lord would say to me, it happened to me about maybe three or four times in the years I rode the scooter, and the Lord would tell me that's to teach you to be more careful when you drive. Drive a little slowly.

And that's to protect you from a bigger accident. If you hadn't had this small toss, you wouldn't be so careful. So I said, thank you, Lord, for that small toss, because that protects me from a big toss and a more serious accident.

So, the same thing here, when I find a small little thing happens, and I'm in unrest. Oh, thank you, Lord. Boy, that small thing brought unrest into my mind. How will I ever face something bigger? Lord, I've got to really examine myself and see where I'm building my house.

Is it on the rock? I mean, the floods haven't come yet. It was a little trickle of water that went into my foundation, and the house began to shake with a little trickle of water. Boy, what will happen when the floods come?