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It was 15 years ago,
homecoming weekend. We'd been having

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some trouble with one of our
buildings, older buildings, having

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a crack in the wall. Fitzhugh
hall, you know it, Science building.

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And so we hired a structural
engineer to come and to study the

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problem and to see what we
could do, kind of patch it up, do

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whatever. And I got a phone
call. It was late on Friday afternoon.

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And the structural engineer
said, I need to see you today. I

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said, well, you know, it's
homecoming weekend. I'm kind of busy.

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It's four o'. Clock. I really
can't do this today. How about we

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do it next week? He said, no,
I need to see you today. I said,

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well, like right now? He said,
yeah, right now. Wherever you are,

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I will come to you. He came to
my office and he said, you need to

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move everybody out of Fitzhugh
hall immediately. I said, what do

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you mean? We got a few cracks
in the building. It's 125 years old.

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Of course it's going to have
cracks in the building. He said,

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no, that building is going to
fall down. I said, fall down? I see

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the cracks. Yeah, they're bad,
you know, but we've had bad cracks

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before. He said, no, the
building's going to fall down. I

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said, well, we can't move
everybody out right now. We're in

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the middle of a semester. How
about we wait until the end of the

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academic year? We'll make some
plans. Because we had all our coaches

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in there, we had
administrative offices, we had classrooms

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in there, all kinds of stuff
going on. He said, no, you can't

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wait. I said, well, how about
if we wait till the end of this semester

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in December and we'll do it
then? He said, no, you can't wait.

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I said, well, when do you want
them out? He said, Monday, no later.

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He said, the building's going
to collapse and kill somebody. And

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I sat at the football game the
next day and I had my administrative

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team with me, and we made
plans to move 65 people out of that

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building and put them other
places on campus on Monday of that

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next week. You see, what had
happened is that building was 125

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years old. And when they built
that building, they built it on a

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foundation of sand. It did not
go down to bedrock, but there was

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sand that was hardly hard
packed. And because the sand was

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hard packed, the building held
up for 125 years. But we had a water

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leak up on the third floor of
the building that nobody saw that

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was running down through the
walls and it was going into the foundation,

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and over time, it was starting
to erode that sand, and eventually

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that sand eroded so much, it
was bringing the whole building down,

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which eventually we did. Took
the whole thing down, replaced it,

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built it like it's 125 years
old. But we replaced it with a new

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facility built on rock that'll
stay for the next two, 200 years

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or more. You see, a building
can look strong. A building can look

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beautiful. A building can be
functional. A building can have even

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expensive materials in there.
But if the foundation is wrong, the

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entire structure will not
stand up to the test of a storm that

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comes, even if that storm is
only a little water leak that just

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drips and drips and drips.
Jesus at the end of the Sermon on

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the Mount, what we consider
the greatest sermon ever preached

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ended with a parable. And the
parable is a story, you know, well

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about two builders, two
houses, one storm, one success, one

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enormous failure. Jesus tells
this parable right at the end of

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the amazing Sermon on the
Mount that summarizes the whole Gospel

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message and the whole kingdom
message. And out of that, we see

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several things. The first is,
both builders had the same vision.

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They wanted a house. They had
dreams. They had hopes. They had

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desires. They had an outlook
for their life. They. They wanted

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the same thing. They wanted a
life worth living. They wanted a

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home of significance. They
wanted somewhere that was going to

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be theirs. They wanted a place
for their family, a place out of

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which they could build a
career, have meaning, happiness.

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They wanted the same things
2000 years ago that we want now.

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It wasn't any different. They
both wanted stability. They both

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wanted some vibrancy in their
life. They both wanted to live strong.

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They both wanted to stand up
to the test of time. You see, both

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men had the exact same vision.
There wasn't any difference between

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the wise builder and the
foolish builder in what they wanted.

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Second thing that we see in
the Scripture is that both builders

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listen to divine truth. Both
builders listen to divine truth.

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See, Jesus tells us at the end
of the Sermon on the Mount, which

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is the blueprint for how to
live our lives. You know, some people

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say this is. I understand why
they say it, but some people say,

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well, I just can't figure out
the Bible. It's too big. It's too

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complex. I just can't figure
it out, so I can't do anything with

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it. The Bible. Listen to me.
The. The Bible is not difficult to

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understand. If you want to
understand the Bible, don't worry

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about the whole thing right
now. Go to Matthew chapter five,

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six and seven, the Sermon on
the Mount. And that's where Jesus

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summarizes all of his key
teaching in three chapters. You can

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read it in 15 minutes. If you
read it for 15 minutes the rest of

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your life, every single day,
it'll change how you live. Jesus,

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you see in those days preached
the same message many times when

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Jesus was teaching. People
didn't sit around with a notebook

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or a power book and say, I'm
going to take notes and write this

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stuff down. Most of them
couldn't read, most of them couldn't

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write. Paper was nearly non
existent and if you did, you used

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a quill pen and maybe you
could get out five words in a minute

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or two. So that wasn't an
option. So they memorized. They memorized.

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And because they did not have
the ability to take notes like we

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do and to read and to go back
and look at it again, they had a

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gift of memory that we've kind
of lost in our modern day. And so

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these messages of the Sermon
on the Mount were preached that day,

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but they were probably
preached many, many, many times.

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And Matthew, who records this,
memorized that and years later had

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it written down. Well, in the
Sermon on the Mount, at which at

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the end he tells about the
wise and foolish builders, he covers

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23 very specific topics, very
specific topics, three chapters and

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here they are. He talks about
grace, he talks about worldview,

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forgiveness, hypocrisy,
mission for your life, planning,

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money, possessions,
contentment, judgmentalism, discipleship,

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prayer, holiness, anger,
integrity, revenge, love, marriage,

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generosity, religion, self
righteousness, visible fruits, and

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doing unto others. He
summarizes everything that's important

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in the Christian life. In
living in the kingdom of God, remember

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all the other parables. He
begins with that phrase, the kingdom

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of heaven is like, or the
kingdom of God is like. Well, in

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this one he doesn't have to
say that because he just laid out

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the whole thing in all these
topics. And so that is the kingdom

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of God. So if you want to
understand the Bible, don't worry

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about the whole thing for now.
Go to Matthew 5, 6, 7. Learn it,

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study it. That is the
blueprint for how we are to live.

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And Jesus said at the end of
that, you have a decision to make.

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He said, I love you so much
that even though sin corrupted the

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world, I will give my life to
be the sacrifice for you. And I will

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give you, here in these three
chapters, the design of how you are

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built to function effectively.
It's essentially, you know, the instruction

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booklet for how it's Designed
to be lived. Life is to be lived

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like we would for a computer
or some other mechanism. So he says,

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I love you that much that I'm
going to do that for you. And he

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lays it all out. But he also
says, I love you so much that I will

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give you the freedom that if
you don't want to do that, I'm not

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going to force you. You can do
it your own way. And then he says,

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I just want you to know if you
do it your own way, there are going

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to be consequences, and it's
really, really going to hurt. He

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says, in telling this story,
the wise and foolish builder, he

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says, anyone who listens to my
teaching and follows it is wise,

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like a builder who builds on
the rock. So that's what we find

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here. We find that there is a
option. We have to listen and do

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it or listen and ignore it.
You see, because both builders. Excuse

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me, let me go back to that
list again, because that's important.

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Both builders had heard the
truth. And you've heard the truth.

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You've heard it in chapel.
Now, maybe you come to chapel and

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you flip your phone, you try
to ignore it. That's your choice.

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You've heard it in class.
You've heard it from coaches. This

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year in chapel, you've heard
19 messages on the parables of Jesus,

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the core design of how God
designed it. And then you have a

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choice. Jesus said, you can
follow that and be wise and build

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on rock, or you can choose to
do it your own way and build on sand.

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But you will fail. He outlines
what the kingdom of God looks like

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when we live there in the
Sermon on the Mount. Well, the third

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thing we see about both
builders is they both face the same

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storm. Same storm. They lived
in the same neighborhood because

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he said, the same storm came
to both of them. So they weren't

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living in two different
countries. They were both hit by

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the same storm. I want to tell
you something about storms. If you

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don't hear anything else I say
today or all year, I want you to

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hear this storm in your life
is not a matter of if you will have

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a storm. It's only a matter of
when you will have a storm, because

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you will have a storm. Storms
come to all of us. All of us get

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hit, and all of us get hit
hard. And it's just a matter of when,

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not if. We knew we were gonna
have a cyber attack on the campus.

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We didn't know it was gonna be
last week, which it hadn't been.

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Kind of messed up my week A
whole bunch of other people's. But

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we knew it eventually would
come. So three years ago, we began

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planning for that. We began
putting protections into the system

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that weren't there before. We
began restructuring things and separating

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out servers so they couldn't
talk to each other in certain ways.

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We raised our insurance from a
million dollars to $5 million. We

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were prepared building a
foundation for the storm of a cyber

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attack that we knew would come
because it comes to every organization

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and every college in America
gets hit. University Medical center

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got hit three weeks ago,
really hard. Everybody gets hit.

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So we prepared the foundation
and you're going to get hit. You

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are going to get hit.
Sometimes it hurts because I know

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it's going to happen to you.
And I see your faces. I love the

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happy, I love the optimistic.
I love the smiles. I love the hope

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I see in your eyes. I love the
dreams you have. But I also know

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eventually some of you are
going to face a bankruptcy. Some

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of you are going to face a
spouse who walks out on you. Some

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of you are going to face
fraud. Some of you are going to have

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children who rebel, break your
heart. Some of you are going to have

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illness in your family that
totally consumes you. Some of you

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are going to die before I do.
You see, storms will come. It's not

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a matter of if, it's just a
matter of when. And both builders

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face the same storm. So we had
these two builders, same vision for

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their lives. They heard the
same truth and they faced the same

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storm. And that's where the
story deviates, you see, because

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each built a different
character into their life. This is

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where the differences get
radical. A very different character.

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A character that's so
different that Jesus called one of

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them wise and one of them a
fool. Now, in those days, 2,000 years

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ago, using the word fool was
really strong. Really strong. You

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see, in Scripture, wisdom is
the ability to take divine truth

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and apply it. And a fool in
Scripture is not a person who lacks

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information. They're not
stupid. It's a person who does little

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or with the information they
have. And Jesus said, I just preached

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on the Sermon on the gave you
the sermon on the Mount and gave

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you the whole blueprint for
your life. And if you don't follow

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it, you are an absolute fool
because you are going to crash your

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life. It's just a matter of
time. The fool is selfish, full of

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self, short sighted. The fool
is self taught. They think they know

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better than the one who
designed them. The wise are obedient

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to the one who created Them.
You know, there are a lot of people

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who are kind of wishy washy on
their faith and they don't want to

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commit because they get all
hung up on this word obedient. You

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know what obedient means? It
means to be smart, to follow the

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that teaching that Jesus gives
and how we were designed to make

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life productive and happy and
meaningful and abundant. And it's

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a response to love. My kids
aren't obedient to me because they

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always agree with me and see
the bigger picture. I see they're

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obedient because they love me
and they know I want the very best

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for them. Obedience is not
about. God's going to give you a

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list of all the stuff you
can't do, and now life's not going

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to be any fun. You're missing
the point altogether. Obedience is

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finding out how you were
designed to function at the very

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best level and to make that
work and to do that because God sent

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his son as a sacrifice for sin
to restore us to God so we can have

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fellowship and live that life
in the kingdom right now. So each

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of these builders started by
building a very different character.

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One was wise and one was a
fool. And then we see that each built

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a different foundation. The
last really big building we built

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here was a University Village.
We've built some others since then,

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but that one was really big.
And through the years, university

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president, I probably built
about 25 buildings. And the most

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important part of every
building is the foundation. Now,

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you may not know this, but
Jackson, Mississippi sits on top

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of a volcano. The volcano, the
crust of the volcano is where the

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Mississippi Coliseum is. If
you went to Anime Fest this weekend,

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you're sitting right on top of
the volcano. That's where it was.

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And all this area is part of
that area. And so we have what's

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known here as Yazoo clay that
goes down very deep and it moves.

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And that's why it various
things like the front door of my

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house, half of the year it
lines up perfectly. And the other

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half of the year I can't get
it open because the clay moves and

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it moves back, back and forth.
Well, that may work for my little

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house, front porch, but it
sure doesn't work for a big building

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like University Village. So
when we built University Village,

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we had pilings that went down
so deep and they were so expensive

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because unless we could get
them on rock, there is no way that

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building would stand up. And
we spent not only a lot of money

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but a lot of time digging
down, down, down. Foundations are

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Slow work. Foundation building
is not glamorous. Nobody takes pictures

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of foundations, how great they
are. But a foundation in a building

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or in your life and mine
determines everything. You see, sand

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is anything we build our
identity on other than security and

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obedience to Christ. That's
what the sand is. So we say, you

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know, if I succeed enough, I
feel secure. So we build a life built

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on the sand of achievement. Or
if people admire me enough, I must

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be doing well. We build on the
sand of reputation. Or if I'm ahead

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of others, I'm going better
than they are, and I'm more successful

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than they are, I must be on
track, right? So we build a life

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on the sand of command
comparison, or something feels right,

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it must be right. And we build
our life on the sand of feelings.

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Or if the culture celebrates
the kinds of things I do, it must

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be good. And we build a life
on the sand of cultural approval.

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The sand foundations, whatever
they are, have one thing in common.

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They only hold up until the
pressure comes. The foundations of

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your life are poured right
now. Your habits, your convictions,

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your integrity, your
worldview, your spiritual disciplines.

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You see, because it comes down
to this, the direction of your life

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will not be determined by the
storms you face. It will be determined

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by the foundation you build
before the storm arrives. You see,

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our foundations have to be
built before the storms come. As

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I said, I built a lot of
buildings, and so I've learned a

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lot about foundations. And
here's what I know about Cannot pour

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the concrete if it's raining.
You can't pour the concrete if the

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cold front comes through for
the storm. The foundation has to

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be poured when the weather's
good, before it rains. Now you can

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pour it after it rains. And
there are a lot of people in life

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who do that. They mess up so
bad and they crash so hard. Then

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they finally go back and try
to rebuild it. But why wait? But

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you can't do it while it's
raining. It's too late. And if you

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wait till the storm of life
comes to try to build that foundation

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in your life, it's too late.
Well, each experience different results.

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One stood in the storm and one
fell. And Jesus didn't say the house

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just fell down. It said it
greatly fell. A mighty crash. It

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was a total collapse, you see,
because only in a storm is your foundation

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revealed. You don't see the
foundation when it's all going well.

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You only see the foundation
when the storm comes. Now, the foolish

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house stood for a while. It
may have looked strong, it may have

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looked successful. But when
the storm came, it exposed the foundation

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and it collapsed totally.
Jesus is warning us, he's trying

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to warn us that a life built
on popularity or achievement or money

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or reputation or feelings or
peer approval may appear stable,

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may appear attractive. But
when the storm comes, it reveals

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what the founded point, what
the house is built on. And it will

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collapse as long as the sun's
shining. Looks pretty good. But Jesus

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said the rains will come and
the floods will rise and the winds

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will beat against the house.
He said these are major storms, hurricane

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type storms. And when those
storms came, each had a very, very

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different result. Well, the
difference really comes down to a

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decision. It wasn't about
intelligence, it wasn't about opportunity,

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it wasn't about background.
It's a decision to live in obedience

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to Christ. They both heard the
same teaching. One acted on it and

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the other said, I think my way
is better. You see, Christian maturity

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is not measured by what we
know. It's measured by what we do

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with what we know. And that's
what Jesus is telling us. You've

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been at a Christian college
and you've heard all this stuff,

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and if you haven't done
anything with it, I'm sorry, it's

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not my words, but Jesus says
you're a fool because your house

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is going to crash. And what we
do with what we know determines where

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we anchor our trust with when
the storm comes. This cyber attack

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has really pretty much
consumed my life for the last 11

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days now. I think we're on.
I've had an awful lot of nice notes.

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Some of you have written
really nice notes. And I appreciate

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other students, faculty and
others have written really nice notes.

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And people have kind of said
the same thing. They said, thanks

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for keeping us calm in the
storm or keeping us calm during all

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this or sure, lots going on.
But you don't seem worried, and I'll

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tell you I'm not. This thing
could cost us millions of dollars.

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We could lose millions of
dollars over this. You know, it costs

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a million dollars a week to
run this university. It could cost

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several million dollars. We
could lose students. For the last

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11 days. We don't know who's
tried to apply, who said, couldn't

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00:25:36,120 --> 00:25:40,010
get in and said, well, I'm
going someplace else. We could lose

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reputation, we could lose
people's confidence that we know

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how to run a place. I'm not
worried because my foundation is

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built on the rock of Jesus.
This is not my university. This is

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not the Board of Trustees
university. This is not even your

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university. As much as I hope
you'll always love belongs to God.

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And the God I serve is a lot
stronger than a couple of evil guys

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stuck away in a basement
someplace in the world who think

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about nothing every day other
than how to be evil to people they

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00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:27,440
can't see. And my God will
take care of them. I'm not worried

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00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:34,230
one bit. I'm not fun. That's a
lot of work, but I'm not worried.

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Our foundation is strong, you
see, A secure life is built long

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before the storm arrives. I
could not feel that way if I waited

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till the storm came and then
tried to sort all that out. I've

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lived that way for years and
years and years because the foundation's

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strong. Jesus sends a sermon
on the Mount with this decision.

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It's not a theory, it's not an
idea. It's a decision. When he finished

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the sermon on the Mount, he
didn't ask the crowd, well, what

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do you think of what I taught
you? No, he asked him, what are you

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going to do with it? You see,
everybody builds a life. You're building

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one right now. The question is
not whether you're building the.

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The question is, what are you
building on? Because someday, a storm

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will test the life of every
single person in this room. Pressure

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will come, loss will come,
injustice will come. Hurt will come

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that will crush you. And when
that moment arrives, the strength

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of your life will not come
from what you intended to do. Yeah,

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I'm going to get right with
God when I just finish. No, it won't

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come from what you intended to
do. It will come from what you actually

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00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:15,080
built. So hear the words of
Jesus and do something. Build your

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life on them. Build it before
the storm arrives. The storm doesn't

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determine whether or not the
house stands. The foundation does.

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It wasn't the house that
weathered the storm. It was the foundation.

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The foundation of your life is
a choice. Jesus said, if a storm

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hit you today, would you hold
steady? If you're building your foundation

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on the rock of Christ Jesus,
then our benediction verse is a prayer

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00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:08,000
of confidence. Let's say it
together one last time to end this

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00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:13,800
academic year of chapel. No
eye is seen, no ear is heard. No

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00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:18,320
mind is conceived, but God has
prepared for those who love Him.

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Thank you for listening so
well all the way through the year.

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I really have enjoyed this
time. I've learned a lot about the

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00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:28,600
parables. It's been a great
time, and I hope they've spoken to

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you. God bless.