Is Your House Built On The Rock Or On The Sand?
Matthew 7:24

    Jesus closes the entire sermon with an illustration about building a house. It is, or so it seems that it should be common knowledge that before one wants to build a house he should plan out such an endeavor. First of all, he needs the finances to buy the material necessary for building that house. In this case all one needs is a Bible and a good dictionary with the ability to read and look up new words. If he can't read, there exist tapes and CD's that have the entire Bible on them. If he does not have the finances to get the tapes, then he can certainly look for someone with the ability to read or with the money to pay for the tapes or CD's and listen. Next as he goes through the Bible, and hopefully he will do it with someone else, he needs to pay attention to the particular principles and the kind of behavior God wants us to display toward him and toward his neighbors, and he must take it seriously. The better he pays attention to and obeys the principles taught within the Word of God the better his foundation will be built upon that Rock of salvation, which is the Word. Moreover; in order to strengthen his foundation he must read the Bible daily and think about it constantly throughout all his life. On the other hand, someone who just passively reads through the Word, or does not take it seriously, will be building his house on the sand, and when difficult times come his house will collapse, thus his foundation of faith will be destroyed. This can happen various ways.  For example if persecution from others comes along over the Word, or from the teachings of apostates, or from hardships in general that all people experience, good and bad. Building ones house on the Rock of salvation then is unfailing belief in Jesus Christ.

Luke 14:25-33 GNB Once when large crowds of people were going along with Jesus, he turned and said to them, 26 "Those who come to me cannot be my disciples unless they love me more than they love father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and themselves as well. 27 Those who do not carry their own cross and come after me cannot be my disciples. 28 If one of you is planning to build a tower, you sit down first and figure out what it will cost, to see if you have enough money to finish the job. 29 If you don't, you will not be able to finish the tower after laying the foundation; and all who see what happened will make fun of you. 30 'You began to build but can't finish the job!' they will say. 31 If a king goes out with ten thousand men to fight another king who comes against him with twenty thousand men, he will sit down first and decide if he is strong enough to face that other king. 32 If he isn't, he will send messengers to meet the other king to ask for terms of peace while he is still a long way off. 33 In the same way," concluded Jesus, "none of you can be my disciple unless you give up everything you have.