God is my Rock: Jesus is my foundation

This week I started a sermon series on God is my Rock.
Israel is a land of rock.  Barren hillsides, dry wadis, stone mountains and a few lush valleys make up the nation.  Rocks in the largely treeless nation are important.
They are used as sign posts, signs of rememberance, land markers, burial stones and covers.
As Israel learned over its history when troubles and war came, there was safety in the rocky hillside.  These large natural fortresses provided security to the scared people and natural protection.
  God is our rock; He is our firm footing and protection.  He is security, a protection when storms arise and troubles come. 
The scripture was Matt 7:24-29 on the wise and foolish builders.  Both men built on level ground on dry ground away from any water.  The wise man dug down deep and built on the rock.  He made a personal decision for Christ and chose to live his life following Jesus.
The foolish man built on sand.  He could not be bothered to dig and built out of convience.  He did not make a decision for Christ but merely attended on Sunday.  He was a listener but not a disciple.
But there was one thing he did not know, he had built on a wadi.  A wadi is a dry creekbed that is level ground full of sand.  In the dry season, it looks like desert but in the rainy season, it is filled with flash floods, torrents of water.
When the rainy seasony hit, both of these houses were hit.  The rains came down and the floods came up.  The house on the rock stood firm.  The house on the sand collapsed and its destruction was complete.
 Like these men who both faced the wall of water and rain, we do not know what the future will bring but only a life built on the rock will stand.
All of us will face storms and troubles in our life.  There is a choice involved we can live for ourselves or we can live for Jesus, taking him as our foundation as our rock. 
We ended with a song on Christ the solid rock I stand http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQgD_Wg9DG4