Jesus uses this easy-to-understand yet profoundly vivid picture to direct us in building the right foundation for our lives. You can have two houses, but the one with the strongest foundation will outlast the one with weaker underpinnings.

Likewise, you can have two people, two churchgoers, if you will. They dress similarly, live in the same neighborhood, speak the same language, carry the same Bible, and maybe even sing the same hymns with the same enthusiasm. Yet, there's a distinct difference between them. One actually hears and internalizes the good news of Jesus. The other, if he or she even hears the Word, fails to acknowledge it in his or her life.

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The former is building a life founded on the rock that is the Word. The latter leads a life as insubstantial as sand, pursuing a self-indulgent and fleeting existence. Amid the tempests of life, which will fare better? And when we enter that ultimate of storms, which of these two lives will be wanting-the life whose foundation is fixed in God, the rock of ages, or the life without foundation?

Building Block #1: The Reality in Jesus Christ

Building your life on the rock is essential, now and forever, if you are to build a life that will last. How do you do that? The first building block is in the reality that is Jesus Christ.

The "therefore" that Jesus uses to begin His illustration of the man who builds his house on rock signals a summation of the points that he has just made. Key among them is the point Jesus makes to the people who will stand before God on judgment day and assume that past actions alone will be sufficient for entry to heaven: "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'" 5

To these, Jesus tells us, he will say, "I never knew you; depart from Me." 6

His choice of phrases here is interesting. To know someone in the biblical sense suggests an intimacy akin to marriage. So Jesus is telling us that access to heaven hinges upon us really knowing Him through a deep personal relationship that, in turn, makes Him know us. It's one thing to say, "I know Jesus," and another to say that He knows you. The latter is crucial.

We live in a celebrity-crazed time, where fans assume that they know their favorite stars. People go gaga over what these famous people wear and eat and say and do. And many write to their favorite celebrity. Well, you may know a lot of superficial things about your star, but the star hasn't got a clue who you are. So don't expect return mail. You're just another crazed fan.

In the same way, there are a lot of people who claim to know Jesus. Simply knowing His name, however, without committing to a deep personal relationship with Him does not mean that He knows your name. A person whose life displays the reality of Jesus and the Christian faith as preached and proclaimed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is far different from the anemic Christianity often preached and proclaimed in some churches today.