In effort to preserve ourselves, we wear an external veneer that nowhere near reflects what is on the inside. God knows what is inside and wants us to have an inside that matches the outside. Where is our focus? Where is our treasure?

A church can serve as a beacon to the community. A church can be a place for family. A church can only succeed, however, when it points to the Salvation of Jesus Christ.

Building our house upon the rock. It is a comparison of how our lives are buffeted by storms. Non-Christians and Christians suffer alike, aka the storms in life. As we are building our houses of faith, we have to remember it is the foundation that determines our survivability, not the location. What is our foundation?

The verse of today's scripture is to be lived our every day. We are to hide God's word in our hearts like that of a valuable treasure. We want it so desperately that we live it in our daily lives.

What we see depends on the 'lenses in our lives'. Do we see people with value around us or do we see them as difficulties?

When we are in a relationship with Jesus Christ, we are made anew. It changes our attitudes, our outlooks and our interactions. If Jesus Christ is not in our lives, we are unwilling to change.

We've had to make adjustments in our lives in a 'post 9/11' world. For a brief time people in the US lived in unity. How do we endure the changes and the challenges of today's disunity? Let your light shine before others. When the world is at its worst, the church must be at its best.

The beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be seen in the confrontation of us with our sins and beliefs. How is it that we became so firm in thinking that being good takes us to Heaven? This message confronts that belief, as well as relates what is truly important.

Oftentimes the difficulties we face are the result of having given in to temptation. God does not force temptation upon us, just as the temptation of eating the forbidden fruit was not thrust upon Adam and Eve. The difficulties of our lives will always be there, but some of those difficulties are that which can be avoided by good decisions.