SPEAKER_00: Before we get going, I just want to pray for us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Dear Lord, I thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, that we're just able, Lord, to just operate in that space of freedom this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, where collectively we can stand together, Lord, and sing.
SPEAKER_00: We praise your holy name.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, as I just open your word this morning, I pray, Lord, that you would just open our hearts, Lord, to hear from you.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning, church.
SPEAKER_00: So here we are.
SPEAKER_00: We've spent 10 weeks going through the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: And we've covered a lot of ground.
SPEAKER_00: Has everybody been here for every single part of that or not?
SPEAKER_00: You would have been in Dover and Deal at 4 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: to to get every single part of that.
SPEAKER_00: Katie, I think, is the only one in the room.
SPEAKER_00: So we have covered right from the very beginning.
SPEAKER_00: We've been with Jesus in the Beatitudes.
SPEAKER_00: We've then covered salt and light.
SPEAKER_00: We've covered law.
SPEAKER_00: We've covered anger and murder.
SPEAKER_00: We've covered lust, adultery, marriage and divorce, anger, loving our enemies, giving, prayer and fasting, money and worries, and a few more that just come in chapter seven.
SPEAKER_00: But today we arrive at the very end of chapter seven.
SPEAKER_00: And just before we get there, um Jesus begins to just speak to two of everything.
SPEAKER_00: And he speaks about the narrow and the wide gate.
SPEAKER_00: He then goes on to talk about the good and the bad tree and the fruit that they may or may not produce.
SPEAKER_00: And then he he talks about the two claims that those who may know him or those who may claim to know him.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, today, church, we find ourselves right at the very end where Jesus almost concludes what he's been talking about for three days.
SPEAKER_00: We find ourselves in the parable of the wise and foolish builders.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Scott tasks this to myself, and I'm not too sure which one of those I fall into this morning, so he's obviously got some sort of identity for me.
SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, the wise and the foolish builders, we're reminded that we have two choices.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to read the scripture to this to this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you have your Bibles with you, if you can turn to Matthew chapter 7, and it's verses 24 to 29.
SPEAKER_00: It may come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said this, therefore, anyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on rock.
SPEAKER_00: The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house.
SPEAKER_00: Yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
SPEAKER_00: But every one who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
SPEAKER_00: The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teachings, because he taught with one who had authority and not as teachers of the law.
SPEAKER_00: You know, as I've already said, it is believed that the whole of the Sermon on the Mount was three days worth of teaching.
SPEAKER_00: And I just thought in my preparations, I thought, wouldn't it be good if we could almost imagine ourselves there on that hillside near the Sea of Galilee, amongst a huge crowd of people, for three days.
SPEAKER_00: People were going back and just wanting to hear what it was that Jesus had to say.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe today we can feel like we're just sort of part of a crowd.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we can feel like we're on a return visit back to church this morning and we're just part of a crowd that come here and gather and listen to somebody who speaks on a Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_00: Just to unpack a little bit from the scripture, it would appear from the text that probably both the men that Jesus is referring to initially set out to build well.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't explain too much, but maybe externally the appearance of both houses maybe looked absolutely fine.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe side by side the houses almost looked identical.
SPEAKER_00: But in the text, I know that Jesus really wants us to know what separates the houses.
SPEAKER_00: You know, as I was preparing this, I was thinking we're we're actually just the kings of curb appeal today, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: We just absolutely know how to make things look good from the outside.
SPEAKER_00: We can glam it up, we can paint it up, we can put things on it, and it can just look so good.
SPEAKER_00: We are the kings of curb appeal.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus seems to really hone in on something this morning, and the two things really are the foundations, and then subsequently the results, the outcomes of the storm.
SPEAKER_00: Years ago, when um when one of our older children were younger, Charlotte and I, we went and did some shopping for them for some presents at BM.
SPEAKER_00: Most of you in the room would know, do you know BM bargains?
SPEAKER_00: So Charlotte and I went there and we did some some shopping and we we bought some toys and they all looked amazing and all the rest of it.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm pretty sure this was Christmas time, and I think by the time these toys were tried and tested, probably only for about half an hour.
SPEAKER_00: I think you know some of you know where I'm going with this this morning.
SPEAKER_00: What was left was like not what we started with.
SPEAKER_00: And um, to my confession this morning, and I'm sorry if it offends anybody, but I renamed that shop Broken in Minutes.
SPEAKER_00: I still say to this day, is that from Broken in Minutes?
SPEAKER_00: I need to know where we're going with it.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to look at this morning the first bit what Jesus says, and I'm gonna just use a little bit from the NLT version this morning, but Jesus uses the word listen, and when he gives the first example, he says, the man listens to my instruction, and you know there's a big difference between listening and just hearing.
SPEAKER_00: You know, listening means that we focus, listening means that we pay attention, listening means that we want to engage our minds and understand the meaning behind what is being said, listening with intentionality because real listening leads to action.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says that the wise man he listened to my instructions.
SPEAKER_00: The opposite to that, really, or another version of that is just hearing, and in the just hearing, we're surrounded today by noise, we're surrounded by so much that's going on around us where we just hear things, it's going on, it's not really going in, it's just going on, it's a noise in the background that's just happening.
SPEAKER_00: When we're hearing things, it's just reaching our ears.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder, even in environments of our life, as maybe Christians, that we purposely carve time out for, like church, like our life groups, like coming to encounter, are we just hearing a noise?
SPEAKER_00: And when I said I wanted us to imagine ourselves there with Jesus in that three-day sermon, I wondered by the third day whether we were coming because we really wanted to hear the truth that we could apply to our lives, or whether we was coming on the third day, and by then we're a bit tired and we're a bit weary, and we're just listening to what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a bit of a noise, it's just a bit of a sound.
SPEAKER_00: Someone's talking, it's not really going in, it's just going over.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder, Sean, if there's a danger of that when we come to church without even realizing it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm so pleased to say this morning that this church is growing week upon week upon week.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, as the church grows, the crowd can grow, and we can get lost, and we can just turn up and we can just hear what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: But are we really listening?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I want you to listen.
SPEAKER_00: The wise man listens to my words.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing is apply everyone who listens to me and puts what my words into practice, putting them into action.
SPEAKER_00: Church, we are the information generation.
SPEAKER_00: We are living in a day and an age where we are having information thrown at us quicker than we can even keep up with, it's coming at us at such a rate of knots.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, in the listening to the correct information, that leads us, hopefully, as Christians, to application.
SPEAKER_00: You know, application then hopefully leads to transformation.
SPEAKER_00: And then I want to look at a third thing this morning, which is what are we being anchored to?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe today we're left asking ourselves why every time a storm brews in our life, why every time the wind blows and the water seem to rise around us, everything just seems to come crashing down.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe today God is whispering into your life and reminding you again that He has prepared the bedrock for you, that this is already in place, that even before you in your own life and your own efforts try and even lay another brick in vain, before you even begin to start to try and plan again, before you waste any more time, any more energy.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps Jesus wants to say to you today that I am the foundation of your life, that He has prepared every instruction for us, that He has prepared the plans and the speck, as it were, for all that you need.
SPEAKER_00: Are you listening to me?
SPEAKER_00: says Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You know, both of those examples in the text show that we are gonna face storms.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever we think we find ourselves this morning, whether we think we are the wise builder or whether we feel a little bit like a foolish builder, we are gonna face storms.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have things that come against our situations, our families, or even us personally.
SPEAKER_00: And church, metaphorically speaking, this morning, you know, when the storm hits, trust me, it's too late.
SPEAKER_00: If we've been building on sand to rush out there and start to try and underpinn.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't say, wait for the storm to hit and then begin to add me where you see fit.
SPEAKER_00: He's not an additional component we screw on.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I want you to begin with me.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to start with me, I want you to start right with me.
SPEAKER_00: Many a time in my life, personally, I've found myself searching for Jesus and searching for something solid when the storms hit.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 28 says they were amazed at his teachings.
SPEAKER_00: Church, I need to say this morning, the foundations are already in.
SPEAKER_00: How many times have you heard that from a friend who's perhaps having an extension or having some building work doing?
SPEAKER_00: You know, people get excited about that stage of the build.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, the foundations are in.
SPEAKER_00: We're ready to go with everything else.
SPEAKER_00: The foundations are in.
SPEAKER_00: We can sort of start now.
SPEAKER_00: Over the course of my Christian walk, I've not only had the privilege of talking to my own children, but I've spoken to many young people who are perhaps sons and daughters, even from our friends, and I just feel like I need to speak to this this morning, but and maybe a lot of these aren't in the room because youth is on this morning, but teenagers and young adults, I hear this often, and I almost want to speak against it this morning, that youngsters, you know, they youngsters that have been brought up in a Christian home, sometimes they say they don't feel like their testimony is valid.
SPEAKER_00: They don't feel like their testimony is powerful enough.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes these conversations come up when we start to maybe talk about baptism and explore baptism with them.
SPEAKER_00: They've they've heard men and women stood on this stage and talk about absolute transformed lives.
SPEAKER_00: And praise God for those, right?
SPEAKER_00: Hear me correctly this morning, absolutely praise God for those.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to say this morning, praise God for those lives of those youngsters that have been brought up in families where mums and dads and nans and granddads have instilled truths and they've shared the truth of the Bible with their children.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, come on.
SPEAKER_00: Honourable people from this congregation that have instilled truths into young people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: And if they're not in the room this morning and you're related to them, share this with them, encourage them in their testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Their testimony is absolutely valid and absolutely powerful because Jesus wants those truths to be spoken out.
SPEAKER_00: All our lives are different.
SPEAKER_00: There is a transformed life, there is a prodigal son where Jesus came and cleaned a man up and set him free, but there is also that journey where youngsters have been building their lives on foundational truths of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Share it with them, share it with them.
SPEAKER_00: When I was 23 years old, I discovered the bedrock of my Saviour.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture said the fool's mind it thinks and says it can produce the same results by cutting the truth out.
SPEAKER_00: When that storm hits, Jesus says, All will be washed away.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I feel it's right to just share as well this morning that wherever you find yourself listening to me, we serve a God of a second and a third and a fourth chance.
SPEAKER_00: But this is a fresh chance, this is a brand new beginning.
SPEAKER_00: God is too big, God is too perfect, God is too great for us to just when the storm hits, try and pick him up, try and nail a bit of him on, try and inject just a little bit of his rock.
SPEAKER_00: God is far too good for that.
SPEAKER_00: God says, actually, we're gonna start again because I'm the God of second chance, I'm the God of the third and the fourth chance.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter, it's all gone wrong.
SPEAKER_00: All that's gone before is all in vain.
SPEAKER_00: Let that go.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start again.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start again, church.
SPEAKER_00: There's a question hanging over us today.
SPEAKER_00: What are we anchored to?
SPEAKER_00: And just as I come to a close, I want to read this scripture from you, and it's found right at the very beginning of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: In the book of John, verses 1 to 5 in chapter 1, it says this In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
SPEAKER_00: He was with God in the beginning, through Him all things were made.
SPEAKER_00: Without Him nothing was made that has been made.
SPEAKER_00: In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
SPEAKER_00: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a song we sing here at one church, and it says this, I'll take you at your word.
SPEAKER_00: If you have said it, I'm gonna believe it.