A Different Way - Two Foundations - Matthew 7:24-29

What foundation are you building your life on?

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Spiritually speaking, um specifically like learning how to to parent uh kids who I love deeply and uh how God uses them to reveal my areas of growth and how much I need him. And so I've probably learned how to pray better as a dad. Uh I've learned how to press into God's word as a father. Uh I've learned how to uh to learn to listen for wisdom and counsel from other believers as a father. Um and so I'm thankful for that opportunity that God uses that to shape us and grow us. And so um I've only got a couple of my kids in here and in the gathering this morning, but I'm so thankful for them, for all six of them that God's given me. And and uh feel like that they're uh, as Psalm 127 says, they're like arrows in the hands of a warrior. And so my prayer is that um I would faithfully uh love and lead them towards their pip their purpose, their God-given purpose in their lives. Uh, men in the room, we're gonna talk about this today, even as we go through our text, but just challenge you like may we lean in to this role. Uh, we have a culture of people who don't know what it's like to be fathered well. Um we know that there are people that we interact with every single day, and their picture, their image of dad is not healthy, it's not good. And uh and so may we, by God's strength, by God's wisdom, by God's capacity, like love and lead our children well, to serve them well, to minister to them, to be actively engaged in discipling them if we're following Jesus. And so, anyway, um just want to say that to us on the front end. Thankful that you're here, man. And uh thankful for everyone else here as well. And if you happen to be a guest today, uh we're really glad that you're here with us. Um one thing before I get into the message, well, actually, a couple things. Uh, first off, if you did not get a worship guide when you came in, uh, we have some ushers that can give you one of those. And so if you just lift your hand real quick, uh, our usher uh Rick back here would love to hand you one of those. That way you can take take some notes as well as this week. You may want to know how to get more connected, or you may want to know what are some follow-up scripture passages I could read that go with the message we're about to teach that I'm about to teach this morning. Um, the other thing that's going on in the life of our church this week that's pretty significant is that we are sending uh some of our teenagers, I think 17. Is that right, Alex? I don't know, but 17 teenagers that are going to student life camp this week, and they'll be up in the Wichita Falls area. I don't know how many of you guys know where Wichita Falls is. That alone deserves prayer, um, if you know where Wichita Falls is. I used to live near there, so I can say that kind of stuff. But uh but they're gonna be Wichita Falls all week at Student Life Camp. And so here's what we're doing we're inviting the church family to pray for them. Uh here at the stage, right at the at the at the front here, there are some bracelets and they have names of the kids that are going as well as the uh the leaders. Um and so we would invite you at the end of the gathering today to come grab one of these, put it on your wrist. You can grab actually two if you want to or three or whatever. You put one on your ankles, both ankles and wrists. But basically, if you put them on, you've got to commit to pray every day. And as often as God brings them to mind, pray for them, okay? Because we're asking God to do something supernatural. This is not you know superstitious or silly. This is us saying we're gonna pray specifically for God to work in these kids' lives, okay? And so we want to invite you to do that. Uh, we believe God moves when we pray. And uh and so I will be wearing some of those, and four people that are going with that crew are of from my family, so I would love the prayer. That'd be awesome. And uh and I'll be hanging here with the three littles. Um I'm we're gonna do something a little bit different this morning uh with our message on the front end, and we always read God's word. We want to always be uh a church that is centered in teaching from God's word because you don't need pop psychology, you don't need self-help, you need Jesus. I need Jesus, we need God's word. Um, and so that being the case, we're actually gonna do something a little different, and I'm gonna invite all of you. We're not gonna have the words from the text on the screen. I'm gonna invite all of you to grab a Bible, uh an actual copy. You could you could grab, I mean, your phone if you really want to, as long as you don't uh get lost in some text notification. Um but here's let's grab a Bible. Uh there's some around you in the seats if you need one. And then we are going to extend our Bible reading this morning, and we're gonna actually read. Catch this. We're gonna read from Matthew 5 through Matthew 7, okay? So if you have been with us, we've been teaching through the Sermon on the Mount. And what we're gonna do this morning is we're gonna actually read the entire Sermon on the Mount together. Can you do this? I believe in you guys. I believe. Come on. So see some enthusiasm. Uh, we're gonna read this together. Uh, as we've been saying, this is this is the longest, continuous teaching of Jesus recorded in Scripture. Okay? So Matthew is recorded uh in these three chapters this message that Jesus gave on the hillside to a group of people. Um, and and we know that as he gave this message, um, this is a summary of that message that Matthew has written down as he was led by the Holy Spirit to do so. And so this is definitely not the whole sermon that Jesus preached, but it is, uh, as you will see as we read through it, and I want to get going, um, really amazingly profound and insightful and helpful. So, uh, as I said, it's not gonna be on the screen this time. I'm gonna ask you to find something to read it, and then I'm gonna read it from up here, and we're gonna we're gonna work our way through this. And I just want to stop and just pray a brief prayer as we as we do this, because God's word is living and it's active. Okay? God's word is it stands on its own, and God uses it to shape us and sharpen us and to grow us. And so let me just pray a simple prayer of inviting God to teach us through it. Father, right now as we come to this word and we read this extended uh passage together, we would pray that you would just let the words that you want to speak to us uh literally come off the page to us, that our eyes would be uh opened, that our minds would be opened, our hearts would be open. And God, whatever it is that you want to put your finger on today in our lives that needs to change, I pray, Father, that you would grow us as we read these words that were recorded by Matthew of Jesus' sermon on this mountain. And we just pray that you would bless us in your name, Jesus. Amen. Alright, here we go. Matthew chapter 5, verse 1. When he saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to teach them, saying, The poor in spirit are blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Those who mourn are blessed, for they will be comforted. The gentle are blessed, for they will inherit the earth. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed, for they will be filled. The merciful are blessed, for they will be shown mercy. The pure in heart are blessed because they will see God. The peacemakers are blessed, for they will be called sons of God. Those who are persecuted for righteousness are blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. You are blessed when they insult and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It's no good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled on by men. You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Don't assume that I came to destroy the law of the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For I assure you, until the heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, every one who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Fool will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But whoever says you moron will be subject to hellfire. So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift in front of the altar, first go and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Reach a settlement quickly with your adversary while you're on the way with him, or your adversary will hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. I assure you, you will never get out until that you have paid the last penny. You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery, but I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. It was also said, whoever divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce. But I tell you, whoever divorces his wife, except in a case of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman, woman commits adultery. Again, you've heard that it was said to our ancestors, You must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord. But I tell you, don't take an oath at all, either by heaven because it is God's throne, or by the earth because it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem because it is the city of the great king. Neither should you swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black. But let your word yes be yes, and your no be no. Anything more than this is from the evil one. You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you, don't resist an evildoer. On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. As for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, let him have your coat as well. And if any one forces you to go one mile with him, go too. Give to the one who asks you, and don't turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For he causes his son to rise on the evil and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don't even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don't even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore as your heavenly father is perfect. Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of people to be seen by them. Otherwise you will have no reward for your father and from your father in heaven. So whenever you give to the poor, don't sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues, and on the streets to be applauded by people. I assure you they've gotten their reward. But when you get give to the poor, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your your giving may be done in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. I assure you, they've got their reward. But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. When you pray, don't babble like the idolaters, since they imagine to be they will be heard for their many words. Don't be like them, because your father knows the things you need before you even ask him. Therefore you should pray like this Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive people their wrongdoing, your heavenly father will forgive you as well. But if you don't forgive people, your father will not forgive your wrongdoing. And whenever you fast, don't be sad faced like the hypocrites, for they make their faces unattractive, so their fasting is obvious to people. I assure you, they've got their reward. But when you fast, put oil in your head and wash your face, so that you don't show your fasting to people, but to your father who's in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. Don't collect for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and still, but collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don't break in and still. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness? No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money. This is why I tell you Don't worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will wear, what you will drink, about your body, what you will wear. Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky. They don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them. Aren't you worth more than they? Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the fields grow. They don't labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. If that's how God clotes the grass of the field which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't he do much more for you? You have little faith. So don't worry, saying, What will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear? For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Do not judge so that you won't be judged, for with the judgment you use you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but you don't notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, and look, there's a log in your eye. Hypocrites, first take the log out of your eye, and then you will clearly see to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Don't give what is holy to dogs, or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them with their feet, turn and tear you to pieces. Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be open to you. For every one who asks receives, and whoever searches finds, and the one who knocks, the door will be open. What man among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake. If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him? Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also for them. This is the law and the prophets. Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate, and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravaging wolves. You'll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? In the same way every tree, good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can't produce bad fruit, neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn't produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So you'll recognize them by their fruit. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name? And then I will announce to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn't collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the wind blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. And the collapse was great. When Jesus had finished his sermon, the crowd was astonished at his teaching. Because he was teaching like one who had authority and not like their scribes. He made it. When you listen to the words of Jesus in this passage, it's unbelievable. And all the things that he covers. And again, this isn't even all of it. And how he gets to the heart issues, and how he is driving to this point that we're going to talk about again today, that there's only two ways to live your life. There's only two paths, two roads, two modes of operation. And Jesus is clearly pushing the crowd to understand the disparity between those two different ways. He's helping them understand that there is a superficial external way that is very natural and normative for human beings, but there is a new way, a different way, a kingdom way, a Jesus way to live that leads to great things. Life. And when you read and you think about the Bible holistically and why even it's important at times to take a passage and to read it all out in its context, because we've been taking these little pieces, these little slivers here and there, and just try to talk about each one. And of course, they've built, and some of you have been with us through the whole process. Some of you, this is your first day here, and you're like, wow, that's a lot. And so we've been working our way slowly through this passage, and we could have slowed down even more, by the way, because every one of these verses are loaded with great things for us to learn. But when we look at the Bible, what we understand is that God is a God of blessing. Our God that we worship, the God of the Bible, the one who this book centers on, who is the hero of the story, who is the main character, the main figure, is a good God. And he created a good world. He created a perfect world, in fact. It's interesting when you look at the Bible, when you look at the book of Genesis, which is the very first book of the Bible, the beginning, that God didn't start with a world that was broken. He didn't start with a world that was sinful or there was suffering or there were pain, there was pain. He started with a world that was perfect. It was beautiful. In fact, it was a paradise, this Garden of Eden. And yet, what you and I experience every single day is not the Garden of Eden, right? I mean, we get to experience some beauty, we get to experience some good food, we get to experience some good experiences, we get to experience some good relationships. But the truth is, is that much of our human experience incorporates suffering and hardship and difficulty and trial and challenge, right? Am I the only one that feels that? I look around and I see a world that's not perfect. In fact, far from it. I see a world that's dealing with injustice and pain and suffering and challenge on every front. Now, I know in America, because we have money and because we have experiences and opportunity, that we can mask a lot of that. And so you can walk through your neighborhood and feel like everybody's got it together, that they're all just happy and everything's great. But the truth of the matter is that behind every one of those closed doors, there's chaos. And in everybody's life, but behind every one of those faces that we can put on, there's chaos, there's difficulty, there's challenge, there's struggle, there's fear, there's anxiety, there's depression, there's discouragement, there's hardship. And I don't mean to be doom and gloom. I'm just telling you that the world in which we live is not right. But God has always been in the process of redeeming and rescuing and restoring things back to the way he originally designed. That's what he's been doing and working in the earth. And the Bible tells us that story. And so we know that even as we read the Sermon on the Mount, that Jesus is addressing specifically the way that God wants us to flourish. Uh, some of you who were with us when we were early on, we were talking through these um these Beatitudes, and one of the phrases that's there is blessed are those. Uh some translations say, happy are those. Another thing you could say is, thriving are those, or flourishing are those. Our God wants every one of you in this room, all of us here, to thrive and to flourish. He wants that for us. But here's the problem again. When we live life the way we want to live, we will not thrive or flourish. When we choose our own selfish way, when we choose that broad path, we will not thrive, we will not flourish. But Jesus actually addresses how we can. In fact, to flourish is to be in the right relationship on several different fronts. For to be sure. One is God wants us to flourish in our relationship with him. He wants us to actually have a right understanding of him and to relate rightly with him. As I already said, some of us have preconceived notions about God and who he is. When I talk to people, uh, even recently having a conversation with a young man, his picture of God was that God is this mean, evil being in heaven who's just playing really dirty tricks on people. Um, and so he he rejects that. He just says, I can't believe in that if that's who he is. And some of you may walk in and may have like this picture of God kind of just up in heaven, either very distant and disconnected and uncaring about your life, or maybe just um really mean and just allowing things that that that are uh that are hard, that are difficult in your life for no reason, other than just to see a squirm, is to see a struggle. But here's the thing God wants us to have a right relationship with him. And when we have a right relationship with him, that's a foundation for flourishing. In fact, Jesus says we can call him what? Father. It's Father's Day today. It's great. But you know what's awesome as a Christ follower is that we don't just have an earthly father, we have a heavenly father. And this heavenly father is perfect. And we've talked about these things in here, even as Jesus taught us to pray. He taught us, he taught these followers, these ones who were listening in to pray, he said, Our Father in heaven. We have a father, and he wants us to relate to him as a father. In fact, if you listened to the text as we read it, he said, You know, what what situation would you have with a father, an earthly father, where if you ask him for bread, we'd give you a stone. Or a fish would give you a snake. And he says, But if that's how, you know, an earthly father is, imagine how good God is as a heavenly father, right? And so he's saying to relate rightly with God, we will begin to flourish when we see him as a good heavenly father who's actually way smarter than we are. He has more perspective, more perception of what's reality. He sees the whole thing and he loves us deeply, and he wants us to relate with him personally. He's not far off and distant and disconnected and uncaring and unloving. He's actually very loving, very personal for all of us. And so we can relate rightly with him. Not only that, but he wants us to relate rightly with ourselves. Now that might sound a little bit weird, but do we see ourselves rightly? In the Beatitudes, he says in the very beginning, blessed are the poor in spirit. And then follows that up with blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Now, the reason I bring this up is because for many of us in this room, we grew up in the self-esteem movement. You know what I'm talking about? I remember in school talking about self-esteem a lot. I remember hearing people talk about that, and that what we really need is to believe in ourselves more. Much of our current modern counseling is you just need to love yourself more. You need to believe in yourself more. And what I want to say to you is that we need to see ourselves rightly before this good heavenly father. Because some of us feel like we need to kind of puff ourselves up by just talking ourselves up. And so we go into a room or we go into a setting or we get into a conversation and we have to, like we begin to brag, right? Now, some of us even do a humble brag, like we kind of keep it like on, we kind of like try to find a way to sort of get it, but to make ourselves look better because we want to build ourselves up. We want people to approve of us, to love us, to like us, to to enjoy us even. And so we we kind of puff ourselves up, inflate ourselves with words and different things that we can do and accomplish even to try to make ourselves look good to people, be acceptable to people. And then there's others in this room, and I know that some of us don't see it this way, but it's a different form of pride, and that's where we just walk around beating ourselves up all the time. We just don't like ourselves, we complain about ourselves, we cut ourselves down, we we think we're terrible, and we just talk that way. But in both scenarios, what you find, right, is you find people who uh are centering their lives around themselves and how they're perceived. And so humility is not either of those, by the way. And he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit when we understand that before a holy God we are nothing. Even as I was driving over here this morning, I was reflecting on that fact that, God, man, I'm so glad that in spite of the fact that without you I have nothing. Without you, I am nothing. Without you, I can do nothing. That's a good place to be. That might sound weird, but it's actually a good place to be because I can see that in Christ, in God, that's where I can find what I'm really looking for. That's where things get really done. You know, that's where I can find my security and significance and worth and identity, not in me, not in myself. And so what I'd say to us is we begin to relate rightly, we begin to see ourselves rightly, we begin to see ourselves honestly and know that like we don't have to build ourselves up and we don't have to beat ourselves up. We can actually come to Christ and He will give us a right view and a right perspective. And we will begin to flourish from that place because when we begin to see ourselves rightly, our security, we can begin to love and serve and minister to others rather than trying to size them up, compare, compete, judge, whatever we want to do in that way of sort of finding worth and value. We also see in the Sermon on the Mount that we can relate with others rightly. We can relate with others. He says, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And to flourish, we actually begin to treat others the way that we want to be treated. The only way that's possible that I know of is with God's help. Because if not, I'm naturally gonna judge and condemn. I'm gonna I'm gonna feel justified in my lashing out when people lash out at me. I'm gonna ignore people in my life who I just don't feel like are worth my time, not worth my energy. I don't really feel like I've got any common ground with them. I don't really need to interact with them. But he says, treat others the way that we want to be treated. You know what's awesome about that is that we even said this the week that Alex taught on that particular passage, is that that's exactly what Jesus did for us. Right? Instead of treating us like enemies, which he easily could have, he treats us like friends and in fact actually sacrifices himself so that we could become brothers and sisters in Christ. And then we even see, fourthly, that we can relate rightly with creation. We can relate rightly with the rest of creation. That we can uh he talks about moths and rust and how those things destroy. We even see in this last passage that storms come and destroy. And did you know that one day God is going to restore all things and moths won't eat and rust won't mess up and storms won't come. I mean, just look at the world around us and see how nature uh is destructive, it's at odds with humanity. All right? Now, I'm saying all these things this morning because God wants us to flourish, but here's there's a problem. We're not flourishing as a race. We're not flourishing as a people. We are, in fact, in many, many ways the opposite of flourishing, and we're struggling and we're we're we're going through difficulty. And Jesus, through his Sermon on the Mount, is saying, listen, there's a different way, and it's a way of flourishing. It's a path to blessing, it's a path to joy and peace and happiness and what you're truly looking for. So let me not overcomplicate this this morning. We're gonna be brief. Let me not overcomplicate this. When Jesus gets to the end, he says these things. It's as silly to listen to me and not do it as it is to build a house without a foundation. Okay? As simple as we can put it this morning, he says, all the things that I've said, because all of us, even as we were reading this morning, were thinking, I don't know if I like this. I don't know if I like this. I don't know if I like this. And I just want to say to you the same thing that Jesus says to us in these words. It is as silly for us to hear his words and to not obey them as it is to try to build a house without a foundation. Now, I I do not claim to be a construction guy. I've done a little bit, I've learned a few things on YouTube, and I can be dangerous in that way, but I don't really know a lot about construction. But I do understand that if you don't have a foundation, whatever you erect is not gonna be there very long. Right? So if you build something on a soft ground, uh it's not gonna last real long. Uh we we live in a in a place, an area where we got a lot of shifting soil, right? Some of you guys have found that out the painful way. And you've seen foundation cracks, and you've had issues going on in your house. But if you didn't have a foundation at all, like your house wouldn't stand. And it's specifically when a Texas storm comes through, right? When that wind comes blowing, the rain comes pounding, the waters come up. And so Jesus is not giving us some like weird uh cryptic message this morning. He's not giving us this like picture that's so hard, like, Jesus, I don't know what you're saying. I don't know if we can figure it out. Let's dig it into it deeper. He's simply giving us a very vivid and clear picture that if you build your life on anything other than him, it's not gonna last. It's gonna collapse. And when we see this picture this morning, it's Jesus giving us his last final warning from all the things that he's already said in this particular passage, and he's saying, I know you're hearing me, but are you hearing me? I know you're listening, but are you truly listening? And this needs to be said time and time and time again because to be exposed to Bible teaching, to be in a place where we hear preaching often, we listen to podcasts. Listen, spiritual maturity is not determined by how much knowledge is in our noggin. Spiritual maturity is not about how much we can regurgitate theology. Spiritual maturity looks like those who actually do what God is saying. We actually obey it. Now, I get it. I mean, Jesus has been pretty hard at this point. He's been pretty challenging. I mean, in fact, he wraps up his sermon by saying there's a broad way and there's a narrow way. There's a way that's really easy, and everybody kind of chooses it, or most people do. It's a pretty big crowd. The, you know, the entrance is wide, the path is wide, um, it seems pretty obvious, it seems pretty popular, and naturally that's where you're gonna drift. And he says, but my way, my kingdom way is narrow. In fact, it's so narrow that you can only enter it through me, through Jesus Himself. The only way to actually enter the kingdom of God, according to Jesus, is through himself. He is the gate. And then once you're on it, it's difficult, it's challenging. And instead of making your life easier, it gets more complicated. It gets it gets harder because obedience is not fun always. It is difficult, it is it is challenging. And he says, but here's the thing those two paths, one leads to life and one leads to death. And you guys know which one leads which, right? The narrow and the difficult leads to life, and the broad and the wide that leads to death. And Jesus is making this point. So in your life, in your life and in my life, Jesus is making sure that we understand the consequences of choosing the wrong path, of entering the wrong gate, if you will. And he says, even in uh Luke chapter 6, Luke chapter 6, he records the same thing, but he has a little bit different way of saying it. He he actually combines last week's teaching with this week's teaching. And in Luke chapter 6, this is how it's recorded. He says, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do the things that I say? Ouch. Do you understand what Jesus is saying? I think we do, right? He's saying, You can say the Jesus words, you can sing the Jesus songs, you can be in the Jesus places, and yet still not obey me. You can still not value the things that I value. You can still not listen to my instructions. Now, are Christians gonna be perfect this side of heaven? Are we gonna nail it? Are we gonna get everything right every day? No, we're not. It's silly to put that kind of mindset in place where we think that, you know, we're gonna we're gonna be perfect, we're gonna do everything, we're gonna make every right decision, we're gonna choose everything. I mean, every day I fight against my flesh, and I find myself either I get angry or impatient, uh, I get frustrated, or I pursue something in this life to do what only God can do. So I can try to make my wife into Jesus for me, I can try to make my kids into Jesus for me, I can try to make food into Jesus for me, I can take whatever it is, my hobbies, and I can replace it, and I can become an idol worshiper in an instant. We we're struggling. But here's the deal: if we never sense a pulling back, if we never sense in our heart like conviction is what the Bible says. The Holy Spirit's never convicting us where we say, you know what, worshiping that, looking to that, that's not okay. If you never feel that, listen to my words, you've not yet been converted. You're not yet a follower of Jesus. Because if you have been converted, if you have put your trust in Jesus, if you've entered the kingdom, the Holy Spirit is inside of you, and He's saying, that's not okay because that's the broad path. That leads to destruction. And I want to lead you to life and to flourishing. We're gonna blow it. We're gonna mess up, we're gonna struggle because we're human beings and we are not perfect yet. We will be perfect by the way, one day. Aren't you excited about that? One day you will be perfect, you will be complete, you will be made right, and you will not have that battle. But right now we have this battle with our flesh and the spirit at work in us. There's a battle. We'll talk more about that in the future as we discuss the spiritual war that's going on and the appetites of the flesh that are warring against the desires of the spirit in us. Our deepest desire, by the way, if you're a Christ follower, is to obey. That's our deepest desire. And that's good. That's really good. Because when I sit, it's like sometimes I'm not sure that's quite the God, I want to obey. In fact, yeah, I'm gonna leave that alone. But I want you to know this morning, I want myself to remember this morning that just saying Lord, Lord to Jesus is not equate with obeying Jesus. And we need to be people who are not just hearers but doers of the word. You know, um, again, I told you that that shape earlier that that nothing shaped me quite like being a dad. And uh very fairly often in my house, I'm sure you experience this if you have kids, we say, Hey, uh, I need you to go do blank. Like, hey, I need you go take the trash out. And I look up five minutes later and the trash is still there. And I'm like, hey, did y'all hear me? And they're like, Yeah. I'm like, no, you didn't. Because hearing doesn't just mean like hearing it auditorily, right? It means move to action. And the Bible, even in Proverbs, when it says, listen to my instruction, hear me, it means to actually move into action, to do what you're hearing, to obey in your life. Are you hearing Jesus or are you like hearing Jesus? Are you are you listening superficially to what he's saying, and yet like kind of just picking and choosing what you like and you don't like, or are you actually listening to him? Because I'm telling you, if you want to flourish, if you want the blessing of God in your life, if you want to experience what life is what God has for you, then you have to learn to listen and obey. James 1 22. Don't just be hearers of the word, be doers of the word. Now, in this passage, you got two houses being erected, right? And the first one is built on the rock, is what he says. Those are the ones who put the words of Jesus into practice, and the other is built on the sand. And I would say that if I was, you know, literally taking this illustration and thinking about it in modern culture, and I was in my neighborhood and I wanted to build a house uh in my neighborhood, um, probably a lot of us would be drawn to uh the one who's not building his house on the rock, but building his house in sand, because I've got a feeling that the the building the house on the sand would go a little quicker. You'd see a little bit more signs, see a little more progress a little faster. And be like, um I want the builder who like gets it done. I want to get, you know, the builder, I want to see some see some some things going vertical here, not just this stuff down here, right? And so maybe we like, because we like results and we like visually like seeing growth, we we would kind of get ourselves maybe in trouble by saying, If I want that builder, because they go fast. But what about the the builder who does the foundation? The digging down, the getting to the bedrock. Well, you might be like a little agitated, like, are you guys ever gonna like you know go up? Are you just gonna keep playing around down there in the dirt? But here's the truth. Even though in that situation scenario, it makes takes longer, at the end of the day, which one do you want to live in when the storm comes? You want the one that has the foundation. And I will tell you, it's again, going consistent with what Jesus has been saying. It's not always easy to pick him and the hard path and the slow path and the challenging path, but it will in the end result in the best scenario for you. And so I want to be another voice in your life saying, choose Jesus as your foundation. Because here's the thing storms are coming. Right? The way we say it here, maybe you've heard this before. You're either in the storm, you're coming out of a storm, or you're heading into a storm. But that's the human experience. And every one of us here will have a storm, and it will come in many forms. It may come in the form of cancer, it may become in the form of an unfaithful spouse, it may come in in the form of a job loss, it may come in the form of a disobedient child who's rebelling. And in those moments, the question when you are squeezed, does what come out of you, is it fear? Is it anxiety? Or is it trust in Jesus? And here's the truth. As I said a while ago, some of these houses, some of these people, if you will, that are building these lives, they can look real similar until the storm comes. They can look really similar, they can have a lot of similarities on the outside, they can look attractive, but when the storm comes, what happens then? And in your life, when the storm comes, what happens then? I want you to know that God allows these storms in our lives, not to punish us, but to actually purify us. In fact, I would say it even this way: God allows the storms, He allows the hardship in your life, not just to purify you, but to prepare you for the ultimate storm. You know what the ultimate storm is? Sounds real like ominous, but it is. It's judgment day. The ultimate storm is the day that God actually comes back and he judges all humanity. And on that day, who will be standing? The Bible says very clearly the ones who will be standing are those who are in Jesus. Those who've built their life on the rock of Jesus. Listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians as he's talking about this foundation of Jesus. He says, According to God's grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay any other foundation than that what has been laid. That foundation is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one's work will be become obvious for the day will disclose it. What day? The judgment day. The day when all of our thoughts and motives and lives are revealed. It will be because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test the quality of each one's work. What I'm saying to us in this moment is are you building your life on yourself or are you building your life on Jesus? Are you building your life on your own intellect, your own way of thinking, how you see the world? Are you building on Jesus Christ and submitting and trusting in Him? I want every person in this room to flourish. I want every person to not just flourish in the here and now, but for forever. And if you build your life around the here and now, this is all passing away. That's the hay and the straw, the gold, the silver, all that stuff. It's passing away. Did you know that? It's going. So if you build your life on temporary stuff, it's not going to last. It's not going to be able to withstand the storm of life and the storm of judgment. Now, I realize that when I start preaching this way, or we even talk about God's word this way, it makes us uncomfortable. We've already talked about this with the narrow path and the broad path, okay? Um, but I want you to stop and think for this for a second. Because people say things like this Man, like, I don't like it when those people start preaching that hard stuff. And start talking about like, you know, destruction and hell, and like, let's just block that out. Let's just focus on heaven and love and joy and peace and good stuff. Right? I mean that's That's what I hear. But let me just think about this for just a second with you as an illustration. Let's imagine that you built an awesome house and you built a house right down by the river. And let's imagine that here you are in your house and it's the middle of the night, two o'clock in the morning, and you are out cold. You are sleeping, and you're you're just like you're you're in La La Land, right? Okay. And let's imagine that all of a sudden someone's knocking on your door and they are saying, Hey, get out. The river is rising. Your house is about to flood. My guess is that in that particular moment you wouldn't go to the door and say, Please leave me alone. I'm trying to sleep. I do not need you to stand at my door and try to scare me out of my house. I want to sleep. Good night. And go back to bed. Anybody in their right mind is not going to do that. Then why in the world will we get mad at people who are telling us you're going to spend eternity separated from God if you don't follow Jesus? I mean, we we've got to realize, people, we can do it in a loving way. We can do it in a gracious and compassionate way, but we have to do it because a day is coming when God will judge all people. It's not, this is not my like me coming up with some sort of plan. This is God's plan in His Word. And so what I'm saying to all of us, I'm talking about your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends. Are we telling them that the judge is coming, that the storm is coming? A few applications as we wrap up. And these are applications that have already been coming through the message today. So they're repeats and reflections. We need to realize again that there's only two ways to live your life. There's not a bunch of gray area in the middle. We tend to think that there is, but there's not. We live for God or we live for self. And so we have to acknowledge that today. The second thing is this don't base your decision on what you're going to do with your life on the here and now. Think bigger. By God's Spirit, think eternally because this life is a vapor. It is here and it's gone. And God doesn't want you to just flourish now. He wants you to flourish for eternity. If you're in a storm right now, cling to Jesus. Cling to Him. He is there for you in the storm. In fact, the Bible says He will never leave you and never forsake you if you're one of His children. If you're not one of His children, maybe God is trying to use the storm to get your attention so that you would put your trust in Him. Isn't it interesting how storms always remind us we are not in control, we're not in charge. And here's what's beautiful Jesus doesn't just say that there's a path to life and there's a path to death. He comes and shows us the path to life. He is the path to life. He died on the cross for our sins so that we can have eternal life. He did that for us out of his love for us. He didn't say, hey, there's a path to death and there's a path to life. Figure it out. He actually came and showed us. He actually came in the flesh and lived among us a sinless life and went to the cross and suffered in our place. And so my encouragement this morning is you have a God who isn't just saying, One day I'm going to come and judge you, so you better get ready. He's already made a way for you to have life. And he invites you to life. He invites you to build your house on the rock and not on the sand. What foundation are you building your life on? What are you doing with your life right now that indicates that you are putting your hope on anything other than yourself? Are you ready for the storm? I mean, truly, are you ready? Because it's coming. The temporary storm and ultimately the eternal judge. He's coming. I I don't find joy in preaching, preaching that, but I also love you enough and love people enough to make sure that they know the truth. And that's what Jesus' words are. I was telling our team this week, I'm not completely sure everybody would like Jesus if he was in our places teaching today. In fact, I think most religious people would probably not like him just like in his day. Because Jesus didn't mess around. He had no problem saying that unhealthy trees are going to the fire. He had no problem saying that this path that everybody's on is going to death. He had no problem saying that the house that's built on the sand is going to be destroyed and it's going to collapse. But did he say it because he didn't love us? No, he said it because he loves us. And he knows that there's no job, no relationship, no significance other, there's no security in job in uh in anything in this life that's going to satisfy or meet our needs or do what he can do. And he loves us. Let me pray for us. Father, I thank you so much for every man and every woman and every child in this room. And I thank you, God, that you love us, that you love them. In fact, that you love us enough to tell us the truth, even when it's hard to hear. And God, I pray, I mean, I actually believe that people in this room today want to build their life on the rock. But I know that there's a war going on too. I know that there's a battle raging, and that there's an enemy who's trying to deceive and to tempt people to build their lives on things other than you. I know that even right now, that God, you there are people that are wrestling in their hearts, like who's in charge? Who's in control? And I pray, Father, that we would surrender to you and see you as a good Father who loves us. God, I pray that even this moment, that's that someone in this room, maybe more than someone, would actually say, God, I'm tired of building my life on sand. I want to build my life on you, the rock. And so, God, I just pray that you would bless this time of response. Whatever that looks like for every person in this room, God, I know that you'll lead by your spirit. So we love you, we thank you, we praise you. Amen. Um we we have a