Live on the Rock
Matthew 7:24-29
September 4, 2005
Introduction
Well, folks, we’ve covered a lot of ground since starting to look at the life and words of Jesus in the gospel according to Matthew. And today, we finish up our look at the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus has talked about a wide range of things - but all of it practical and at the same time simple and profound.
And today, we look at his closing words.
These words are not just another topic he’s covering. In these closing words, we hear a caution about ignoring the words he’s just spoken, and while the context is the Sermon on the Mount, the principle applies to all the words of Jesus,
Matthew 7:24-27 (page 686) -
24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
You know, everybody here is aware of the tragedy in the south, with Hurricane Katrina. And in a very real and physical sense, the storms tore down houses.
But Jesus isn’t talking about houses made of wood, stones, bricks, or steel. He’s talking about the house of your soul.
And he’s addressing the fact that he wants you to be able stand when the storms of life come.
And he says that the way to do that is to take his words seriously and put them into practice. So today I want to give you some practical stuff on just how to do that.
It’s immeasurably important that we take Jesus seriously. If you decide not to, then you are not really a follower of Jesus.
And you run the risk of coming to the end and finding out that the road you were one was the one that took you to the wrong gate, as we discussed last week.
So I want us to take a good hard look at these words of Jesus so that we can be among those who stand rather than crumble when the hard time come.
But before we do that, let’s pray.
What’s in it for me?
Normally when working through a passage like this, I just kinda start at the beginning and go through it in order.
But today I want to start about two-thirds into the passage, in verse 25, which says:
The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
In this verse, Jesus tells us the benefit of listening and applying his word - they stand - they make it. And in looking at this verse, I can think of three ways we come through the storms by living for Christ, some benefits, if you will:
1. Security - survival during the storms.
And they will come, believe me.
Jesus says that they will survive - he keeps them safe from the things that would wreck their lives and faith in him.
Another benefit is...
2. Strength - for future storms.
I read one time about how shipbuilders back in the days of sailboats would prepare the masts for their ships.
They would go to the forest and find an appropriate tree, then they would clear out all the surrounding trees and leave that one standing, leaving it exposed to the wind and storms.
As the tree continued to mature, it would gain strength. The kind of strength it would need to be able to stand up in the storms at sea while holding a large sail.
But that tree would never gain that strength if it was just left among the other trees. It developed strength because of the storms.
I believe that if we build our lives on the solid rock of Jesus and his words, then when the storms come, we will not only survive, we’ll gain strength.
And a third benefit of living for Jesus is that we will gain...
3. Wisdom - finding the lessons to be learned and used in life.
Jesus said that it’s the wise person who listens and obeys his words. The foolish person ignores them and ends up having their faith and their life crash around them.
But a wise person can not only find security in the midst of the storm, not only gain strength to face future storms, but can also gain wisdom in learning from the storm. Wisdom that can help others weather the storms as they have.
There are people here in this room who have weathered major storms in their life, and can tell you that what I’m saying is true.
So let’s take a look at just how to go about building on the rock, shall we?
Building on the rock:
Building things is not my strong suit, that’s for sure. I can barely construct a complete sentence sometimes.
I even had troubles in grade school art projects. I remember making a jewelry box out of Popsicle sticks.
My parents had to sign a form promising to never allow it back on school property because the teacher was afraid it might make the school look bad!
Many of you are aware of my lack of mechanical ability and general inability to operate power tools in a safe manner.
But when it comes to helping people get their lives established on the rock of Jesus’ words and building a solid foundation for their lives, I can handle that, and I enjoy it immensely.
In our passage, Jesus hands us the two main components to building on the firm foundation, on the rock, so we can gain security, strength, and wisdom. Let’s take a look at them, okay?
* Intake - "everyone who hears these words of mine..."
The first main component discusses how we can get the word of God inside us. I’m going to be talking a bit later on just how we can go about doing that, but suffice to say here that if you are not actively listening to the words of Jesus, then you won’t be building on a rock, you’ll be building on sand.
You need to be intentional about this. Make the effort to get the words of Jesus into you.
Without this first component of intake of God’s word, then you can’t have the second component, which is...
* Output - "and puts them into practice..."
We’ve talked about this a lot over the last year and a half or so, but I want us to go over it again:
Remember what the purpose of Scripture is? The purpose of Scripture is not to inform, but to transform.
And this only happens when we put into practice what we find in Scripture.
It’s not enough to "know" Scripture. Maybe you’ve studied it long and hard, and you can discuss what the Bible says about all sorts of stuff.
But unless you’re actually DOING what the Scripture talks about, then it’s all in vain.
The Bible says that knowledge, by itself, puffs up. And if you go up to someone who’s all puffed up with their knowledge of the Bible, and stick a pin in them, then it’s soon shown that they are all "puff" and no "stuff."
But here’s the tough question: does that describe you? If so, then the key to moving from being a person of "stuff" instead of "puff" is to move into applying what you’re learning, allowing the Holy Spirit to use that knowledge to transform you into a person who reflects Christlike character.
Look with me at James 1:22-25, from the New Living Translation -
And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don’t obey, you are only fooling yourself. 23 For if you just listen and don’t obey, it is like looking at your face in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you keep looking steadily into God’s perfect law-the law that sets you free-and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
It’s not enough to just "hear" the word - you need to put it into practice. I don’t know how to say it any clearer than that.
Earlier I mentioned that one of the benefits of living for Christ and building your life on the foundation of his words is wisdom.
Wisdom is much more than mere knowledge. Wisdom is knowledge applied and used.
There are a lot of "smart" people out there. They have a brain capacity that most of us could only dream of. They can explain all sorts of scientific and philosophical phenomena. And that’s cool. I’ve got no problem with that.
The problem is that in spite of their intelligence, they are not wise. They make foolish choices in life, and they disregard such things as the Bible because they think it’s simplistic or irrelevant.
They never apply their great learning to actually discovering what the Bible says and how it can impact individuals, societies, and even whole nations.
On the other hand, there are also lots of people who maybe haven’t had a ton of "schoolin," but they live their lives doing their best to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. And they end up better off in this life and the next.
Why? Because they allow the Word of God to come in and transform them into Christlike people.
And when you do that, God can and does use you in wonderful ways, no matter if you’re rich or poor or somewhere in between.
And not only that, it helps build that security that Jesus talks about in this passage today.
But the point here is that intake without output is only a false foundation, built on sand.
Let’s switch gears now and look at three steps to making it happen:
1. "Hear" the Word.
I think I’ve kinda made the point that intake of the Word is extremely important. You got that, right?
But how do we do that? Well, I’ve listed just a few ways in your note-taking guide: Church, personal reading & study, small group fellowships, etc.
Read it. Listen to it in the car on tape or CD. There are many ways to get the word of God into us. But as I mentioned earlier, you need to make the effort.
After getting the word into you, then you can move onto the next step, and that is to...
2. Plan the action.
You’re reading, studying, listening, or whatever, and you feel God speaking to you about something you should do or say or pray about, or whatever.
You need to make a plan to put it into action. You need to do this because too often we let things die in the land of good intentions instead of putting wheels to what we know we need to do.
This is what we call "applying" what you’ve learned. And it’s absolutely essential if you want to be like the wise person who builds on the rock and not on sand.
Let me very quickly give you four guidelines to keep in mind as you come up with ways to apply what you’re learning in your time with God’s Word. First, make it...
* Something solid.
What I mean is that it needs to be something tangible - something that you can actually see happening.
"Loving people more" won’t get it done, but paying closer attention to how you talk to others, asking God to help you in your speech is something more solid. As you are intentional about it, you see it happening over time. It needs to be something solid. Next, make it...
* Something doable.
This relates to what I was just saying in making it something solid and tangible, but this gets down more to the nitty-gritty of what it means to apply the Bible.
For instance, rather than deciding that you will master the entire Bible in the next year, you might start by memorizing 12 verses over the next year, or doing a Bible study about certain persons in the Bible, or charting out a book of the Bible to help you get a better handle on it. That’s doable for most persons.
Or maybe you’re reading the Bible and realize that you’re not getting enough of the Bible, so you decide that you’re going to read through the entire New Testament in the coming year.
Something doable. A third key to making good applications of Scripture is to make it...
* Something measurable.
Let’s go back to our example of memorizing 12 verses over the next year.
That’s easy to measure. You either did it or you didn’t. Or you’re six months into it and realize you’ve only memorized 3 or 4, so you can start catching up.
But it’s something that you can actually look at and see how you’re progressing.
And lastly, make it...
* Something teachable.
Make your application something you can pass on to others, as you influence them for Christ. A great way to see if your application is a good one is to determine if you are able to teach it easily to someone else.
If not, then chances are that the application is actually not doing everything it was intended to do in your own life, making it even harder for it to have an impact in someone else’s.
That’s how to plan the action. But planning isn’t enough. We need to move on to third step in building on the firm foundation of Jesus and his words, and that is to...
3. Do the action.
Too often good ideas end up dying in the land of good intentions. So in planning on how to apply something from Scripture to our lives, we need to use those guidelines for good applications, we also need to keep in mind some things that will help us stay on the path.
* Take baby steps.
Start small. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. This is very easy to do when we come across something in Scripture we feel God is wanting us to make a real part of our lives.
Maybe your application is to have a daily quiet time of an hour reading the Bible and praying. That’s a great thing to do.
But if you’ve never developed the habit of daily quiet times, or devotions, as they are often called, then starting off with an hour will be too much, and you’ll find yourself ready to throw in the towel if you miss a few days or find that an hour is too long right away.
Start off with 10 minutes three days a week. Work your way up in terms of days and length of time.
Take baby steps in your applications.
By the way, if that’s a habit you’d like to start, see me after the service. I’ve got a great little pamphlet on how to start a daily quiet time. I’d be happy to give you a copy.
Next...
* Be accountable to someone.
Tell someone what your goal and application is, and allow them to check on you from time to time.
This doesn’t have to be a hard-core drill sergeant-type of accountability, just someone who can help you stay on task and maybe offer suggestions.
Then...
* Rejoice with each step.
When you’ve completed something in your application, rejoice. Thank God for helping you get through that step, and thank your accountability partner as well.
Celebrate those things - it’ll help you take that next step.
And lastly...
* Reward significant gains.
Let’s say you’ve taken my suggestion of memorizing 12 verses over the year, and you’ve accomplished it.
Do something to reward yourself. Go out for dinner with your accountability person (or your pastor...), read a book you’ve been wanting to read, but you’ve put off until you got this done.
Do something, and make it something significant to celebrate the significance of your accomplishment.
Don’t go overboard here. A new car isn’t necessarily the best reward for memorizing 12 verses over a year, okay?
But do something. Reward yourself.
Folks, do you want the safety and security of knowing your life is built on a solid foundation so strong that no matter what comes along, you will stand?
Do you want to be able to face the storms of life with strength, knowing that God is there to support you and keep you safe?
Do want to be a person characterized by wisdom that goes beyond what the world has to offer and is based rather on the solid rock of God’s Word?
Then you need to listen to the word and you need to put it into action.
Don’t be the "average" Sunday-morning Christian. Be above average. Listen carefully to Jesus and the Word of God and make it a part of your life by acting on it. The dividends will be immeasurable, believe me.
Conclusion
Our discussion this morning has focused on verses 25-27, but I want to end our time today by just taking a look at verse 28-29 -
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Folks, Jesus wasn’t like the other teachers of his day or like any other teacher before or since. He had an authority sorely lacking among the other rabbis and religious leaders.
His authority was based not only on what he said, but on who he was. He was the divine Son of God, who spoke the words of God with the authority that was his from the Father.
I say this because I want to emphasize the fact that you can’t just shove all this aside. Jesus was dead serious in everything he ever said, and to ignore it is to basically tell Jesus that he’s not worth listening to.
But you have to understand something, and don’t go home without getting this: The words of Jesus are the words of God!
I’d like to close in prayer, but as I do that, I’d like everyone to bow their heads and close their eyes for a second.
If you’re here today, and you sense God telling you that you need to do more to make God’s word a part of your life, so that you can gain the security, safety, and wisdom he has to offer, then I just want you to raise your hand and keep it there for a minute.
No one’s looking around except me, so you don’t need to worry about anybody embarrassing you.
I want to pray for you in my heart as I pray out loud for all of us to become more deeply in love with God’s word, allowing him to do his thing in our lives to make us more like him.
Let’s pray.
