Sermon 06 03 2018

Matthew 7:24-29 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke

Build on the Rock Summer Series 1 June 3, 2018 “Build on the Rock”

There is something very exciting about a building project. I’ll admit, perhaps not everyone feels that way, but I find myself looking closely whenever I see a new building get started. What is it? How big is it going to be? How long is it going to take?

Certainly the building project is even more exciting if it directly affects you. Maybe you have been through the process of building a house where you are planning to live. That process starts with excited anticipation. Eventually, likely through a number of ups and downs in the process, the house takes shape and is finally completed and ready to use. Maybe it’s exciting for you to see a restaurant or store being built near your home. There is something exciting about a building project.

If you have been around this church for longer than I have, you might remember when the Fellowship Hall was built and an old parsonage became office space and classrooms. Some might even remember this building being built. And many of us are getting excited about starting a new building project, not right here, but at our Sahuarita site, something I am sure you will hear a lot more about in the coming months.

There’s something exciting about projects like these. New buildings mean new opportunities. Building projects are a sign of progress and change.

When you stop to think about it, you might realize that there are a lot of building projects discussed in the Bible. Tall towers, altars, temples, houses are just some of those projects, not to mention a giant boat.

In our summer worship series this year, we’re not including the Ark, which is a little different from those other building projects, but we are going to take a closer look at and learn from many of the Bible’s building projects. We are doing so under the theme “Build on the Rock,” and the building project we are considering today explains what that theme means.

Our building project for today is building a house on a rock, a solid foundation. That’s what Jesus encourages us to do in the words we heard earlier from Matthew chapter 7. No, we aren’t necessarily building a physical house, but Jesus uses this description, this picture or parable, to explain some important lessons about the way that we build our lives, the way that we live our lives. And, like any building project, this one needs to start with a good foundation. Without a solid foundation, any building project would be in danger. But a good, solid, steady foundation provides the start of a solid and wellmade structure.

And so Jesus explains that a wise builder builds his house on a rock. He is not satisfied with any other foundation. The sand or soil gets dug away until the firm bedrock is exposed on which the wise man builds. That’s an excellent lesson on construction principles, but you know that Jesus is making a very different point. His point is that we understand that physical buildings need good foundations. How much more so do our lives need to be founded on something solid and secure?

So we build on the rock, Jesus explains, when we hear his words and put them into practice. The verses before us today are the final verses of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. He had been spending time explaining to a great crowd of followers what it really means to follow him. He told them about how they could apply God’s law to their lives. He gave them instructions about prayer and fasting, about avoiding sins of thought as well as action. He told them about being examples for others and about avoiding greed.

And he taught them even more that we don’t have time today to summarize. And then he concluded all of this teaching by saying that the wise person hears all of those things and puts them into practice.

So how do we do that? Well, part of the process is obvious. Hearing the word of Jesus is a relatively straightforward matter right now. I can almost guarantee that you have access to a Bible. If you don’t, please let me know and I will help you fix that. Your church offers multiple opportunities, including this very church service, for you to hear and learn. There is also a Sunday morning Bible study and Sunday School for our little ones. We have other Bible studies during the week. There are many chances to hear God’s Word, to listen to Jesus.

Of course, even the foolish builder in Jesus’ little parable hears the words. The difference between wise and foolish is found in what we do with them. So when Jesus warns about lust and greed and apathy and hatred as he did in the Sermon on the Mount, how do we do? Not very well. What he asks of us is definitely not what we are like naturally. And on our own, we would fail to live up to any of his instructions. As we hear Jesus’ words in these verses and throughout the Sermon on the Mount, we realize that we cannot live up to his standards on our own.

But through Jesus we can and we do. He did live a perfect life for us and offered himself up as a sacrifice for our sins. He gives us his righteousness, his holiness, his perfection, and counts it as ours. And building our lives with a solid foundation begins by recognizing and confessing that. The only way that we put Jesus’ words into practice is when we first, by God’s grace and the working of his Holy Spirit, believe what he tells us. We give up on our own ability to earn God’s favor or to accomplish our own salvation.

We rely on him. We consider him the rock on whom our lives are built. And when we do, we will want to read and learn and study his word and also put it into practice. Out of thanks for what he has done, we will strive to do as he intends. That is the life that is built on the rock.

And that foundation is crucial because storms are going to come. About the house on the rock, Jesus says that the storm fell on it but it stood firm. You know the storms that can come into our lives. Illness, job issues, financial concerns, death of a loved one, relationship challenges, maybe something else that is particularly on your mind right now. Those are little storms compared to what is still to come when we, like everyone else, will face the final and ultimate storm of God’s judgment, whether at the time of our own deaths or if the world should come to an end before that. And only the house, the life, built on Jesus will survive. The wise builder is the one whom God has called to believe in Jesus as his Savior. Built on that foundation, he can endure all of life’s storms and reach his heavenly home.

But there is another outcome that Jesus discusses. The foolish builder builds his house on sand. And he seems so truly foolish. Why would anyone want to build a house on sand? That person should know that it can’t provide a good solid foundation. But maybe he likes the way it looks. Maybe he wants a great view of the water from his house on the beach. Maybe he simply doesn’t know any better. Building on sand as in Jesus’ parable is like building on anything else other than the truth of God’s Word. It is founding our life on something other than Christ our Savior. Why would anyone do that? Well, maybe because it appeals to our sinful nature. Maybe because it promises pleasure. Maybe simply because we don’t know any better.

And so people have long built their houses, their lives, on things like money or fame or family or fun. They have staked their hopes of reaching heaven on the good deeds they have done or the money they have given to church or the wager that God just wouldn’t possibly send anyone to the hell that they deserve.

But nothing, nothing apart from Jesus our Savior provides a firm and lasting foundation. At some point, the storms will come and the house on the sand will be destroyed. It has no foundation.

Jesus didn’t shy away from speaking those hard truths. He didn’t hide behind the opinions of others. He spoke the truth of God’s Word. And the people were amazed. They weren’t used to this. They weren’t used to such authoritative teaching.

May that be our reaction, too. Let’s be amazed at the authority of Jesus the master teacher. Let’s listen to the words he has to say and then let’s put them into practice in our lives. Let’s firmly believe that he is our Savior from sin and then let’s act like it! Let’s be humble, kind, generous. Not because we have to in order to get to heaven—that’s sand. Let’s do these things because Jesus has given us heaven as a free gift. That’s the solid rock!

Our entire lives are a building project, so we are going to spend the rest of the summer looking at lessons from building projects of the Bible. We’re going to, with God’s help. build on the rock every single week.

More than that, we’re going to live lives of love for our Savior every single day. We will hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice, as he gives us strength. We will build on the rock.

Matthew 7:24–29 (NIV) 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.�

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.