Built to Last (05June26)
Built to Last
Matthew 7:13-29
Big Idea: If we want to build a house (i.e., a life) that lasts, we enter through the narrow gate of Jesus and do the words of the Jesus.
A few of years ago, when Sakiko and I were looking for a home we smitten by this cute, little house that was over 80 years old, not too far from here. The house was small, but we told were told by our real estate agent that we would have the option down the road of developing the attic—we could add what’s called a dormer… a section with a window that projects out of the sloping part of the roof.
But we discovered through our building inspector that in order for the house to support the extra weight of the dormer, we would have to have to redo the foundation…
We really wanted to buy this home, but our builder said, “A home that requires as much work as this one will take a toll on your marriage. This home is going to damage your ministry.”
We didn’t necessarily want to hear such depressing news because we wanted to buy this cute little house, but in retrospect we’re glad we heeded our building inspector’s words.
Neither Sakiko or I are especially handy or skilled at renovations (the words “easy installation” make me nervous!). Looking back for us that home would have been a big financial and energy drain.
Jesus ends his great Sermon on the Mount with a word of warning about building a house. He ends with warnings that may not be easy to hear, but like the words of our building inspector, they words that will serve us well if we heed them.
The Narrow and Wide Gates
13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
True and False Prophets
15 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
True and False Disciples
21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' 23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
The Wise and Foolish Builders
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.
In the concluding movement of Jesus’ great sermon, he describes 2 people who are building houses (which of course is a metaphor for the building of a life).
A storm comes through with gale force winds and the torrential rains beat against both houses. One house is left standing, but the other collapses.
How do we construct a house, i.e. a life that will stand?
According to Jesus, by building on a rock solid foundation.
What was it about the first house that enabled it to withstand the storm? It was house built on the solid bedrock of Jesus’ words.
In verse 24, we read “Therefore who hears these words of mine and put them into practice…is a like wise a person who built there house on a rock.”
Vs. 24 begins with the word “therefore.” And whenever we read a “therefore” in Scripture, we must ask ourselves what is it there fore and the therefore of verse 24 refers back to the entire Sermon on the Mount, but arguably in particular to the warnings in the immediately preceding sections (vss. 13-23).
Jesus in verses 13, 14 calls us to enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road the leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it.
The path that leads to life (the road that leads to a house standing in the end) is one with a small gate and a narrow way and only a few find it.
What Jesus is teaching us is that the way that leads to life will be a kind of minority choice, it’s not going to be the way that most people will follow…
When I get off an airplane and I can’t see a monitor telling me where my baggage is, I just look around and see where everyone else on the flight on seems to be going and I follow the crowd…
What Jesus is saying if you want to enter the gate that leads to real life, don’t follow the crowd, because most are walking through this gate.
Darrell Johnson says that being a follower of Christ means that we are in the middle of the crowd (not on the geographically distant edge), but it means that we are going in the opposite direction of everyone else.
Part of what it means to choose a path that will lead to true life in this life and that will enable us our house to stand at the end of time means that we choose the path of Jesus which happens be going in different direction than the crowd. It means that we live out his teachings how we relate to God, to people, our enemies, our sexual choices, investing our money, how we define success…
Choosing a path will lead to true life in this life and a house standing at the end of time, means we are moving to the music of a different musician. We are moving to score of Jesus Christ.
How do we build a house that will enable us to be left standing in the end?
If we look at the immediately preceding context in the sermon, we see that Jesus says, not everyone who says to me LORD, LORD will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the she or he who does the will father.
Jesus says in this passage that there will be people, who claim to believe in Him, who even say amazing, prophetic things in His name, there will be people who even perform miracles, but who on judgment day of some of these will not be admitted into the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus will say, to some of these (who say to him “Lord, Lord”) “Away from me I never knew you.”
How can this be? If God uses someone isn’t it a sign that that person belongs to God? Not necessarily. It’s possible for God to use people for his purposes that don’t even believe in him. God has spoken through a donkey! God a big wish, white shark, as a kind of submarine. He used an evil nation like Assyria to achieve His purposes. God can use for his purposes anything or anyone he wants to. And just because God uses them that doesn’t mean they belong to him.
Jesus says in vs. 21, NOT everyone who says to me LORD, LORD will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only he or she who does will of my Father.
Some of us who have read what’s often referred to as the New Testament part of the Bible may say, but doesn’t Paul say we are saved by faith, not by our good works? Yes, Paul says that. Are Jesus and Paul preaching different Gospels? Same truth. Different angle and emphasis.
Both Jesus and Paul teach that it is only trusting in Jesus Christ that we made acceptable to God. But when we trust Christ, when we truly believe in Christ, that trust, that belief will be manifest in what we do. What we do reveals what’s in our heart, what we believe.
Let says a woman gets off from work earlier than expected, but instead of calling her husband at home on her cell phone to let her know she’s going to be coming home earlier that evening than expected, she decides she show up and surprise her husband. She quietly opens the front door doesn’t see her husband on main floors goes up stairs, and quietly walks down the hallway and opens and find her husband in a bed with a another woman.
The man says, “Oh honey, you’re home early. This isn’t what it looks like. As hiswife turns walk down the stairs, “he says, honey you know I love you… you know I love more than anyone else in the whole world.”
Maybe so, but in that moment, was not the husband saying he when decided to sleep that that other woman, in that moment was he not saying he loved himself more than his wife?
Ultimately, what we really believe will be revealed in what we do.
So, people will be saved, they enter the Kingdom based on what they believed, i.e., who they trusted, but we will be judged by our works, because what we believe is ultimately manifest in what we do.
In the context, of story of the two houses, it’s clear that both people hear the same sermon Jesus gives, both apparently profess to believe in God, both live in the same neighborhood (we know that because they are affected by same storm), both apparently go to same church, both read the same Bible…
But one actually truly believes in what Jesus teaches because he puts them into practice and the other person evidently professes to believe, but really does not believe because this person does not put the words of Jesus into practice.
The one who truly believes and puts Jesus words into practice is like a person who builds their house on the rock.
The one who does not believe in Jesus’ words enough to put them into practice is like the person who builds his house on the sand.
And sand, as we know is, is inherently unstable. We say no one could really be so stupid as to build on sand! Think again. When I was living in Southern California, I lived close the beach and I remember homes were built not far from our neighborhood on Sandy Cliffs overlooking the ocean. When the faults shifted or tremor hit, some of these lavish homes literally slid off the cliff on the beach below. And even after such disasters many of these people would rebuild their homes on these sandy cliffs.
People build on sand literally and figuratively.
While the sun is shining these people look great, but when the storms and hurricanes come… these people houses’, i.e. lives come down.
If we build our lives on the sand of our youthful beauty or physical strength, we will eventually be brought low.
Like you, I’ve heard for some time now when we turn age 40 we really only turning age 30, but I heard this past week on an infomercial on a nautilus exercise machine that when we turn age 50… we’re really turning age 30. I know chronological age and biological age are different, and we can slow biological age through diet and exercise, but there really will come a time when hit do 40 (biologically) and then 50 and maybe 60 and perhaps 80…. And if the foundation of our life is our physical beauty or virility and it’s going shift under us suddenly or slowly over time through erosion, we’ll going come down hard.
If our life is built on Christ and when lose these things, we’ll be experience disappointment, but we will not go down because we’re building on a solid foundation.
If our life is built on money… In the storm, we’re going to go down…
Earlier this month, our staff went our annual staff retreat. As part of our staff retreat, each of us shared our family genograms… As I was doing research on our family tree I discovered there are people in our family tree who have come into great wealth and lost it--like in a movie… it was a reminder of how unstable money as foundation can be. There are people in our family tree who seem have more money than they could spend in one life time, but that has not enabled them to buy healthy marriages, happy homes, and for some money has been a significant impediment in their relationship to God. They tend to feel little or no need for God.
A life built on money is not only build a foundation of sand, but that foundation can also keep from a building a priceless, eternal treasure.
If our life is built on money, and we lose it we’ll be devastated
If life is built on Christ and we lose our money, we’ll grieve, but we will stand…
If our life is built on our talent or productivity, we’re liable to be cut down in a storm.
A number of people know this so people and they’ve so ensured themselves. People like Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart have $6 million policy on their voices and the chief taster for Dreyer's Ice Cream has also insured his tasting ability, in the amount of $1 million.
If our life is built on our talent or ability to do something and we lose that talent, we’ll be crushed…
A very gifted pastor I know of had a brother who was also a pastor who was even more gifted that he. One day his brother through an accident became paralyzed and ended up taking his life.
If our life is built more on our ability to do something for God, more than God, it that’s taken we’ll be crushed…
If it’s built on Christ and we lose our ability to do something, we’ll mourn that loss deeply, but we will left standing.
So how do we do we know whether we’re building on Christ and His word or something else?
According to vs. 24, we know by whether we are in fact putting Jesus words into practice, according to verse 21 we know if we are doing the will of the father.
So we must ask ourselves are we (or are we becoming) the kind of people who puts Christ’s words into practice?
The questions is not are we hearing Christ’s word, but are we doing it?
Dale Bruner says, “The house that crashes is the house of Christians who find Jesus’ words important enough to listen to, but not realistic enough to live.”
A Christian friend of mine once, said I’m busy and I think it is important to pray, but I really I don’t have time to pray. But the fact is as I look at my life, I exercise about hour almost everyday. I thought I believed pray was important, but maybe I don’t.
Because I if really believe that, I’d pray, I’d make time.
Sometimes there’s a gap between our professed beliefs and what we really believe and the way we understand what really believe is by what we do. Dallas Willard we also act in a way that consistent with our beliefs, not necessarily our professed beliefs.
If we were to take an audit of our actual lives, could we say we living out or becoming people kind that Christ describes in his sermon. Do we relate to God humbly, in so far as we can are we seeking peace with people, are honoring Christ teaching about sex and marriage, our keeping our word, are we dealing with our enemies lovingly, are giving generously without needing applause, are we praying, fasting (saying not to say yes to God, are we investing our wealth with God in heaven, are about worrying less and seeking the Kingdom more, are we resisting to judge others condemning in a self-righteous way?
Because what we do reveals, what we believe, what our foundation is.
Last summer, during my study leave, I was thinking preaching the sermon on the Mount this coming year, I heard about a couple of people in community this who have memorized. I thought if they could do it and they older than me, I think I could do it. I thought if kids can memorize the Koran, I can memorize Sermon on Mount… I did. Then over the year, I forgot a bunch of it. But summer’s here and summer a good time to review memorize…I want to encourage you to consider memorizing it (you say I don’t get study job) ok or part of it… and then… Do it. Just Do it.
Tony Evans is an African American minister. He said when he was a boy his dad bought him a balloon boxing bag.
He said, he’d hit it “boom” and it would hit the floor “boom, boom” it would go
“Bam, boom, and bounce” back “ping.”
“Boom, boom, boom”… “Boom, boom, boom… ping.”
One time he kicked it “Wap, wap… wap…wap ping.”
It kept coming back because at the bottom of the bag was a weight, at the foundation, that was heavier than the rest of the bag, so the weight at the bottom determined wear the bag would finally wound up.
When the storms of time go bam, if the weight of Christ is at our foundation we will keeping come back “ping.” When satan and darkness try to take us down and the go wap, we’ll bounce back, “ping…” When high water and hell go wap, wap, wap… we’ll bam, bam, bam. ping…”
Because the woman or man who builds their house on the rock of Jesus Christ who find themselves standing in the end!
Prayer:
Are you building your house on the sand or the rock?
The way you tell is by looking at whether you are putting into practice the words of Jesus.
There’s a old song which we won’t sing, but it goes, “LORD, I want to be in that number when Saints go marching.” Perhaps you want to pray that you will be in the number of people build their house in a way that will stand in this life and the life to come.
Matthew 7:13-29
Big Idea: If we want to build a house (i.e., a life) that lasts, we enter through the narrow gate of Jesus and do the words of the Jesus.
A few of years ago, when Sakiko and I were looking for a home we smitten by this cute, little house that was over 80 years old, not too far from here. The house was small, but we told were told by our real estate agent that we would have the option down the road of developing the attic—we could add what’s called a dormer… a section with a window that projects out of the sloping part of the roof.
But we discovered through our building inspector that in order for the house to support the extra weight of the dormer, we would have to have to redo the foundation…
We really wanted to buy this home, but our builder said, “A home that requires as much work as this one will take a toll on your marriage. This home is going to damage your ministry.”
We didn’t necessarily want to hear such depressing news because we wanted to buy this cute little house, but in retrospect we’re glad we heeded our building inspector’s words.
Neither Sakiko or I are especially handy or skilled at renovations (the words “easy installation” make me nervous!). Looking back for us that home would have been a big financial and energy drain.
Jesus ends his great Sermon on the Mount with a word of warning about building a house. He ends with warnings that may not be easy to hear, but like the words of our building inspector, they words that will serve us well if we heed them.
The Narrow and Wide Gates
13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
True and False Prophets
15 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
True and False Disciples
21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' 23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
The Wise and Foolish Builders
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.
In the concluding movement of Jesus’ great sermon, he describes 2 people who are building houses (which of course is a metaphor for the building of a life).
A storm comes through with gale force winds and the torrential rains beat against both houses. One house is left standing, but the other collapses.
How do we construct a house, i.e. a life that will stand?
According to Jesus, by building on a rock solid foundation.
What was it about the first house that enabled it to withstand the storm? It was house built on the solid bedrock of Jesus’ words.
In verse 24, we read “Therefore who hears these words of mine and put them into practice…is a like wise a person who built there house on a rock.”
Vs. 24 begins with the word “therefore.” And whenever we read a “therefore” in Scripture, we must ask ourselves what is it there fore and the therefore of verse 24 refers back to the entire Sermon on the Mount, but arguably in particular to the warnings in the immediately preceding sections (vss. 13-23).
Jesus in verses 13, 14 calls us to enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road the leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it.
The path that leads to life (the road that leads to a house standing in the end) is one with a small gate and a narrow way and only a few find it.
What Jesus is teaching us is that the way that leads to life will be a kind of minority choice, it’s not going to be the way that most people will follow…
When I get off an airplane and I can’t see a monitor telling me where my baggage is, I just look around and see where everyone else on the flight on seems to be going and I follow the crowd…
What Jesus is saying if you want to enter the gate that leads to real life, don’t follow the crowd, because most are walking through this gate.
Darrell Johnson says that being a follower of Christ means that we are in the middle of the crowd (not on the geographically distant edge), but it means that we are going in the opposite direction of everyone else.
Part of what it means to choose a path that will lead to true life in this life and that will enable us our house to stand at the end of time means that we choose the path of Jesus which happens be going in different direction than the crowd. It means that we live out his teachings how we relate to God, to people, our enemies, our sexual choices, investing our money, how we define success…
Choosing a path will lead to true life in this life and a house standing at the end of time, means we are moving to the music of a different musician. We are moving to score of Jesus Christ.
How do we build a house that will enable us to be left standing in the end?
If we look at the immediately preceding context in the sermon, we see that Jesus says, not everyone who says to me LORD, LORD will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the she or he who does the will father.
Jesus says in this passage that there will be people, who claim to believe in Him, who even say amazing, prophetic things in His name, there will be people who even perform miracles, but who on judgment day of some of these will not be admitted into the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus will say, to some of these (who say to him “Lord, Lord”) “Away from me I never knew you.”
How can this be? If God uses someone isn’t it a sign that that person belongs to God? Not necessarily. It’s possible for God to use people for his purposes that don’t even believe in him. God has spoken through a donkey! God a big wish, white shark, as a kind of submarine. He used an evil nation like Assyria to achieve His purposes. God can use for his purposes anything or anyone he wants to. And just because God uses them that doesn’t mean they belong to him.
Jesus says in vs. 21, NOT everyone who says to me LORD, LORD will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only he or she who does will of my Father.
Some of us who have read what’s often referred to as the New Testament part of the Bible may say, but doesn’t Paul say we are saved by faith, not by our good works? Yes, Paul says that. Are Jesus and Paul preaching different Gospels? Same truth. Different angle and emphasis.
Both Jesus and Paul teach that it is only trusting in Jesus Christ that we made acceptable to God. But when we trust Christ, when we truly believe in Christ, that trust, that belief will be manifest in what we do. What we do reveals what’s in our heart, what we believe.
Let says a woman gets off from work earlier than expected, but instead of calling her husband at home on her cell phone to let her know she’s going to be coming home earlier that evening than expected, she decides she show up and surprise her husband. She quietly opens the front door doesn’t see her husband on main floors goes up stairs, and quietly walks down the hallway and opens and find her husband in a bed with a another woman.
The man says, “Oh honey, you’re home early. This isn’t what it looks like. As hiswife turns walk down the stairs, “he says, honey you know I love you… you know I love more than anyone else in the whole world.”
Maybe so, but in that moment, was not the husband saying he when decided to sleep that that other woman, in that moment was he not saying he loved himself more than his wife?
Ultimately, what we really believe will be revealed in what we do.
So, people will be saved, they enter the Kingdom based on what they believed, i.e., who they trusted, but we will be judged by our works, because what we believe is ultimately manifest in what we do.
In the context, of story of the two houses, it’s clear that both people hear the same sermon Jesus gives, both apparently profess to believe in God, both live in the same neighborhood (we know that because they are affected by same storm), both apparently go to same church, both read the same Bible…
But one actually truly believes in what Jesus teaches because he puts them into practice and the other person evidently professes to believe, but really does not believe because this person does not put the words of Jesus into practice.
The one who truly believes and puts Jesus words into practice is like a person who builds their house on the rock.
The one who does not believe in Jesus’ words enough to put them into practice is like the person who builds his house on the sand.
And sand, as we know is, is inherently unstable. We say no one could really be so stupid as to build on sand! Think again. When I was living in Southern California, I lived close the beach and I remember homes were built not far from our neighborhood on Sandy Cliffs overlooking the ocean. When the faults shifted or tremor hit, some of these lavish homes literally slid off the cliff on the beach below. And even after such disasters many of these people would rebuild their homes on these sandy cliffs.
People build on sand literally and figuratively.
While the sun is shining these people look great, but when the storms and hurricanes come… these people houses’, i.e. lives come down.
If we build our lives on the sand of our youthful beauty or physical strength, we will eventually be brought low.
Like you, I’ve heard for some time now when we turn age 40 we really only turning age 30, but I heard this past week on an infomercial on a nautilus exercise machine that when we turn age 50… we’re really turning age 30. I know chronological age and biological age are different, and we can slow biological age through diet and exercise, but there really will come a time when hit do 40 (biologically) and then 50 and maybe 60 and perhaps 80…. And if the foundation of our life is our physical beauty or virility and it’s going shift under us suddenly or slowly over time through erosion, we’ll going come down hard.
If our life is built on Christ and when lose these things, we’ll be experience disappointment, but we will not go down because we’re building on a solid foundation.
If our life is built on money… In the storm, we’re going to go down…
Earlier this month, our staff went our annual staff retreat. As part of our staff retreat, each of us shared our family genograms… As I was doing research on our family tree I discovered there are people in our family tree who have come into great wealth and lost it--like in a movie… it was a reminder of how unstable money as foundation can be. There are people in our family tree who seem have more money than they could spend in one life time, but that has not enabled them to buy healthy marriages, happy homes, and for some money has been a significant impediment in their relationship to God. They tend to feel little or no need for God.
A life built on money is not only build a foundation of sand, but that foundation can also keep from a building a priceless, eternal treasure.
If our life is built on money, and we lose it we’ll be devastated
If life is built on Christ and we lose our money, we’ll grieve, but we will stand…
If our life is built on our talent or productivity, we’re liable to be cut down in a storm.
A number of people know this so people and they’ve so ensured themselves. People like Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart have $6 million policy on their voices and the chief taster for Dreyer's Ice Cream has also insured his tasting ability, in the amount of $1 million.
If our life is built on our talent or ability to do something and we lose that talent, we’ll be crushed…
A very gifted pastor I know of had a brother who was also a pastor who was even more gifted that he. One day his brother through an accident became paralyzed and ended up taking his life.
If our life is built more on our ability to do something for God, more than God, it that’s taken we’ll be crushed…
If it’s built on Christ and we lose our ability to do something, we’ll mourn that loss deeply, but we will left standing.
So how do we do we know whether we’re building on Christ and His word or something else?
According to vs. 24, we know by whether we are in fact putting Jesus words into practice, according to verse 21 we know if we are doing the will of the father.
So we must ask ourselves are we (or are we becoming) the kind of people who puts Christ’s words into practice?
The questions is not are we hearing Christ’s word, but are we doing it?
Dale Bruner says, “The house that crashes is the house of Christians who find Jesus’ words important enough to listen to, but not realistic enough to live.”
A Christian friend of mine once, said I’m busy and I think it is important to pray, but I really I don’t have time to pray. But the fact is as I look at my life, I exercise about hour almost everyday. I thought I believed pray was important, but maybe I don’t.
Because I if really believe that, I’d pray, I’d make time.
Sometimes there’s a gap between our professed beliefs and what we really believe and the way we understand what really believe is by what we do. Dallas Willard we also act in a way that consistent with our beliefs, not necessarily our professed beliefs.
If we were to take an audit of our actual lives, could we say we living out or becoming people kind that Christ describes in his sermon. Do we relate to God humbly, in so far as we can are we seeking peace with people, are honoring Christ teaching about sex and marriage, our keeping our word, are we dealing with our enemies lovingly, are giving generously without needing applause, are we praying, fasting (saying not to say yes to God, are we investing our wealth with God in heaven, are about worrying less and seeking the Kingdom more, are we resisting to judge others condemning in a self-righteous way?
Because what we do reveals, what we believe, what our foundation is.
Last summer, during my study leave, I was thinking preaching the sermon on the Mount this coming year, I heard about a couple of people in community this who have memorized. I thought if they could do it and they older than me, I think I could do it. I thought if kids can memorize the Koran, I can memorize Sermon on Mount… I did. Then over the year, I forgot a bunch of it. But summer’s here and summer a good time to review memorize…I want to encourage you to consider memorizing it (you say I don’t get study job) ok or part of it… and then… Do it. Just Do it.
Tony Evans is an African American minister. He said when he was a boy his dad bought him a balloon boxing bag.
He said, he’d hit it “boom” and it would hit the floor “boom, boom” it would go
“Bam, boom, and bounce” back “ping.”
“Boom, boom, boom”… “Boom, boom, boom… ping.”
One time he kicked it “Wap, wap… wap…wap ping.”
It kept coming back because at the bottom of the bag was a weight, at the foundation, that was heavier than the rest of the bag, so the weight at the bottom determined wear the bag would finally wound up.
When the storms of time go bam, if the weight of Christ is at our foundation we will keeping come back “ping.” When satan and darkness try to take us down and the go wap, we’ll bounce back, “ping…” When high water and hell go wap, wap, wap… we’ll bam, bam, bam. ping…”
Because the woman or man who builds their house on the rock of Jesus Christ who find themselves standing in the end!
Prayer:
Are you building your house on the sand or the rock?
The way you tell is by looking at whether you are putting into practice the words of Jesus.
There’s a old song which we won’t sing, but it goes, “LORD, I want to be in that number when Saints go marching.” Perhaps you want to pray that you will be in the number of people build their house in a way that will stand in this life and the life to come.
posted by Shigematsu at 6:22 PM
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