Built by Power

Matthew 7:24–27 KJV 1900

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

Acts 2:1–4 KJV 1900

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

I have a series of questions?

What did Jesus come to do?

Was he successful?

Is the work complete?

1. Jesus Came to

Preach of the Kingdom of God which called for repentance and believing in him

Set captives free spiritually that they might be made righteous in God’s sight and have access to his eternal kingdom

Summed up in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

2. Yes he was For 3 years he

he taught through parables,

preached under the anointing of God,

performed miracles signs

Died on the cross for the remission of sins and rose again 3 days later with power in his hand over death, hell and the grave

Summed up in Luke 24:46–48 “And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things.”

3. Is the work complete?

The work of Christ is in fact complete, he himself cemented in on the cross when he looked up to heaven and declared it is finished

But there is another work. There is a work that was not meant for Christ but for his church. His people, his bride, his mirrored representation. There is a work for the “little Christs” left on the Earth. Why? Because the work of Christ in his ministry is to last for all time, yet the work left for us to be completed and carried out for our time. What is our time? When you typically read an obituary you’ll see an equation, the equation reads a date inclusive of month, day, year then it is followed by a Hyphen which is followed by another date inclusive of month, day year. This equation shows our beginning as well as our end, yet the dates that are present are the least important parts of the equation in God’s eyes. For the work that has been left for the church, the most important part of this equation is the hyphen in the middle. Why? Because in the hyphen is the book of “you”.

You are the author, the world is the audience, what was the theme, who was impacted, who did you stand for? Did you stand or did you fall, did you succeed or where you a failure? When God looks at your hyphen what will he say? Were you his, or not?

Jesus, in Matthew 7 wrapped up his sermon on the mount and series on teachings and ended with a parable of 2 foundations. Pastor Allyson pointed out last week that there were

2 foundations

2 builders

2 houses

2 Outcomes

She pointed out the constant 2’s but what she also mentioned was a singular instance in the parable. 1 storm. Jesus in his explanation mentions that there was a storm of rain, flooding, and winds. To the house on the rock, the house stood firm, but to the house built on sand, the fall was great.

I’ll pause the sermon for a short second and offer Jesus right now, and if you do not have him as your savior, I invite you to accept his gift of salvation and encourage you by saying that God loves you right now and wants to spend eternity with you and if you are unsure if you have done what’s necessary to make that happen to come now and get the gift. God, who is rich in mercy desires that you receive his mercy, by confessing your sins, confessing that Jesus is his son and died for your sins and by repenting of your sin filled life that you might have life everlasting.

To those already have him though, we’ve got work to do.

In order to properly understand the storm you’ve got to understand the purpose of the house. When building a house, Jesus has already told us the 1st thing we need, a strong foundation. He doesn’t labor himself with the other details because

structures may vary,

sizes may very,

the speed in which a house is built may vary,

but what must be constant, is that it is on a firm foundation. Yet how do you know what your house is built on and if it’s going to last? The storms! The storm comes to test not the aesthetics of the house. Storms are not there to see how strong your shingles of the roof are, they did not come to test whether or not your house is brick or vinyl, storms come to see what you are standing on! Are you standing on

HIS word or your words,

are you standing on his love or your love?

Why do you do what you do?

What’s your 1st nature?

Lets’s look at the storm

Wind-

distractions -anything that will distract you from your relationship with God & the work of christ

false beliefs - humanism, other faiths,

Anti Christ forces- anything that counters the teachings, words, and work of Christ

Flooding -

A state of overwhelming

true trials of your faith

Trial- test (something, especially a new product) to assess its suitability or performance.)

Rain

Divine Judgement-God is going to determine if you are his or not

We don’t need to be afraid of the storms though because,

We know they are coming

We have the remedy for dealing with storms

If you hear and obey

Jesus words

Blot out distractions - 2 Corinthians 10:5“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”

Draw you closer to God - John 17:21 “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”

Gives you peace in when you are overwhelmed - John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Prepares you for the trials of life -

Covers you during divine judgement - John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Jesus made himself the foundation of rock for us that we would be able to handle the storms! Yet he still had the mind of a builder. He knew that the house did matter. Jesus however was not interested in a weak house, he even said the in his father’s house there were many mansions, he had a big mindset when it came to houses. He had a plan to build the largest house in the name of God that that has ever been seen. He built a church. A place where God would dwell, and place where God’s power would be seen and experienced. Jesus knew what his father desired and in doing so established a people, a place, breathing, living thriving edifice where God would be present. He stated with his own disciples, Peter’s revelation of Jesus as the Christ was the rock in which he would build his church. Yet he knew that revelation was not enough for the next phase of building.

The church had a foundation but it needed, walls, and a blueprint for structure and power.

Acts 2:1–4 KJV 1900

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

The holy Ghost is needed to (Preach the Text)

Preach the Gospel (build the body)

Bring forth fruit (edify the body)

Show God’s power (MSW)