Avoiding Quicksand
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever been in a building that seemed to be sturdy and on a solid foundation, but the storm that is brewing is making it seem like it could give way any minute? I can think of storms where the thunder was so close that the entire house shook.....an unsettling situation for sure.
I remember one particular storm. I wasn’t home at the time, but the storm blew through with winds that were very strong. I was at work and it was about mid-afternoon when my phone rang. I took one look and knew something was wrong. It was my Grandma and she didn’t call when I was at work. I answered this is what I heard.......There’s trees down all around your place and we can’t get close enough to know if any of them are on the house.
Well - I left in a hurry to drive the 45 minutes home. When I got there, I had to park out on the dirt road, which was opened up by that point by the neighbor. I climbed my way through my driveway and determined the house was fine, only narrowly being missed by the willow tree in the back yard. In all I had 13 trees down.
But there was one tree. A huge old maple tree, that actually needed to come down in the front yard. That tree stood through that storm. Oaks, maples and other similar trees have deep roots that give them a stale foundation, unlike that willow tree, whose roots were not deep at all.
Since Pastor Cindy and I came to Pella four months ago, we’ve been in various sections of Matthew 5-7, other known as the Sermon on the Mount. We’ve spent time in the Beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer, and several of the parables Jesus tells in this famous sermon.
We talked about worrying, asking, seeking, knocking to find the things of God. We talked about what it means to be salt and light and that we are to build our treasure in Heaven.
We talked about what it looks like to love our enemies.
You see, Jesus had a lot to say about behavior and attitudes and what our lives should like as citizens of the Kingdom of God and as disciples of Jesus. Very challenging stuff, mostly easier said than done.
Today, we are going to wrap up our time in the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus talks about people who make wise or foolish decisions.
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.”
Jesus’ parables were heard by all kinds of people. He taught wherever he went, but people ultimately still had the choice whether to accept or reject his teachings. We all have the same choice today. None of us, at least in the developed world can stand before Jesus saying we didn’t know or never heard about Jesus. We might not have much of any knowledge, but rare is the person who hasn’t heard something about Jesus.
But can you imagine hearing the good news from Jesus himself? I wonder what it would have been like to have been there. To hear the authority with which he taught, but also the compassion that he showed to people. We see reference in the New Testament that those who heard him teach “were astonished.”
Other translations may have amazed. This word in the Greek is used 4 times in Matthew and at a total of 13 times in the NT confined to the Synoptic Gospels and Acts.
Every time this word is used, it is always concerning the people or the disciples at the teaching of Jesus or His miracles.
WHAT WAS SO AMAZING? You see, Jesus could back up everything He spoke to them.
He demonstrated His authority over nature. He calmed a storm.
He had authority over demons and cast them out.
He had authority over disease and sickness and healed people.
He had authority over death and came back from the dead
He said He would come back and that is soon going to happen!
There has never been anyone else like Jesus who walked this earth!
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Jesus did not leave it to the crowd to perceive his authority. He claimed it!
Nothing matters more than people coming to Christ for salvation and then those people becoming disciples—not just members of the crowd. (Repeat)
When Jesus went up to a mountain to deliver his sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, there were two groups of people: the crowd and the disciples.
1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him,
2 and he began to teach them. He said:
This should be familiar to you. We talked about these verses our very first Sunday here back in April. There is a large crowd of people and a small group of disciples. And although the large crowd is present and listening, Jesus seems to be speaking to the smaller crowd. He was preaching to His disciples.
The “crowd” was a group of people who liked Jesus. Know anyone like that?
They were fascinated with Him, intrigued by His words and actions.
Wherever Jesus went, there they were. The crowd was aware of His healing powers and miraculous works, and they wanted to get in on that.
They were caught up in the excitement and didn’t want to miss anything.
And then, there are the disciples. This is a smaller group of people who don’t just like being around Jesus but have decided to trust and follow Jesus.
So, when Jesus sits down on a mountain to teach about the way to live life in the kingdom of God, He is speaking to those who are a part of the kingdom – His disciples.
The crowd is listening, but they are not getting it! But the crowd isn’t the goal.
To the world, the crowd and disciples may look the same but to Jesus He knew the difference. To Jesus one is curious and to the others He saw commitment.
To some they knew he spoke with authority but they were not going to bow to his authority and change their life- so when he looks for commitment to follow him, he knew who would go and who would stay. Jesus wants us to trust and follow Him, not just hang around him when it is convenient and safe.
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.
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.
The foolish build their lives on sand and it will one day come tumbling down. They had heard the message and did not follow, they only watched in the crowd. They were only curious and did not want a life change.
The wise built their lives on the Rock (Jesus) and on a firm foundation. Their lives will have troubles but their life will not tumble down under pressure because they are on a firm and solid foundation.
You see, hearing is not enough.
“Let him who has ears hear what the Spirit is saying”
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God
Faith comes by taking God’s word into your life and responding!
The crowd and the disciples heard the sermon. His preaching even amazed the crowd but most did not respond or even go to the next level and follow and pursue Him.
And the consequences of their decision are…eternal.
Those who hear Christ’s words but refuse to trust and follow Him will ultimately see their lives fall like a home without a solid foundation on sand.
But those who do trust and follow Jesus will be like a house built on a rock.
The house is built on the solid foundation that is Jesus. When the wind blows and the storm comes, the house will not fall.
So the challenge this morning for us all is to step out of the crowd and follow Jesus. To pursue him as the most important in your life.
Over my pastoral ministry, I’ve discovered there are a lot of people in the crowd. Jesus is looking for followers.
Jesus did not say come check me out…He said follow me!
For some of you, your life is not built on a firm foundation and you refuse to build upon the Rock of Christ. Your house may be standing, but one day the winds are going to blow and it will be too much for you to hold up and it will come crashing down around you.
We will all have storms. We do not know when and we do not know if we will be able to sustain it. The storms of life are not what you want to go through in your own strength and your own wisdom. Jesus is offering Himself to you this morning and asking you to follow Him. The storms may still be blowing but it won’t be in your own strength and the foundation that you will be standing on will be rock solid!
Some of us have experienced those winds and by the grace of God we are still standing! It is the foundation and where you are putting your trust.
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror
24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
We must not stop with only hearing Jesus’ words. Even studying them is not enough. Our hearing must result in doing, in serving others, in making other disciples! This is what it means to build on the rock foundation.
It is not the works that save you, but because of our salvation, because of what Jesus has done for us, because of the Holy Spirit and the word of God living within us, obedience to the words of God is not an option, it is something we live out day in and day out.
Our faith, our salvation is shown by the works of the Holy Spirit.
The fool in Scripture is not necessarily the person who lacks information. It is the person who does little or nothing with the information received.
Doing and living out the word, Jesus likens to wise man:
Some storms we see coming.....
Some storms we expect.....
Storms we never expected are the ones that bring us down.......
We are in trouble because the heart of man is deceived into believing they can save themselves without Jesus and it is quicksand and they are slowly sinking and going in over their heads and soon they will realize that they can no longer get out on their own! Only Jesus can get us out of the mess we create so much of the time.
We are in trouble when you think that you can mock God with our personal opinions that go against His word.
This world (the crowd) better get their head out of the sand before they get buried in the sand.
This is quite an audacious claim from Jesus, except that he actually had the authority to make it.
Jesus did not give his skeptics much room to maneuver in their opinion of who he was—he was either everything he says he was … or he was nothing at all. There is no in between.
Jesus must be fully accepted or fully rejected, for no “good moral teacher” would say the astonishing things Jesus did unless they were true.
Jesus is God’s Son. And Jesus words has authority as we read in the scriptures:
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.
Song- Solid Rock by preacher Edward Mote in 1837
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus' name
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
When darkness veils his lovely face
I rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil
His oath, his covenant, his blood
Supports me in the 'whelming floods
When all around my soul gives way
He then is all my hope and stay
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
That is not scripture but it is filled with Godly principals that will draw you to the hope of our salvation and our hope to help us journey in this life till we go home to be with Him. AMEN!
Who is the wise one? That is the question after looking at this parable- it is the one that builds his life on Jesus.
This is the one that builds his foundation on the foundation of Christ and doesn’t build it on their own opinions.
What one likes or doesn’t like.
What one agrees with or doesn’t agree with.
It is built on the truths of God.
Close-
Saul - one of the worst persecutor the church has ever seen.....became the Apostle Paul chose to be a fool for Christ.
To live for Christ.
To serve Christ.
To preach Christ.
To suffer for Christ.
To be defamed for Christ.
And, if necessary, to die for Christ.
Ken Weliever
It’s a great lesson for us today. The world doesn’t understand it when we give up pleasure, power, prestige, and position because of our Faith. To the unbeliever, it seems absurd. Unreasonable. Foolish.
However, like Paul, we “know in whom we have believed.”
We’ve experienced the blessings in Christ.
Witnessed the cleansing power of His blood.
Felt the peace of forgiveness.
Enjoyed the brotherhood of believers.
And faced life’s obstacles with the hope of better tomorrow in eternity.
In the words of the martyred missionary Jim Elliot, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
But the question remains for us this morning - are we acting on this faith in Christ in ways that help others find the same in Jesus? Are we helping them become disciples of Jesus?
Prayer
Benediction - Colossians 3:16-17 - Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
