40 Preaching Teaching: Matthew 7b-Solid Foundation
Notes
Transcript
What are you building on?
What are you building on?
EOT-What you build on reveals your destination.
EOS-Building Blocks for eternity.
DDS-What are you building your life on.
Intro:
Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To retire late,
To eat the bread of painful labors;
For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.
What does your spiritual house look like, how deep is your foundation?
I just graduated college and was about to go into full time ministry. My college roommate lived in the town of my college and his parents were kind of my in town grandparents. So I was staying with them as I was raising support to work with college students. I would be gone during the day raising support and then I would come back and stay at their home. They had a nice home, they still are to this day some of the greatest people on the earth and one day I came home and everything was gone. Burned to the ground. They found out that the toaster caused their entire home to burn to the ground.
Today we are going to look at a story of two people who built their houses.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
“And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.
As a young man I was building a foundation-. Physically I was in top notch shape I worked out for countless hours a day. And I worked hard. I was building this foundation so I could pursue my dream of making the NBA. Nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact I think many times our young people don’t have big enough dreams. But when I was in college I realized for the first time that even though I was building a house, I realized that I was building the wrong kind of house. Yes I was strong and pretty good at basketball but if that was all I had in life I really would not have much.
If this house was all I had it would eventually come tumbling down.
After that day as a freshman in College I realized that I wanted to build a house on solid foundation.
Now as a follower of Jesus I want to build a house on something that will last, on a firm foundation.
Jesus warns us today to build our house on things that will last.
But what I have found is as a believer sometimes we can build our house on things that won’t last instead of on things that will last. Even though I know I am supposed to build my life on a firm foundation, at times I can build it on ground that will not last.
Today I want to ask the question what are you building your house on?
Are you spending your life or are you investing your life?
If we want to build our hose on the Solid rock we have to beware of three things
False Prophets
False Followers
False Footing
Three things we must beware of to build our lives on eternity:
1. If we want to build our house on a firm foundation we must beware of false leaders. (7:15-20)
1. If we want to build our house on a firm foundation we must beware of false leaders. (7:15-20)
How to build our lives on Jesus:
We must beware of False Prophets.
“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.
There are two main things of a prophet in the Bible
a. The one we think of most is the one who foretells the future.
b. A prophet is also someone who speaks truth.
But here he defines what we are to be weary of someone who looks the part and isn’t.
Think about this why is Satan so bad, it is not just because he is bad, it is because he looks good and then he is bad.
Can’t we all relate to this. It does not hurt that as bad when a stranger hurts us, it still hurts, but it really hurts when a friend hurts us and stabs us in the back.
These teachers looked the part, they acted the part, but they were not the part.
Most of the Pharisees and Scribes looked the part of the right prophets, they wore the right clothes they went to the worship services. But they taught a legalistic way of life that said you have to earn your salvation, they taught a path that led to death. The manned a at narrow gate, but it was not the gate that lead to life, it was a gate that lead to death and many were going down that route. They taught that you had to earn the very love of God.
There are false teachers today-
Two main ways we can spot a false teachers teaching-
They claim greater authority over the Bible
They claim greater authority over the Bible
They don’t magnify Jesus
They don’t magnify Jesus
You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
You know what false teachers are missing for sure, LOVING PEOPLE. Their is a story about a lady who was committed in adultery in the Bible and the leaders, the prophets wanted to stone them. True teachers want to share the very love of God with them.
Teachings and actions are both important:
Teachings and actions are both important:
A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.
The fruit test.
You probably don’t really think about counterfeit money. I do when I was in High school one of my teammates stayed home from school and their was a TV show on about counterfeiting money. And he had this bright idea to try it.
At the gas stations one of my friends gave me a one of these bills and said Ill pay for gas, I was not in on the scheme but Ill never forget it when I handed this fake 20 to the attendant he started examining it.
Long story short my friends nice scheme that he tried got busted within in a few days, moral of the story don’t mess with the Secret service, my friends who were in on the scheme escaped jail time because they were 17 and not 18, or else they would have had a minimum of 5 years in jail.
No one has a problem with real money, our problem is with fake.
Now that you know that BEWARE OF fake money.
Real money is not a problem counterfeit money is.
In the same way today authentic Christianity is not just what people want it is what you and I were made for.
Nut today their is a lot of Counterfeit religions that we need to beware of.
What about you do you have real Christianity or is it counterfeit?
Have some fake fruit and some real fruit up there. ILLUSTRSTION
False teachers usually have self seeking motivations.
The point that Jesus was making, in verse 18, was simply that false prophets do what is bad, and people who follow God faithfully typically do what is good. How disciples of Jesus live was very important to Him.
Prophets true to God’s Word produce righteous conduct, but false prophets who disregard God’s Word produce unrighteous conduct (v. 17).
Church we hold the Bible as authoritative and we want to magnify Jesus. If we ever go away from this, it is time for you to find another church.
If we stop doing that it is time to find another church because at that point we are just a country club.
2. If we want to build our house on a firm foundation we must beware of false faith.(7:21-23)
2. If we want to build our house on a firm foundation we must beware of false faith.(7:21-23)
The first half of my life I was a false follower of Jesus. If you would have asked me if I loved Jesus, i would have said yes. Even though I had no idea what that meant. My faith was in myself.
Just because you can answer this question right does not mean you have the right answer, but having the right answer at least shows you understand the gospel of GRACE.
I ask this question all the time, On a scale of 0-100 how sure are you that you are going to heaven when you die?
“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.
How would you answer that. You see there were people who genuniely thought they had the right answer that were not going to heaven.
There are people claim to be followers, who will get to the gates of heaven and they will not get in. They will think they are getting in and even call out Jesus name and they will not get in.
There will be people who on the day of judgement who say, Lord I am ready, and he is going to say no.
The reality of Judgement!
The reality of Judgement!
Illustration:
Heavens gates and Hells flames, tell the story at Mt. Carmel. Now I don’t think our greatest motivation to going to heaven should be that God literally scares the hell out of us. But There is a reality of Hell and people who genuinely think they are going to heaven will end up in Hell.
I once heard a preacher say, you are not kinda of pregnant, and you are not kinda saved. You either are or you are not.
If this is the most important question, should we not know the answer.
Taking verse 21 by itself, out of its context, some interpreters have concluded that we are saved by good works. But doing the will of God does not mean just doing good works. It means believing that Jesus is the Messiah and relying upon Him alone for salvation (cf.
On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’
Notice we are not saved by works, there are people who have done works even in the name of Jesus, they prophesied in his name. This is all good stuff.
We are not saved by anything we can do.
What you can do will never make God love you.
Isn’t this what the sermon on the mount has been telling us this whole time, there is nothing we can do to earn the love and favor of God.
Notice they did miracles. Let’s read this again, they did miracles. In his name, this was not enough.
But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’
“To none will He say in that day, ‘I used to know you, but I know you no more.’ His word to the lost will be, ‘I never knew you.’“
Notice Jesus does not say hey once we were so close and now we are not. He says I never knew you. It is not like a former best friend who stabbed you in the back. He never knew these people.
We talk all the time that it is about authentic relationships and that relationship starts with our relationship with God.
Eternal life is actually defined as a relationship with God
John 17:3 ““This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
Before God ever asks us to do anything he asks us to be with him and to know him.
My problem as a youth was that I did not have a relationship with God.
One of the things I learned in youth ministry is that the people who grew up in church could fake a relationship with God the best. Because you could know the right answers without knowing the saviour.
How do you know that you have the relationship with God.
Receive the gift
Receive the gift
And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
Why did this author write this verse
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
He wants us to know that we have a relationship with the KING OF KINGS!
Just this week one of my kids who is going through a lot told me, that his new favorite verse is where it says he will never leave nor forsake you.
SFA with an evangelist friend sharing with Conque-Do you know that you know that you are going to heaven?
Today beware of false faith.
Do you know that you know that you are going to heaven when you die?
GIVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO PUT YOUR FAITH IN JESUS RIGHT HERE.
3. If we want to build our house on a firm foundation we must beware of false Foundations (7:24-27).
3. If we want to build our house on a firm foundation we must beware of false Foundations (7:24-27).
Everyone will leave a legacy. It is not if you will leave a legacy, it is what kind of legacy will you leave.
What kind of house will you build.
How you build your life determines if you are wise or a fool.
Does anyone want to be a fool.
An eternal legacy is wise!
An eternal legacy is wise!
“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.
Just think about this setting for a second. You have men and women who knew the Bible better than anyone here. Some of the Scribes and Pharisees actually memorized huge chunks of the scripture. It is important to know the Bible. But the end goal is that the Bible is not just head knowledge but life transformative.
DANGEROUS CALLING Quotes
This is why we are doing the NT challenge, because we want the Bible to live in us and through us and to change our lives.
A temporal legacy is foolish
A temporal legacy is foolish
But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”
