Untitled Sermon

Good morning everyone, today is a special Sunday. I have the privilege to recognize our seniors of the class of 2025. So, starting off we have, 

Braelyne Brewer, Braelyne is graduating from the Albemarle school and will be attending Regent University to study worship ministry.

Samantha Hagan is also graduating from the Albemarle school and will be attending COA online for their Vet Tech program.

Levi Kretzer is graduating from Pasquotank County High School and will be entering the workforce before going to college. Levi is currently volunteering at the hospital.

Landon Kuhn is graduating from Pasquotank County High School and will be entering the workforce.

Nola Lee is graduating from Northeastern High School and will be attending UNCW to study…

Cayleigh Martin is graduating from Camden County High School and will be attending MACU to study Counseling and Psychology.

Seth Perry is also graduating from Camden County High School and will be enlisting in the army.

Adison Pharr is graduating from the Albemarle School and will be attending Lipscomb University to study Communications and Journalism.

Victoria Riggs is graduating from Camden County High School and is attending ECSU to study aviation.

Haley Smith is graduating from Camden County High School and is attending MACU to major in biology and ministry.

Take a moment in your seats to say a prayer for these seniors. Let’s pray.

One of the realities of Student Ministry is that students have to graduate and move on. It makes it challenging. Yet because of that it provides a mission for why we even exist. Why put in all this effort for students who are going to be gone in 5, 6 years? The mission of our students ministry is to bring students into a life-long relationship with Jesus. All the people that pour into these students don’t just want them to be disciples of Jesus through High School but we want to see these students be disciples of Jesus for their entire life. The way that this takes place is by helping these students have the Gospel of Jesus be the foundation of their life. The thing is, the Gospel is not just the foundation for these students but is the foundation for all Christians. In Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus says,

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 tells us about two different guys. A wise man who builds upon Jesus and a fool who does not. Jesus tells us that the foolish person only listens. “For everyone who hears these words of mine but does not put them into action is a fool.” So what are these words of Jesus? What is it that He is talking about at this moment? Well Jesus is ending His most famous section of teaching that we refer to as The Sermon on the Mount. It is a bunch of just really practical advice on how to live life. But there is an overarching theme in everything that Jesus talks about in it. It is focused upon our hearts. For example when Jesus talks about murder, He takes it deeper than just not killing someone. He says if you hate someone then you have committed muder in your heart. When He talks about prayer He tells us to pray somewhere where we aren’t seen. That prayer takes place when our hearts are set to Him and not the things of this world. 

The entire Sermon on the Mount is about that. If you go through which I encourage all of you this afternoon to read Matthew 5-7, you’ll see Jesus talks about the heart. The reason for this is because of that culture, the Pharisees in particular have started to count themselves as righteous because they do the right things, but their hearts are far from God. Jesus tells them over and over in this section that just doing the right things is not enough, our hearts have to be transformed and from that good actions will flow. These are the words that Jesus wants the people listening to hear. So the foolish person does two things. 

The first is that he listens and does nothing. This is the person who shows up every Sunday, listens to God’s word and just goes home and goes about their business as if they didn’t hear a thing Sunday morning. Which is a very foolish thing. I mean if you were a scientist and Albert Einstein wanted to talk to you, you’d listen to every word. Or if you were a basketball player and Steph Curry was going to teach you how to shoot, you’d listen to every word. But why when the one who created you explains to you what you need you choose not to listen. It is a very foolish thing to do, yet something I find myself doing quite often.

The next thing that the fool does, is they put the wrong words into place. They build the wrong foundation, the first type of fool has no foundation. This fool has that foundation out of sand. One that is made up of themselves. They hear the words of Jesus and say, “oh yeah, I can do that. I am able to live this out on my own.” This is the one that we build the most. We do things to feel good about ourselves. We worship with our mouths but not our hearts. We live this Christian life for ourselves and do not let God change our hearts. When we do that, we cannot withstand any storms. When we try to build without God changing our hearts we cannot withstand any challenges. Why? We have no actual buy-in to what we are doing. We are just doing it to do it, so if it is not easy we are going to go back to what is easy. But when we take the time to let God transform our hearts to be like His, that is a foundation that withstands the storms of life. Now one of our students, Colin Barclift is going to tell us all about what this foundation of rock is.