Jesus, Our Firm Foundation

Intro

Today as we conclude our series we are looking at Jesus’ conclusion to his sermon. He isn’t going to be giving us new information just instead he is calling us to make a choice. As he starts to wrap things he presents us with himself and us gives us a radical choice between obedience and disobedience. He calls us to to an unconditional commitment of our minds, our will, and our lives to what he has taught us.

And he is going to warn of us of two unacceptable alternatives to total obedience, the first alternative that we going to see is only making a verbal profession of faith, we are also going to see the danger of only having a merely intellectual knowledge. but we are going to see that neither is a subsitute for obeying Christ, and neither means that you are on the narrow road that Jesus described a few verses earlier.

We are going to see that simply saying Jesus is Lord does not make him your Lord, your obedience does. simply knowing about Jesus doesn’t make him your Lord, your obedience does. I have been praying that Jesus’ words would do for you today what they did for Jesus’ followers 2000 years ago. Lets all look at our lives together this morning and ask ourselves. What is my life built on?

Matthew 7:21–23 NIV

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 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?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Right away this passage poses some major questions for us. Jesus starts out by saying not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

If you are like me you read that your like hold up I thought does that contradict other things we see in scripture like Romans 10:

Romans 10:9–13 NIV

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Is Jesus saying that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord won’t be saved? is the Bible contradicting itself? No.

Part of what Jesus is saying here is

1. Words aren’t a Substitute for our Walk.

The call to follow Christ is not a call to say you’re a Christian and keep living how you want. The call to follow Christ is a call to make Jesus your Lord. But simply saying Jesus is your Lord doesn’t make him your Lord. Proclaiming Jesus as your Lord should be a declaration of what has happened in your heart that you cannot contain, you will declare to the world what Jesus has done for you not just with your words but how you live your life.

When I asked Alysa to marry me one year to the day when we started dating, in the same spot that I asked her to be my girlfriend. January 8th 2014. My declaration to her with my mouth was the overflow of what already happened in my heart. I loved her and had made the choice that I would choose to love her for the rest of my life.

I could have asked her to marry her without loving her, I could have loved her without ever working up the courage to declare it, and I could have declared it with no intention of continuing to love and be faithful to her. But to have a marriage that reflects the love of Christ to the church I needed it all I needed the heart that was ready to love sacrificially, and I needed to declare it with my words, and I need to then live it out not just on our wedding day but every day.

So when Jesus says not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. He isn’t saying that if you call on the name of Jesus you wont be saved. What he is saying is that there will be people that will claim he is their Lord that he will not know. He wont know them because He wasn’t really their Lord they just claimed that he was.

you can sing songs about Jesus being our Lord, you can share bible verses on our social media, you can put Christian in your bio, you can buy pillows at hobby lobby with Jeremiah 29:11 on it none of that makes Jesus your lord. Only obedience makes Jesus your Lord.

Your words aren’t a substitute for walking in obedience.

Throughout the sermon on the mount Jesus has been showing us he just isnt after our blind obedience he is after our hearts. In chapter 5 when he talked to us about anger, murder, adultery, telling the truth, going the second mile, and loving our enemies.

In each of these case studies Jesus gives, the call is the same he isn’t just calling our hands and our mouths to obedience but our hearts as well.

It is heart and confession not just words

We talk all we want. I can say I love Alysa all I want. I can even do the things I’m technically supposed to do. Like buying flowers. But she could tell if my heart isn’t in it and I am not devoted to her.

2. Jesus Knows when your Heart isn’t His.

Men can fool women into thinking they love them till they get what they want out of them. Women can fool men in the same way. But we cannot fool Jesus. He knows the direction of your heart because he created it. You can put Christian in your bio and fool people, you can’t put Christian in your bio and fool Jesus.

Paul said if you confess with your mouth, AND believe in your heart God raised him from the dead you will be saved.

To follow Christ yes you need to profess him publicly, but your heart must also be devoted to him privately.

These people Jesus says that he never knew did good things in his name they even did miraculous things in his name but that didn’t mean their hearts belonged to Jesus.

You might be doing things in his name but your heart can still be far from him.

Heres the hard truth. It is possible to be in ministry and still miss Jesus.

signs and wonders can come from other sources than God. including the demonic world and human ingenuity. Pharaoh’s magicians could replicate some of the plagues, people from tribes that have been cut off from the world think air planes and helicopters are magic. We aren’t called to chase after signs and wonders, we are called to pursue righteousness. We are called to build our lives on the firm foundation of his instructions not just talk about them or know them.

Matthew 7:24–27 NIV

“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. 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. 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 rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Here we see Jesus address the second substitute for obedience that people cling to an intellectual knowledge of Jesus and his teachings.

to be clear having an intellectual knowledge of Jesus’ teaching is important, however if you have the knowledge and then choose to not put it into practice. If you know that a life built on Jesus is better and instead you choose to build your life on the values of this world. Jesus doesn’t mix words he calls you a fool.

We can build our lives on the rock or we can build our lives on sand. There is no third option because Jesus our rock is the only thing strong enough to build our lives on.

But heres the thing just like people couldn’t tell the the people who proclaimed christ as Lord didn’t really know him. to the casual observer someone who’s life is built on sand looks no different than the life built on the rock. Because the difference is in the foundation and foundations aren’t seen.

When people come over to your house you don’t take them to the basement and show off your foundation. and you can’t see it from the outside. A house with a good foundation and house who’s builders cut corners and the foundation is cracked often look the same.

In the same way professing Christians both genuine and nongenuine look alike, both appear to be building Christian lives. they both go to church, they both read the Bible, they both listen to Christian podcasts. The exterior looks good. but the question is not whether they hear Christ’s teachings, but weather they do what they hear and in every case.

3. The Storm Reveals Your Foundation.

In Jesus’ example both homes were standing, both looked good, it wasn’t till the rain, and the wind came that the truth was revealed. The foundation of sand could not hold up to the forces coming against it.

Every single one of us will face storms in our lives. With a group this size I know there are people in this room going for a storm right now. Jesus did not tell us if you face trouble he said when you face trouble. All of us will go through things in our lives that shake us to our core.

When we encounter those storms is when we see if the foundation we have built our life on is solid or not.

If you have built your life on your career a downsizing can happen and you will find that foundation is faulty. if you have built your life on money, one stock market crash will show that building your life on money will cause your world to come crashing in. If you have built your life on your relationships one unsresolved conflict can reveal how fragile that foundation is. If you built your life on taking pride in your health, one diagnosis can send everything into doubt. Dont build your life on sand.

building on sand is easier, it is cheeper, it is more convienient, and the downsides dont seem obvious at first. but Sand will not stand up to the storms of life when they come, sand will not satisfy. I don’t know about you but if I know a storm is coming I want to be as secure as possible.

Throughout the sermon of the mount Jesus has shown us how we are called to be different. We are not just called to be different in the things we believe, the things we say, or the things we know.

We are called to be different down to the foundation. To the very core of who we are. We are called to build our lives on the rock. We aren’t called to just learn about the rock we are to put into practice what he’s told and build our lives on everything that he has told us to do.

Here’s the true beauty of all of all of this. The reasons that a builder may not lay a good foundation are because its more expensive, it takes more work, it takes more time. They cut corners. they look after their own interests.

But listen to this. We are not dependent on people to build our foundation. Thankfully we do not have to build our foundation ourselves. Thank goodness cause I wouldn’t want to live in a house that I laid the foundation for. The foundation that we are to build our life was laid by the master builder. God lays our foundation, and he’s not going to cut corners, he is not looking to profit off of us. Our builder laid our foundation. and he paid for it himself. With his own blood he paid to lay the foundation.

We all build somewhere. The question isn’t if you’re building but where. Will you keep building on what’s convenient or on what is eternal?

To build our life on the foundation of Christ, to walk the narrow path it does require obedience on our part. But if we have placed our faith in him we have outwardly professed what our heart has believed and decided. We will want to obey the object of our affection our mighty savior.

But even if we stray and we stumble or we build a piece of our life off the foundation he laid for us. Your disobedience cannot crack the foundation. There are consequences if you choose to disobey all the wisdom that Jesus has laid out for us this summer in these chapters. But cracking the foundation is not one of them.

His word is sure and true and when we choose to stand on it will make your marriage stronger, it will make your friendships stronger,

it will give you a greater purpose with your life to be salt and light in the world,

you will be able to control your anger,

you will be a person of truth down to the core your being,

you will become someone who consistently does more than expected for other people,

you will learn to love your enemies,

When you stand on the foundation of what Jesus has done for you you will become a naturally generous person,

you will run to God in prayer with your problems, your mess ups, and just because you want to spend time with him,

you will want to fast and give things up so you can get even closer,

You will know that he is the true treasure not the trinkets we collect on earth,

You will not be overcome with anxiety because you will trust that no matter the circumstance the foundation he built for you will hold,

You wont seek to cast judgement on others when they fail because you know that it is by grace that you stand on a firm foundation and not because of your own work

You know you know you have a father that loves you and when you seek him he will always be there to give what he deems best.

Does this sound like a foundation you want your life built on?

This is the foundation that Jesus has described in the greatest sermon ever preached. A foundation not based on what this world says will satisfy but a foundation that that is built in the trust of one name.

Matthew 7:28–29 NIV

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

What will you do with all this head knowledge? Will you file it away and go on with your life like the fool who built his house on the sand. Or do you believe that Jesus speaks with authority over your life. Is he worthy to be your Lord, Do you trust him enough that his foundation is strong enough to support your whole life? I have done my best this summer to give you all the knowledge but now you have to choose what will you do with it. Will you build your life on the sand that this world says is solid but will eventually collapse. Or will you build your life on the firm foundation of the work and the words of Jesus. That no storm you face in this life will ever be able crack?