Conclusion

Notes
Transcript
Welcome...
Introduction...
I want to start this morning by telling you 3 things about our church.
You might jot these down as our “distinctives.”
We are all about Jesus (at Abide Church)
We sing for Jesus
We talk about Jesus
We put our trust and hope in Jesus
We find our identity in our relationship with Jesus
We tell people about Jesus
The Bible teaches us that no one has ever seen God and that God is so awesome and so powerful that it’s impossible to know him unless he chooses to reveal himself to us.
The Bible teaches us that God did exactly that when he sent his son into the world. Jesus is the revelation of God to man; and for that we worship him.
We are an imperfect people (worshiping a perfect God)
a. I see a lot of new faces out there and I don’t know what sorts of backgrounds you are bringing to church this morning.
b. One of the biggest complaints I hear about churches is that they are filled with a bunch of hypocrites. Let me put your mind at rest right now. The more you get to know us, the more you will see we are a church filled with normal people just like you. Broken, hurting, and often times confused.
c. We are not a church filled with people who have their life together.
d. The way we see it is that every person falls desperately short of God’s standard for righteousness. Because we fall short, we do our best to be open and honest with our struggles and give each other grace when we fail.
e. Because we all fall short of God’s standard for righteousness, we all find common ground and unite under the banner of Jesus’ grace. Jesus is the one who has made a way for us back to God.
And this leads me to our 3rd distinctive...
We will never stop telling the world the good news about Jesus
This world is broken. Humanity is separated from God.
Jesus came into the world to make a way back to God.
Jesus came into the world to heal our brokenness.
Jesus came to set us free from our own rebellion against God.
This is the greatest, most life-transforming, eternal, good news the world has ever known.
Matthew 7:24–27 ESV
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
The meaning of these words are simple. To build your house on the rock is to accept Jesus’ words as true. To accept his offer of salvation through faith. To have your foundation firmly in Jesus.
To built your house on the sand is to try and find steadiness on the ever shifting wisdom and law of man.
When the rain, floods, and wind come, only those who have put built their house on Jesus words will remain.
Not what’s on the outside, but what’s on the inside...
Not what does your house look like, but what is it built on??
It’s less about what your life looks like
And more about what your life is built on
Bare fruit in keeping with repentance...
Repentance produces a certain life, a certain fruit, we should expect to see our life growing in sanctification...
There is an element of doing here...
Our doing does not gain us righteousness
James 1:22–25 ESV
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
We are called to take Jesus’ word for it...
Matthew 24:35 ESV
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Rain, floods, and winds...
2 senses at least...
Life beats you down...
A final judgement is coming...
Everyone builds a house...
Protection/security
Hopes/dream
Hobbies/interests
Friends/family
Sandcastles we build...

1. Coming to God with pride

Matthew 5:3 ESV
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

2. Losing our saltiness, hiding our light

Matthew 5:13 ESV
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
Matthew 5:14–16 ESV
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

3. Forsaking the law of God

Matthew 5:17–18 ESV
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Matthew 5:19–20 ESV
Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

4. Looking outwardly and forgetting the heart

Matthew 5:21–22 ESV
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
Matthew 5:27–28 ESV
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

5 . Seeking our own glory

Matthew 6:1 ESV
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 6:2 ESV
“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

6. Building our own kingdom

Matthew 6:10 ESV
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Prayer is not an attempt to bend God’s will to ours, but rather an attempt to bend our will to God’s.
Matthew 6:19–20 ESV
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

7. Trusting our own strength

Matthew 6:25–27 ESV
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
Matthew 7:7–11 ESV
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

8. Rejecting Jesus’ central message

Matthew 7:24–27 ESV
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
John 11:25–26 ESV
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
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