Rooted in the Foundation

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Turn with me to Matthew 7:15, today we will look at the parable of the two foundations, or, the parable of the wise man and foolish man. This parable is well-known, but not by its name. We’ve created a childrens song out it. So, thankfully, this one is well-known.

So start with me at verse 15 till 23,

Matthew 7:15-23

A Tree and Its Fruit
15 Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 So then, by their fruit you will recognize them.
21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22 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 perform many miracles?’
23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’

Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and the Sermon on the Plane, found in Luke 6, with similar words. Lukes is a little different, but the message is the same. You want to know if people are listening to you? Look at their works. Do they ask thoughtful questions about your topic? Or are they just listening so they can have turn to say what they want? You want to know if people are listening to Jesus? Jesus tells us plainly, look at their works! Oh but, what about the phrase you cant judge a book by its cover? Well what if I told you can tell the righteous from the unrighteous by their works? Better yet, what if Jesus told you that?

So lets look at this parable and see what we can learn from it. The parable in Matthews account is very similar to Lukes. We are more familiar to the parable because of the childrens song, but let me assure this topic is not for children.

Matthew 7:24-29

24 Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25 The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.
26 But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
27 The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse!”

28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at His teaching,
29 because He taught as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

The main point of Jesus parable at the end is to warn his disciples of the dangers of just listening. Those who do not attend church dont have this problem. This is because they arent listening. Jesus is warning us, those who come in every week and listen and preach. It is so easy for us to fall prey to just hearing, especially if the words that are taught make us feel good.

SLACKTIVISM
There is a term that I find amusing. Its called slacktivism. It means doing things that make you feel as if you are part of a cause, but youre really not doing anything at all. Here are a couple of modern day examples.

Someone that wears a shirt that says fight breast cancer, but has never been part of a 5k or has never donated to any organization that helps fight breast cancer. Maybe the person got the shirt from Goodwill for $1. They look like they are contributing, but not really. Those facebook posts that say Like this status if you love Jesus, and share if you’ve prayed today! Maybe you get those forwarded emails about a young child that is dying of some illness and if you forward the message to X amount of people, then the doctors will help. Or my favorite, buy our shoes or glasses and we will donate one pair to a child in need.

TOMS is a company that does this. Now, I buy them because they are comfy slip ons. And the fact Im doing good with my purchase also helped. But really Im just giving off the vibe that Im a good person, and if I dont display other works, then Im not really doing good for anyone other than my self esteem.

We can do this as Christians. We come to services, listen, then on the drive home feel convicted to change, but never take a step to do that. When we dont do what the Word says, then we are building our house on sand, or without foundation. This parable makes you choose between just listening and following the listening with the doing. This is not a matter of doing anything; it is a matter of doing what Jesus wants.

FAILING TO DO WHAT JESUS WANTS FAIL IN ONE PLACE, OR WRONG REASON We fail doing what Jesus asked us to do in two ways. One, we do something different than what Jesus asked us to do. Maybe we do nice things for people. Give to the needy and volunteer at the hospital, but when it comes to loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us, we hate our enemies and pray that God would wipe them off the face of the planet. And Two, we fail to do all that Jesus commands. Lord, Lord didnt we prophesy in your name, and cast out demons, and do mighty works in your name? See, there is nothing wrong with doing these things, but this is not the whole story of the Christian.

We can take this a step further and say, we must still do that things that we dont want to do. I mean who wouldnt want to prophesy, cast out demons, and work miracles? Thats cool stuff! I want to do that! Those would give us glory and praise if we did them. Wed look cool doing that stuff. Wed be superstars. But we are just thrill-seekers if we limit ourselves to the flashy things. We must be Christ-seekers and follow the whole counsel of God.

I went back through the Sermon on the Mount and after looking through it, there really isn’t a lot about prophesying, casting out demons, and working miracles. Jesus spoke of other things that are less fame seeking, like praying in secret and giving to the poor so that your left hand doesnt know what your right hand is doing. In fact, Jesus spoke a large amount of keeping things quiet and only letting your Father in heaven know what you are doing. Preachers are the most susceptible to this. They get up on Sunday and speak for awhile, do the flashy stuff, listen to people tell them how much they loved their words, and then they feel like theyve done enough and go home and veg out in front of the TV till about Friday. I do that, but only on Mondays.

Last point I want to make about this is from James 2:19. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believeand shudder!

James 2:19
You believe that God is one. Good for you! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

Even all we do is hear and affirm with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, then great! We are no better than a demon in fact we are worse than a demon, they in fact shudder. They know who is God and shudder at the thought of him.

The storm that is coming to all of us is not a matter of if, but a matter of when. There is no where in the bible that is says, Do x, y, and z and you will never have to face a storm in your life. In fact, to follow Jesus, you must suffer. You must take up your cross and kill your old person to follow Jesus.

HEAR THE WORD OF GOD
We must prepare for the storm by hearing the Word of God. This is a necessary step. We must find the proper balance of hearing and doing. Hearing too much numbs us into thinking that weve done enough just by hearing. Doing too much without hearing will cause us to do things that are not in line with what Jesus said. Finding the balance is key. I think most of you agree with me when I say that there is not enough of either, we must sacrifice more of our time for Jesus.

You need the word of God in your life constantly.

The Hebrew writer says in Hebrews 4:17,

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

When we hear the word of God, it does something to us. We learn from it. It helps us grow. It corrects our thinking and encourages us to do what’s right.

Most of us wouldn’t forget to eat for a whole day. Maybe we’d skip a meal or two, but not eating all day we get reminders from out stomach. But how often do we forget to spend time in the word for ourselves. Not for bible class, but for ourselves. Ill get caught up writing a new sermon or bible class preparation so that Ill skip a whole day without reading the Word for myself and quenching my thirst. This can happen to any of us. We must never forget that we need to hear the Word.

We must prepare for the storm being doing. There is a reason that a corporate side of a workplace gets a bad rep. When I worked at Dairy Queen, corporate would come it and tell us how to do our job and all of us would just snicker as the man told us how to do things.

We know that he and his brood would sit at their desks all day not actually trying to figure out what works in the real world, just what works in their world. I remember he was telling us how to make a smoothie and after every couple of steps hed stop and wash his hands, because thats what the list said to do. There is no way you could wash your hands that many times as you make a smoothie. This is for two reasons. One, the customers would complain for the ridiculous wait, and two youre hands would dry out in one day from so many washings.

When we just sit in our homes and ponder about how a Christian should should be a light and salt, how a Christian should talk to others about Christ, then actually doing those things, we become hypocrites. We deepen our understanding of God when we do his works. We can read all about what it was like for Jesus to suffer, but until we go out there are ridiculed for his name, we will never have a deep understanding. There is a knowledge we get by doing things.

You can’t prep during a storm. Wed like to think that because we are fine now, no matter what happens we will be okay. This is not true. We may be just fine right now, but we are not getting ready for the next storm. This is dangerous. You cant begin to build a shelter after a few drops of rain. Youre too late by then.

There is nothing better to build you life on than the words of Christ.

I’m not talk about just the RED letters in your bible.

Everyonce in a while I’ll hear the arguement that says, “Paul was not Jesus.” In other words, Paul’s words do not have the same weight as Jesus’ in Scripture.

Today, I invite you to begin to prepare for the storms of your life. I want you to do this by hearing and doing the words of Jesus. It is a scary thing to be in a storm. Its dark and lonely. Come share your storms with the one who can calm any storm by a word.

If you’re a Christian and you realize youve not been hearing and doing as you ought, you can come to the front row during the song and we will pray will you and help you anyway that we can. If youre not a Christian and you want to know more about Jesus, stick around after and let us show you our Savior. Let us show you the Gospel. If youre ready to give Jesus your life, to be buried in baptism, to confess Jesus as Lord, then come forward as we stand and sing.