We Are All Builders 9-1-24 AM

I. The houses (Matt. 7:24, 26).

a. Jesus tells of two different builders who were each building themselves a house.

b. We have to remember the word “therefore.”

i. Jesus was been talking about entering the kingdom of heaven.

ii. We have to be on the right path that leads to the right place, heaven.

iii. We have to be producing the right fruit in order to get to heaven.

iv. We have to be doers of the word in order to produce the right fruit.

c. So, because of all these things, we need to understand we are all building something in this life.

d. The thing we are building is a life, which Jesus represents by a house.

e. We talk to young couples about building a life together.

i. This is a true idea.

ii. When man and woman join one another to become husband and wife, those two build a life together.

f. However, we are all building our own lives as well, spiritually speaking.

g. We are all building it on some kind of foundation.

i. This foundation is what we establish as being important in our lives.

ii. It is some doctrine or philosophy of life that we deem important enough to use it expand our knowledge and guide our lives.

h. We cannot get away from the fact that we are all builders.

i. Each of us that is of a sound mind is building a life on some tenet or doctrine that we hold dear.

II. The storms (Matt. 7:25, 27).

a. Jesus said that storms hit both of these houses.

b. These storms may be literal, physical storms.

i. Back in 2002, when the tornadoes came through on Nov. 10th, one of them hit our house behind the church building at West Walker.

ii. It did a great amount of damage and we lost a lot but not everything.

iii. Some of you may have been through that or we all know people who have lost everything due to a fire.

iv. There are all types of storms that could be mentioned.

v. How did you react?

vi. How will we react if one comes in the future?

vii. We could fall apart, blame God for losing everything, and ultimately lose our faith.

viii. Or, we could stand with God and lean on Him and show others our dependence upon God in such a time as that.

c. The storms may be tragedies or difficulties of life.

i. How will we react to the death of a spouse, or a child?

ii. How will we react to receiving bad health news?

iii. How will we react if we lose our jobs?

iv. How will we react if our spouse commits adultery?

v. All of these, and many more, storms can, and some will, hit us in life.

vi. How we react in those moments will show to others the foundation on which we’ve built our lives.

d. There is one more storm that all will face, and I believe that Jesus is referring to this storm over all others.

e. This is the storm of the judgment (Heb. 9:27).

i. Jesus has said His followers can expect persecution (Matt. 5:10-12).

ii. He has said His way is hard and the other way is easy (Matt. 7:13-14).

iii. What makes choosing persecution and the hard way worth all of that is the reward of heaven.

f. There is a day of judgment coming (2 Cor. 5:10).

i. Those who have allowed their righteousness to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees will survive the storm of judgment.

ii. It is not being successful in this life that shows wisdom.

iii. We know the foolish person, spiritually speaking, is often rich, rewarded with power, and secure in this life.

iv. Those riches, that power, and that security in this life will provide no protection or strength when the storm of judgment comes.

g. Paul made the teaching of the judgment and God’s wrath a main point.

i. 1 Th. 1:10.

ii. It was a main point in his sermon on Mars Hill (Acts 17:30-31).

iii. To be saved from that wrath, one has to obey Jesus (Rom. 5:9).

h. The storms of life and judgment are all coming for each of us.

i. Will we stand or collapse when they arrive?

j. That will be determined by our foundation which leads us to the last point.

III. The foundations.

a. In these verses, there are two types of builders, various types of storms, and two foundation on which we build our lives.

b. Jesus said that one who hears and does the sayings of His has built his life on a foundation of rock.

c. The one who hears those same sayings but does not do them has built his life on sand.

d. Think about the setting at the time of Jesus teaching this sermon.

i. They are on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

ii. The plain around the Sea was sandy several feet deep.

iii. During the dry seasons, the sand would harden and look like it was strong enough to build upon.

iv. However, when the rains came and the storms blew down the valley, anything built on that soil would collapse.

v. If one were to build there, he would have to dig down up to 10 feet to get to the bedrock in order to ensure the strength of the house.

e. It would not have been easy work to get down that deep.

i. It was hard work.

ii. But, it would have been worth it if that is where you wanted a house.

f. Spiritually speaking, if you wanted an easy life that would provide ease in building, don’t do what Jesus said.

g. However, if heaven is our goal, we have to be willing to do the hard work to build on the bedrock of Christ.

h. What must be heard and acted upon are the sayings of Jesus.

i. In this text, this refers to this sermon.

ii. For us, it means we read, study, and follow the New Testament.

i. Hearing these sayings is not enough to get through the storms.

i. James said we are fooling ourselves if this is all we do (Jam. 1:22-24).

ii. If this is all we do, there is going to be a terrible collapse of our lives at some point, whether that be in this life or at the judgment.

j. If we hear and do these things, despite the severity of storms or facing judgment, our lives will be stable.

i. All through this sermon, Jesus has taught us how to withstand storms.

ii. If our treasure is in heaven, not on earth, we can face losing whatever we have in this life.

iii. If our focus is on God and His kingdom, we won’t be worried by the difficulties of life.

iv. By following the teachings of Jesus, no matter what comes our way, we will be stable and our righteousness will exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.

k. We have to make sure we are hearing the truth but also implementing it.

i. As we mentioned, for them listening to Jesus, it was to put into practice those things Jesus was teaching them.

ii. If they did that, they would enter the kingdom of heaven.

l. For us, we need to be studying God’s word.

i. We can’t know the sayings of Jesus unless we are reading and learning the sayings of Jesus.

ii. One theologian wrote that the church’s greatest problems were biblical illiteracy and theological amnesia.

iii. We don’t read and what we have read, we’ve forgotten.

iv. That’s not true with all of us but it is true with many of us.

m. Long ago God said that His people were destroyed for a lack of knowledge (Hos. 4:6).

n. We learn all types of things for work and about our hobbies, but are we learning about the gospel that is God’s only power to save?

(Some material came from a sermon by Mark Copeland as well as “The Sermon On The Mount” by Dr. Ed Gallagher)