Built on the Rock - 01/22/23

Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount with a parable about building a house on a rock or on sand. He emphasizes the importance of not just hearing his teachings but also obeying and doing them. Jesus uses the example of houses built around the Sea of Galilee, where builders had to dig deep to reach the bedrock to ensure stability. He compares those who obey his teachings to a wise builder whose house withstands storms, while those who do not obey are like a foolish builder whose house falls. Jesus's parable is a call to action and a reminder to build our lives on a firm foundation. 7, verses 24 and 27. And then we'll look at Luke's Gospel. Matthew chapter 7, verse 24, Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him into a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that hears these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall be likened into a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell. And great was the fall of it. If you turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 6, verses 46 through 49. And why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever comes to me, and hears my sayings, and does them. You see that? Got to come to them, got to hear, but we've got to obey and do them. I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man which built a house. And then Luke adds this, and digged deep. We've got a shovel here that I plan to bring, but if I end up leaning on it a little bit today, that'll be all right too. And laid the foundation on a rock. And when the flood arose, and the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock. Hallelujah. But he that hears and does not is like a man that, without a foundation, built a house upon the earth, against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great. Gonna get to the message of Jesus's fifth parable in the Gospels. But we're going to pray one more time for the Lord to anoint your ears to hear, and my lips to speak. His words are already anointed. Brother Marlon, can you lead us in prayer one more time, and then y'all can be seated. Amen. The context for this parable is that Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount with this parable. And again, in the Sermon on the Plain in Luke. If we say that Jesus is the greatest who ever lived, of course, and the Bible being the greatest story ever told. And we're talking about the parables of Jesus, that Jesus being the greatest storyteller to ever tell a story. The Sermon on the Mount is the greatest sermon ever preached. And if the Lord, Terry, one year, we could dive right into the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, all year, you could preach one message on each one of those Beatitudes. But he concludes his manifesto, that Sermon on the Mount, with this parable. And again, in the end of the parable on the Sermon on the Mount. This is the greatest sermon, like I said, ever spoken. And the parable of the wise and the foolish is Jesus' call to action for them to obey what they have heard. This parable is Jesus' altar call in the sermon. We're going to look at that this morning. Now, Philip, I know we got some pictures, so when they're ready, Caleb's going to be ready for that. OK, not just yet. Throughout the year, when we study this, these parables, I've mentioned it to you before, but we're going to talk about the illustration, the actual parable itself, looking at what Jesus said and the explanation of the parable. What did Jesus mean by what he said? And then number three, the application of the parable, what it means to us. If y'all don't remember that just right now, don't worry, we've got about 30 more times to hear it. But the Sea of Galilee is a picture as picture perfect example. Of the scene of this parable that Jesus taught around the Sea of Galilee is all that beach front property, that sea, that sand around the lake. And through the summer months, it hardens hard as rock from the summer heat. But the wise builders knew that they had to dig at least 10 feet deep in that hard sand around the Sea of Galilee in order to get to the bedrock to build a house that would not wash away when the torrid rains and the flash floods would come. You see, London, England, it rains there 300 days a year. If you've ever been or if you've read and studied and watched, it just rains just about every day. It feels like 300 days a year. It accumulates 22 inches of rainfall every year on average. That's nearly two feet. But in studying some study Bibles this week, the archaeology study Bible, a couple of others just about this, I went through all of them. I couldn't do much yesterday except lay down. So I had plenty of time to study all day long in addition to what I was doing through the week. So I got about 20 pages of notes. We're going to be here. What now? We're not. But it also rains an average of 22 inches of rainfall a year in Jerusalem. But Jerusalem doesn't get that rainfall over 300 days. Jerusalem gets that rainfall on an average of 50 days. Most of it in the month of January. And when the rains come down that hard and that fast, especially coming down from the mountains and the flash floods like we've seen in California and other places out here in the southeast, even when you've got rain that accumulates so much and the ground doesn't saturate in enough time in Jesus's day and still there today, there's that flash flooding because they get as much rainfall as London does all year, except London gets it spread over 300 days and Jerusalem gets it spread over 50. Now, Jesus was a carpenter of Galilee. And that term carpenter that we call in the in the King James Version also means masonry, a builder, a construction foreman. Jesus just didn't work with wood, but he worked with stone. And undoubtedly, Jesus had seen houses that stood and houses that sunk from either a firm foundation or a faulty foundation. So when Jesus uses his practical experience, he knows exactly what he's talking about. And his audience knows exactly what Jesus is talking about. Who knows if Jesus could have when he's preaching the Sermon on the Mount or the Sermon on the Mount, pointed to a house that was on a rock, and then over there pointed to a house that had sunk or was leaning over. Who knows? But we know what hurricanes are, storms when houses don't last, especially on beachfront property. Oh, it looks nice to live out there. We think we want to visit it for spring break and summer vacation, but we don't want to visit there during hurricane season, do we? I sent him a picture. Caleb, do you've got those to put up? Just put up one right now, buddy. You see that, folks? Lord brought into my memory this week, this scene, I found it. That's a picture from the New York Times article. Don't put the other one up just yet, buddy. That's a house in Mexico City Beach, Florida. Hurricane Michael, a category four in 2018, demolished all of Mexico City, except that one house. Now, you may think there's some in the back still up there, but if you zoomed in and saw them, they were all damaged, too, except that one. I've got something from the article that I want to read here. It's Mr. King and Dr. Lackey. They wouldn't say how much that they spent to fortify this beachside home. Public records show that it was excessed for tax purposes about $400,000, but the architect, Charles Gaskin, says that the building of a house this way, the way they did it, doubled the cost per square footage compared with ordinary practices. See, Florida has laws and rules about hurricanes. I'm going to sit for just a minute. And in Miami-Dade, the storms, the houses that you build up to code have to withstand a hundred and seventy mile per hour winds, but in the Panhandle at Mexico City Beach, it has to withstand a hundred and twenty to a hundred and fifty mile per hour winds. Mr. King and the doctor, they spent double the money because they built a house that could withstand two hundred and fifty mile winds. They said here that they didn't even refer to the minimum wind resistance by the Bay County. They built their palace to withstand two hundred and fifty mile an hour winds. The house was fashioned from poured concrete reinforced by steel cables and rebar with additional concrete bolstering the corners of the house. The space under the roof minimized so that wind could not go underneath and lift off the roof. The home's elevation on ten foot high pilings meant to keep it above the surge of seawater that usually accompanies powerful hurricanes. In that paragraph, in that article, and in what we read in Matthew's gospel, the wind blew and the flood came and the rain fell. And they built their house to withstand the rain and the wind and the flood. That the wind wouldn't blow off the roof, that the house wouldn't be shaken, that they wouldn't have flood. So I thought that was an applicable example of modern day a house built on the rock and not on the sand. Can you put the other picture up there Caleb for folks to see? That's an aerial view with it circled and that's the only house standing. It's the only house. If you can go back to the parables of the Jesus picture there for the rest, Kay. Now that's the illustration about the parable. We're going to get down to the application in a moment. But before that, I want to get to the explanation of the parable. The parable is a little bit different in some ways. But I want to talk about three things. The structure and the storm and then the statement that Jesus made. If we read about that, there's two houses. One built by the rich man. I mean the wise man. One built by the foolish man. The wise man built the house on the rock. The foolish man built the house on the sand. And we'll get to that in a moment about dig deep. But that's what Luke's gospel adds. There's two different houses. At the end of Jesus's message, at the end of Jesus's sermon, he says you can build your life on me and be wise. Or you can build it without me and be foolish. But he talks about two houses, one built on the rock that remained and one that was built on the sand. And then that was the two structures. But then something interesting happens, no matter how well you build the house, no matter how dig deep you dig the foundation, no matter if your house is built on the rock or not, the storms still come. It rains on the just and the unjust. Jesus isn't promising his followers that if they come to him, life is going to be easy. They're not saying that if you listen to me and obey my words, you'll never have a problem. Jesus is just saying there's going to be hard times. There's a storm coming and you need to be ready. When Matthew describes that storm, he specifically mentions it in a few different ways. He talks about the wind blowing. You've got it on every side. You've got the rain coming down from the top and you've got the floods coming up from the bottom. And then the vehement stream, the flood coming, the stream in Luke's gospel coming against you. It's from all sides. You're getting it from the front. You're getting it from the bottom up. You're getting it from the top down and you're getting it from side to side. Anyone that's been in a storm, a physical storm, a spiritual storm, a financial storm, a health storm, a storm in your marriage, a storm with your kids, a storm with your family, a storm with your finances, a storm at your work, a storm at school, a storm in your church. You'll know the feeling that you feel completely surrounded, that you can't catch a break, that it's coming at you from this side and that side and from above and from below. And it doesn't matter if you're at home, there's problems. Or if you go to church, there might be drama. Or if you go to work, there could be issues or you could go to school. But it seems like it's coming at you from all sides. It's a serious storm. It's not a trickle. It's not a mist. It's not the kind of rain that you look forward to to water your garden. It's that category four and that category five, that hurricane, that tornado, that earthquake, that life-changing storm. And then Jesus makes two statements. The wise house, the wise man's house in Matthew's Gospel did not fall. And in Luke's Gospel, it says it was unshakable. As if Matthew says with Jesus, when the storm comes against you, you'll be unbreakable. And when Luke says the storm comes against you, you'll be unshakable. But in the Gospels, it records the foolish man's house. Luke says immediately it fell. Like a house of cards, it came tumbling down. Like kids building on building blocks. Or like kids building Lego towers tall as it can go. When it fell, it immediately fell. It didn't stand for a little while on its own. Jesus is making a point there. You don't stand a chance to weather the storm without Him. You can't just take your losses and build it back. Matthew's Gospel says, and great was the fall of it. You've seen people like that, that go through troubles. And you see the great fall that happened in their marriage. You see the catastrophe that came to their home. You see where they played around with sin and destroyed their reputation. Where they lose their job to alcohol or addiction. Where their marriage is broken up. Where they're addicted to gambling. Where they get arrested and go to jail. They ruined their life. They ruined their marriage. They ruined their children. They ruined their reputation. They ruined their testimony. Even ministers of the Gospel behind the pulpit. And all we can look back and say, great was the fall of it. What was done in private, now everybody sees it in public. What they kept secret, now everybody's talking about it on social media. Now it's in the paper. Now everybody knows. We thought everything was just fine because from the casual observer, both houses look just fine. What you can't see is the foundation that it's laid on. But if you went to Mexico City Beach a few weeks before that hurricane in 2018, all those houses would look nice. But when you go back after Category 4 Michael, only one was made to withstand the storm. If you faint in the day of adversity, Proverbs says, how small is your strength? It's easy on the mountain. It's different in the valley. It's one way when it's okay and everything's good. And there's another way when everything and you hit rock bottom and he better be the rock that you hit when you're at rock bottom. We've got friends and we've got family and you can profess that you know Jesus and you follow Jesus and you believe Jesus all you want. And then when adversity comes and difficulty comes and catastrophe, we all have seen those that have stepped away from the gospel. If Jesus loved me, this wouldn't be happening. If I was in God's will, this wouldn't be happening. If God was really good, a good God, this wouldn't have happened to me. There's no reason for me to serve the Lord anymore. And they turn their back on their family. They turn their back on Jesus. They turn their back on the Word of God. They turn their back on church. And then we know some who stayed faithful. I asked Brother Jeremy if I could use him as an example this morning. It's one thing to say how God is using us and blessing us and they're in Africa doing a work for the Lord. But then when geoblastoma suddenly hit stage four and it's terminal and without a healing, you don't have many months to live. And they still rejoice with the Lord. They still praise him. They still serve him. They don't talk ugly. They're not bitter. They're thankful for small miracles, like when the tumor hasn't grown back. They're thankful even when his memory's not there and the words don't come easily. They still get up and try to go to church. When other folks with a cold will stay out, you can find out how true someone is in the Lord by what they go through. When Josh and Mache lost, and I mentioned to them about using them as an example, coming up here on the 22nd, it's going to be six months. And I know she says a whole lot on social media about what she's feeling. And Josh says very little. But they're not out of church. They hadn't turned their back on the Lord. They hadn't got angry and bitter about why God took away their two year old baby boy. Because when the day of adversity comes, when that evil day comes, when the storm comes, it will reveal who's your trust really is in. Some trust in horses. Some trust in chariots. That's what the Old Testament says. But we trust in the name of the Lord our God. We could say it a different way. Some trust in 401K. Some trust in their retirement plan. Some trust in their jobs. Some trust in their health. Some trust in their diagnosis. Some trust in their marriage. Some trust in their homes. Some trust in their cars, in their fame, in their popularity. But we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Now how does this apply to us? Proverbs 10, verse 25 in the New King James says, When the whirlwind passes by, the wicked are no more. Proverbs 10, verse 25 says, When the whirlwind passes, when the storm passes by, the wicked are no more. But the righteous has an everlasting foundation. Psalm chapter 31, verse 2, David says, Be thou my strong rock for a house of defense. Save me. It's the only other place in the King James Bible that house and rock is mentioned in the same verse other than Matthew and Luke. And David prays, Oh Lord, be my strong rock for a house of defense that'll save me. Isaiah 28, 16. I've got the NIV here for the ending of the verse, but it says, This is what the sovereign Lord says. Or hear what the sovereign Lord says. I lay a stone or a cornerstone in Zion, a tested or a tried stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation, like Philip talked about, a firm foundation, what Philip sung about. But I like the NIV for the last because the King James Version says, And those that trust in him will not make haste. But the NIV says, And those that rely on it, on that firm foundation, will never be stricken with panic. See, that principle found in Proverbs, that when the whirlwind passes by, the wicked are no more, but the righteous have an everlasting foundation. That principle is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. When David cries out, Be thou my rock and my house of defense, save me, David's prayer is answered in the person of Jesus Christ. When Isaiah prophesied that there will be someone who is tried and tested and Jesus was tried and tested, Jesus went through storms that we can never even fathom. He was tempted without, but not without sin, but tempted without measure. A precious cornerstone for a sure foundation at prophecy in Isaiah, the principle in Proverbs, the prayer in Psalms by David, the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Ephesians says, And we are built upon this foundation. King James Ephesians 2 20. We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. First Peter chapter two, verses six through nine. Therefore, it is also contained in the scriptures. He quotes Isaiah. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect and precious. And then he says, And he who believes on me where the NIV said that the one who relies on me will never be stricken with panic. Peter says. He who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. Not great is the fall of it because we put our trust in Jesus, the rock on which we stand, faithful to every generation. So why would he fail us now? He won't. It's what we say. He won't. We won't fall. Hallelujah. Because he won't fail. He says, though, therefore, to you who believe he is precious, we sing that song how Jesus is precious to us. But to those who are disobedient, the stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Jesus quoted that verse himself, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And Peter concludes it in verse nine saying they stumble being disobedient to the word. Jesus says, You call me Lord, Lord, but you don't do what I say. He says, Blessed are those that come in here and do, and a wise man is like the one that does the will of God. And here, Peter says, those that they stumble because they were disobedient to his word. When we see in Matthew, in Luke's Gospel, it says, though, that they that come to me and they that hear me and those that do my word are wise, but those that come and hear and don't do are foolish. This is not a parable to the world. This is not a parable to just everyone. This is a parable to those in the church. People say, well, I want to come to a seeker friendly church and I don't have a problem with having nice signs and activities, social media, comfortable heating and air, carpet, padded pews, church program, good music. For us to be a friendly church, open and welcome to everyone. But people have to be more than just a seeker. When they come, they have to hear the word of God behind the pulpit. You just can't have a church that everybody just feels comfortable in. And then they come and hear some inspirational story, some Reader's Digest article, some joke to start their sermon, some little application about how they can go out and do a little bit better and self-improvement and make a little bit of money or whatever these prosperity preachers want to preach about. They have to come. But when they come, they have to hear the truth. That's our responsibility. They have to, whether it's Philip preaching, Henry preaching, Daddy preaching, Brother Marvin preaching, me preaching, the songs that we sing, the programs that we do, the lessons that we teach. We can sing hymns or we can sing worship songs. It doesn't matter to me, but they better be about Jesus. We can have special Sundays for first responders, but it better be about Jesus. We can have Easter eggs fun, but it better be about Jesus. But it's not just enough to come. And we've had in our congregation people that's came and they've heard. But then the responsibility is on them. They can obey or they can disobey. Knowing what's right ain't enough. Believing what's right ain't enough. You've got to do it. There's got to be a change. Jesus says the fools are those that come to church, hear about Jesus, and don't apply it to their life. And they live Monday through Saturday like they haven't heard what they heard on Sunday. That they know the truth. They're a hearer of the Word, but not a doer of the Word. Those are the fools. Those are the ones that they go to church, they listen to the preacher, and everybody on the outside would think, well, everything's just right with them. But when the storm comes, it'll reveal that it's not. Because you've got to not just be a hearer of the Word, but a doer. And that's what Jesus said there. There are those that don't come and don't even hear. And they're like people that don't even have a house. But Jesus is talking about the wise and the foolish builder. And I love what Luke says about digging deep. Let me see if I can see it again here in my Bible. I will show you to whom He is like. He is like a man which built a house and dig deep on the foundation of the rock. I got this shovel and I was planning on bringing it all along before this sciatic nerve. The wise man digs deep. That word deep foundations in my study, I'm going to use that word deep foundations in my study. I didn't even realize I came across a website that was not religious at all. It was an engineering website. Deep foundations is an actual engineering term. There's five different kinds of deep foundations, the one being the piling. The average skyscraper has 250 feet, 25 stories of a foundation under the earth. We got to not just come. We're not just got to hear. And we don't just have to do. But we need to dig deep on the rock. Jesus. Why do I preach on 67 books in 52 weeks about Jesus in every book of the Bible? So we're digging deep and knowing more and more about Jesus. Why would we preach a whole year on all 40 parables of Jesus? Because we're digging deep. Why would we be looking at 2023 40 something parables of Jesus? 40 something parables of Jesus. One third of the gospel is about Jesus because of Jesus. If the gospels take up one third of the parables of Jesus, then it's worth our time to study and pray and preach and sing like we have today about the parables of Jesus because we're digging deep because Mark and Caleb and these little girls and those kids over there and Daniel and David and those that are at Will and Kathy's work and our family and those that are new and those that have been here all along since we've been here. We got to dig deep and get to know more and more about Jesus because there's a storm coming. There's adversity coming. There's a time where it's not always going to be pleasant. There's not a time where it's not always going to be easy and pastoring is not easy. And there's days like yesterday when the ER is when the ambulance is called and they rush to the house and you don't know what's wrong with Randall and you have to lean on that firm foundation. There's days where there's heart pains and chest pains and numbness in the arm and he's going to the ER and waiting there to run stress tests and x-rays and CAT scans and everything else on my father this week and you never know what's going to happen but you've dug deep in a foundation. They can't be shaken. This is why we're digging deep in Jesus in every book of the Bible. This is why we're digging deep in the parables of Jesus. This is why we're digging deep. There's a lot to preach there, Pastor. I know there is. It's why we're talking about the Holy Ghost. It might be while we're preaching on the Sermon on the Mount for a year. It might be while we're finding some there's over 300 questions that Jesus asked. It'd be a great sermon series on the questions that Jesus asked and why that he asked them. You could preach on all the people that Jesus came into contact with that are mentioned by name or not mentioned by name from the Samaritan woman to the adulterous woman and those divine appointments that Jesus had. There's not a miracle. There's not a parable with Zacchaeus but there's a story there to be told. Because the storm's coming and the rain's going to fall and the wind's going to blow and the floods are going to head our way and the fool, he crumbles in a crisis. The fool, he stresses out in a storm. The fool, they panic whenever there's a problem. But you know what the wise say? The wise say when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise a standard against it. Jesus says in this world you will have trouble. You will have tribulation. In John chapter 16 verse 33, Jesus never promised that it will be easy. Don't come to church. Don't turn your life over to him. He'll fix sin. Everything will be alright in the end but you've got all the problems that everybody else has in the world. Everybody goes through job changes and foreclosures and bankruptcy and divorce and cancer diagnosis and lost loved ones and miscarriages and everything else. The sinner and the saint face that and on top of that we fight the devil. But Jesus says in this world now you may have trouble. Not Jesus doesn't say in this world you can't have tribulation. Jesus says and it's a promise. You will have tribulation. You will have trials. But there's even a great promise right after that. But be of good cheer for I have, past tense, overcome the world. That's why Paul can say we are troubled on every side just like the rain and the wind and the flood and the storm. He says we are troubled on every side but we're not distressed. We haven't panicked. We haven't fallen apart because he holds all things together Colossians says. We are perplexed but not in despair. We're persecuted but not forsaken. We're cast down but not destroyed. Always bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. Paul said it another way in Acts chapter 20. None of these things move me. Where people don't understand how you go through the things that you go through and why you aren't falling apart and why you aren't in a mental institution and why aren't you on suicide watch and why aren't you going to the bottle and the needle and why haven't you left your spouse and why haven't you gave up on God and it's because we can say none of these things move me. But I'm going through the storm but my house if the Lord builds the house it's like they say nobody can tear it down. If the Lord built the house nobody can tear it down. Phillip will you come back to the piano? I guess maybe with Laura. Saying whatever the Lord lays on your heart. The parable of the wise builder and the foolish builder. I'm not content with people just coming to Grace Fellowship. We've got loved ones that's visited. We've got family that's visited. We want 50 people. We want 75. We want 100 people. They got to first come so they can hear. But we don't want folks just to come to church just for us to say we've hit some number in the parking lot and the pews are full. And I appreciate the compliments. I really do after I preach sometimes and don't stop because I might get paranoid. But don't all start today either because then I'll get paranoid. But good preaching and good teaching and good singing ain't enough when people are not listening. When people leave and they don't change. I don't want to preach for 30 minutes or more and people pray for 3 minutes or less. I don't want them to come and see how friendly we are and how we love one another. I want them to feel that way but I want it to be more than that. I don't want to just say I learned a lesson. I learned a principle if they don't apply it. I want people to change. I want people to be wise and not foolish. Because this church isn't going to be built on Curtis Rochester or Faye Birch or Ron Stocks or Mike and Esther. Grace Fellowship needs to be built on Jesus Christ. Our families, our marriages, our homes need to be built on Jesus Christ. Our business, our work. Because you'll face storms. And unless we got revival, America's not going to get any better. And a third or a half of this congregation might be gone in several decades. But these little ones, we don't know what they're going to face in years to come. We got to dig deep into the rock. So we will not fall. Because He will not fail. Let's pray.