In May of 1981, a dog was barking ferociously in the yard. Mae Williams thought she was chasing a squirrel and came out to quiet her down. She didn’t see a squirrel. Instead she found a sinkhole opening up in the front yard of her Winter Park, Florida, home. It kept opening until it swallowed up Mae’s entire home. Then, it continued to open until it engulfed the local community pool and did about $4 million worth of damage.
Nearly thirty years later in Guatemala as Tropical Storm Agatha swept across Central America, a sinkhole opened up in Guatemala City and swallowed up a three-story building.
Keep those two images in mind as we hear again Jesus’s words from our Gospel lesson…
“…everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house 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.” Matthew 7:24–27
Building our lives on the rock of God’s Word is the only sure foundation. Every other foundation is shifting sand.
I am afraid some of the ideas and seeming “truths” that are guiding our world today may look like decent foundations, but in the end, they are more like a sinkhole that threatens to swallow us up.
When Jesus talked about those two builders in our Gospel lesson, you’ll notice it wasn’t a matter of IF the rain would come … it was a matter of WHEN.
The rain did come. The waters did rise. The winds did blow, and they did beat against the house. And they always will.
But the key is you never have to worry, IF you have the right foundation for your life.
The rain, the waters, and the wind will come into your life and my life as trials. They probably already have come into your life in some fashion.
Every day you and I lay down bricks in the structure of our lives. What we are living today is the result of what we were building yesterday. Every day at work, every weekend, every interaction is part of the structure you are building … CALLED your life.
So, let me ask you, what is undergirding and shaping everything that your life is built on? Is the career and family you are building standing on a foundation to KNOW, FOLLOW, AND GLORIFY Jesus, or is it built standing on a foundation to GET what you want?
Here’s the difference in a nutshell … those who have built their life on Jesus can lose everything, yet they still possess EVERYTHING.
While those who have built their life on their desire to get what they want can lose it all and … they simply lose it all.
So, what really makes a wise builder?
Did you notice what Jesus said about how we build the foundation? He said, “Everyone who HEARS these words of mine and puts them into PRACTICE is like a man who built his house on the rock” (verse 24).
While the building in this metaphor is intimately linked with our salvation, I do not think this is a SAVED or NOT-SAVED passage.
Paul also talked about this in our first lesson…
“…if anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw … the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built … is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved – even though only as one escaping through the flames.” 1 Corinthians 3:11–15
Paul is simply reiterating the fact that salvation comes through your faith in Christ alone … not what you do with your faith as you live out your life.
I also believe Jesus’s words in Matthew 7 are more about being wise or unwise in the way we live. I believe He is showing us the difference between a life full of joy and a life full of misery.
He’s pointing out the way to a faith that ENDURES and OVERCOMES no matter what comes against it compared to a faith that crumbles and collapses with the slightest resistance.
And Jesus said that it all comes down to TWO things…
(1) “You hear My Word”, and
(2) “You live My Word.”
There is no way around the authority and the importance Jesus puts on the truth of the Bible. In John 10:35, Jesus said…
“Scripture cannot be set aside…” John 10:35
In His ministry, Jesus pointed back to and affirmed the accounts of Abraham, Isaiah, Moses, and Jonah. He quoted the prophets and the law when He drove His points home. One of the major reasons we believe in the authority of the Old Testament today is BECAUSE Jesus TESTIFIED to it.
At least twenty times in the four Gospels, Jesus pointed to the Old Testament when He said, “It is written.”
Isn’t it amazing that the One who had the power to cast out demons, and to command them where to go and what to do, used the Words of the Bible to resist Satan?
This is a clear statement that’s being made just for us when the One who had the power to bind Satan up for the rest of eternity dealt with him three different times by simply saying, “It is written.”
Jesus’s example shows us the truth and power of God’s Word must be the foundation for living our lives.
Our first lesson this morning from Hebrews said that “the Word of God is sharper than any double-edged sword”.
The author was not only saying that God’s Word is the truth, but that it is a different kind of truth than something that just works or makes sense. Because it is breathed by God, the Word of God is a kind of truth that is not just right or wrong. It carries God’s power and authority.
And there is so much power in the truth. And to demonstrate the power of truth, just consider the destruction and devastation that comes from a lie.
Consider the lie that was penned by Sergui Nilus in 1905. He wrote down the lie that the Jewish people were conspiring to take over and corrupt the world. His lie was picked up and spread by the Nazi party in Germany, taught to their children in schools, and eventually led to the extermination of six million people … that’s the POWER of one lie.
One can say that the Truth Changes Everything.
However, there are some things you believe and hold onto that just are not true. There are all sorts of little lies that attack us every day.
Without the truth of God’s Word to show us differently, we feed them, we believe them, we live by them, and we fail because of them.
Here are a few you might believe, or have in the past…
(1) “I won’t ever really recover from this.”
(2) “I’m always one step away from it all falling apart.”
(3) “It’s okay. No one will get hurt.”
(4) “I’m not as good as he or she is.”
God’s Word dispels every single one of those lies. And when we hold onto the truth of God’s Word, and put that truth into practice, everything changes.
It is important to be in God’s Word, if you are a follower of Jesus. Imagine eating only on Sunday and going with nothing except water the other six days every week. You might survive, but you probably would not be very healthy.
And we need to remember that God speaks to us through His Word. Prayer, of course, is simply us speaking back to God. I find it amazing that through God’s Word and our prayers, we get to have a two-way conversation steeped in truth and life.
Jesus tells us in John 14…
“…I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” John 14:13
But before you go out to buy your lottery ticket, let me remind you of the qualifier here. Jesus told us that He’d do whatever we ask in His name … SO THAT the Father can be glorified.
Have you ever given your power of attorney to someone else? If you give someone power of attorney, you are saying their signature has the same power and authority as your signature.
So, to pray in Jesus’s name is not just to tack on “In Jesus’ name, amen” to whatever you are praying. It is to try to understand and discern what Jesus’ will is in any situation and to work and pray toward that will.
The clearest and most complete way to know God’s will is to regularly be in His Word, to have a two-way conversation with God through prayer centered on His Word, which is truth.
Jesus reminded us of this amazing combination when He prayed for us and for His disciples in John 17…
“They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” John 17:16–17
The Greek word translated as “sanctify” means to be holy, or set apart for a special purpose. One thing you must remember is that as a follower of Jesus, you are not of this world. You are different.
The world has diverged from God’s plan. The world is building lives on a different foundation.
The world holds different values … aspires to different goals. The world’s foundation is ultimately a sinkhole that will swallow people up.
It is interesting to note that Jesus does not ask us to leave the world, He just declares that we are NOT OF the world. But He does urge us to seek the truth of His Word, to declare and ask for the truth in our prayers, and to live with the truth in our lives.
One of the shifting and shaky foundations our world is currently building lives on is the emphasis on experiences and feelings.
One of the many differences between God’s Word, and our experiences and feelings, is that from our perspective we have at best seventy to ninety years for our words to be proved true.
From God’s perspective, He has had all of eternity for His Words to be proved true. He can make a promise and fulfill it thousands of years later as the Bible has documented many times through fulfilled prophecies.
The rallying cry of our culture seems to be: “But that’s how I feel. You can’t tell me my feelings are wrong.”
Here’s the point … feelings are important, and your feelings are valid. But if your feelings don’t line up with God’s Word, I can tell you that whatever feelings you are having, they’re NOT based on truth. You may say to yourself…
“I don’t like how it feels.”
“I don’t like what it says.”
“I don’t agree with it.”
But these are not sufficient answers for us to contradict or ignore what God commands in His Word. His Word is truth.
And our responsibility to the truth goes beyond any feeling we have at any given time. We are responsible to do what God’s Word says, because it is the truth, and it is bigger than us.
Jesus said…
“Everyone who HEARS these words of mine and PUTS THEM into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24
His Word is the primary way God talks to us. We need to be people of the Word. Read the Word. Memorize the Word. Study the Word. Know the Word. But above all, do what it says.
Your feelings come and go like shifting sand. The wisdom of our culture changes and shifts multiple times in every generation. But God’s Word endures. God’s Word stands firm. God’s Word will always be proven true.
We’ll close today with a challenge. I want to challenge you to be in God’s Word in some fashion every day this week.
Perhaps you will need to set your alarm ten minutes earlier, or take your Bible with you for your lunch break.
Just try it for one week. I believe it will be the beginning of a daily conversation you will want to have for the rest of your life because it will bring God’s truth to every area of your life. Amen
Would you pray with me?
“Father, we thank You for Your Word, for Your Word is truth. I pray that You would help every single one of us to begin this two-way conversation that we can have with You through Your Word and prayer. I pray as each person talks with You, Your Holy Spirit will open our hearts and minds to Your truth for our lives. We know this is Jesus’s will for us. So, it is in Jesus’s name we pray, amen.”