Matthew 7:21-29
“Fakes Need Not Apply”
by: Rev. Ken Sauer, Pastor of Grace United Methodist Church, Soddy Daisy, TN www.graceumcsd.org
Jesus tells us, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
Well, I guess we ought to find out what the Father’s will is, wouldn’t you agree?
And Jesus is the One Who reveals to us God’s will for our lives.
As we read the stories of Jesus’ life and teachings in the Gospels several ‘key’ things stand out.
Jesus makes it clear that God’s will for our lives is to love our neighbors…
…to stand for justice…
…to serve the poor…
…to give generously of ourselves and our money…
…to forgive…
…to have mercy…
…to oppose oppression…
…to honor truth…
…to make followers of Jesus Christ by our words, deeds, and actions.
All these things are selfless as opposed to selfish!
Many of us have heard all this stuff ever since we were little kids.
The question I’d like for us to ponder is: “Will we do it, or, Are we doing it?”
The Message puts it like this: “Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance isn’t going to get you anywhere with me.
What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills.”
More important than saying the right words is doing the right things!
One scholar puts it this way, “Being acquainted with Jesus is not enough to gain entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
The deciding issue is not the profession of our lips but the profession of our lives.
What we say must be backed up by our actions.”
Again I ask, “Are we doing this?”
Right before the place in Matthew where our Gospel Lesson for this morning begins Jesus says…
…you see…
….we picked up Jesus in the middle of a conversation…
…as a matter of fact, we picked up Jesus in the middle of a conversation which began way back in Matthew Chapter 5 where Jesus begins to speak to the crowds on a mountainside.
It’s called the Sermon on the Mount!
And today’s Lesson is the ending of it.
Anyhow, right before verse 21 in Matthew Jesus is talking about false prophets who wear sheep’s clothing.
Of them, Jesus warns, “they are ferocious wolves.”
Then Jesus goes on to use the example of a tree and its fruit to explain how we will know the false prophets or the false Christianity.
“By their fruit you will recognize them,” Jesus says.
“every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”
Then Jesus goes on to say, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
Are we a good tree or a bad tree?
What kind of fruit do we bear?
Are we loving others as Christ has loved us?
Are we serving the poor; the widows and the orphans?
Are we giving generously of ourselves and of our money?
Are we quick to forgive or are we holding grudges?
Are we merciful?
Are we doing the will of the Father or are we just paying lip service to this Christianity stuff?
Being a Christian is serious business.
It means we have been called by Jesus to be a disciple of Jesus—along the same lines of Peter, James and John.
What a mighty privilege!
And what a mighty responsibility!
Nothing could be more important than this!
When Jesus found the first disciples, Peter and Andrew, they were fishing.
And Jesus said to them, “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of [people].”
We are told that “At once they left their nets and followed him.”
Their entire lives changed in heeding the call of Christ, “Come follow me.”
When Jesus called Levi, Levi was “sitting at the tax collector’s booth.”
Levi was a turn-coat Jew who was getting rich by working for the Roman government and ripping off his own people.
And yet Jesus called him just like Jesus has called you and Jesus has called me.
And we are told that “Levi got up and followed” Jesus.
He quite everything else to follow Christ!
He left everything and headed in a completely new direction.
And nothing would ever be the same for him again!
In following Christ, he began the most exciting and most important of journeys!
He became a changed man!
He went from seeking selfish gain, to dying to self in order to live for Christ and thus help change the world!
That’s what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
It is a journey from self-absorption to self-empting.
It is a journey from selfish living and thinking to selfless living and thinking.
Are you on the journey?
Am I?
Our motto at Grace is that we are people with ‘messy lives’ joining hands to follow Jesus.
And our mission is to make followers of Jesus Christ to change the world.
Nothing could be more exciting nor more important!!!
We have a vision; we have a mission; we are disciples of Jesus Christ!!!
But it is very easy for us to get sucked into worldly thinking.
It’s so easy to allow the fear of not having security and the lure of money to blind us to what God is calling us to do—which is to do ministry and trust God for our needs!
He is, after-all, our Leader!
The Church of Jesus Christ is not a business, and we should never treat it like one.
We are a mission.
We are a movement.
We are to follow Christ into the highways, by-ways, and back alleys of this world.
We are to meet folks where they are and offer them Christ not so much by our words—but by our entire lives!!!
Jeanne, Mary Ellen and I stayed in a bed and breakfast in Wilmore, Kentucky a few weeks ago.
We were up there for my brother-in-law’s graduation from Asbury Theological Seminary.
It was the first time I had stayed at a bed and breakfast, and in the morning all the other folks gathered around tables eating breakfast and talking.
We were blessed to get into a conversation with a very proud mother and father whose son is a missionary in Ecuador.
His mother told me about how her son went to Ecuador because he was called by God to work with the children there.
In Ecuador, the young man came upon a shabby one room school house, and felt a call from God to help.
So he spoke to the schoolmaster, but she told him that she was not interested in hearing what he had to say and she would like him to leave her and the school alone.
He came back five times and each time the woman shooed him away…
…telling him she is not interested in what he had to say.
Still the missionary felt called to help the children…
…so he quietly…this time…persisted.
He was able to raise $50,000 on his own, and then he returned again.
This time, instead of talking, he used the money to build a new school building.
It is now a thriving university which is filled with children and adults.
The schoolmaster was so impressed by this missionary that she now tells him he can come back anytime he wants!
And when he does come back, he is treated as one of the most beloved and respected persons by the town.
He is a hero to them!
He is being Christ to them.
He is helping Christ to change the world.
We are to offer Christ, not so much by our words, but by our entire lives!!!
Are we doing this?
Early on in this Sermon on the Mount from which our Gospel Lesson comes this morning, Jesus says to those who are His disciples: “You are the light of the world.
A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before [people], that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
That’s what it’s about, is it not?
It’s about bringing glory to God—not to ourselves!
It’s so easy to get lost in the idea that it’s about us…
…but it’s not.
Paul says to us in Romans Chapter 12, “Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.”
There once was a donkey who thought he was a horse, but God said to him: “You are a donkey. That is what I created you to be and that is what you are.
But don’t be sad about being a donkey because I have great plans for your life.
I will use you in such a way that your life will have been more meaningful than any horse that ever lived.”
One day the donkey was outside in the street, tied to a doorway when two men came up to that donkey expectant and excited.
They untied the donkey, and as they were doing this the people asked, “What are you doing, untying that donkey?”
The two men answered, “The Lord needs it and will send it back shortly.”
Then they brought the donkey to Jesus, and they threw their coats over the donkey.
Then Jesus Himself climbed up onto the donkey’s back.
Jesus sat on the donkey and the donkey walked on into the heart of Jerusalem.
And crowds of people spread their coats on the road, while others spread branches they had cut from the fields.
And the donkey walked on those coats and palm branches, but the coats and palm branches were not for the donkey—they were for Jesus.
And the crowds who went ahead of the donkey and the crowds who followed the donkey shouted in ecstatic joy, “Hosanna!”
But they weren’t running ahead for the donkey, nor were they following because of the donkey.
They were following Jesus.
And they weren’t shouting “Hosanna!” for the donkey; they were shouting “Hosanna!” for Jesus!
And after the royal parade was over, the two men brought the donkey back to the street where they had found it, and tied it to a doorway.
And the donkey was not a horse; it had never been a horse.
It never would be a horse!
And that was more than ‘alright.’
It was a donkey.
We are to be donkeys for Jesus as well!!!
We were created to bring praise and honor and glory…not to ourselves…but to God!
Perhaps there are times when you feel like you are just a small useless donkey surrounded by a bunch of prize winning horses.
There is nothing wrong with being a donkey.
God knew what God was doing when God created you and I!!!
You are great—being just who you are!!!
You have a purpose.
You have a mission.
You have a vision.
You are called to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
You are called to bring glory and honor to Him—by following Jesus with everything you are.
You are called to change the world by making followers of Jesus.
Our community is filled with folks who have no church experience.
Many of them have no idea that there is a God Who loves them.
Our community is filled with folks who have been hurt by the Church.
Our community is filled with people who think the Church doesn’t want them.
We are called to reach out to these people with our mission and vision!!!
We are called to do the will of the Father.
And Jesus reveals to us the Father’s will for our lives.
It is only in following Jesus—not just giving Him lip service—but really following Him that we are able to do with our lives what God created us to do!!!
And there is nothing more important nor more exciting than that!!!
