June 22, 2008
Morning Worship
Text: Luke 6:46-49
Subject: A Solid Foundation
Title: Do as I Say
Do you believe that God has a plan for your life and that He has always had the same plan? I do! I also believe that even though God’s plan for my life was to be a pastor of a church in Palmyra, MO, I resisted His plan of salvation until I was older. That didn’t remove His plan for my life – it just put it behind schedule. My fault – not His!
Now, I also believe that even though our timing isn’t always the same as God’s when it come to our obedience, He will use us anyhow. All the time that I was hearing the message of Jesus from my brothers and sisters, and resisting what I knew was the truth, the Lord was building something up in me. He started by training me with people skills by allowing me to become a lead man and then a supervisor in a factory. Then He allowed me to get into the carpenter trade. He used that time to help me to understand the process of building things that would last.
I loved being a carpenter, and I still do. That was thirty good years of my life. I also like telling stories of when I was a carpenter. I worked for one contractor for 10 years in various subdivisions in St. Charles County. I have always had a reputation for having an eye for detail. I understood that the little things done right from the very beginning of the construction made everything easier. That is the reason when there was a problem in a house that had been framed up all the sub contractors would come and get me to do repairs or make it right. I think God was using all that time to prepare me for ministry in this church. It isn’t much different in the church than in the construction trade. Once you realize that there is a plan for the building and learn to follow that plan the construction goes better. Even though I used to have disagreements with the architects who drew our house plans, most of the time they knew better than I what was right. In the church our architect is always right.
I want to show you today that God has a plan for you and has outlined a perfect blueprint for you to be built into the Christian that He has called you to be.
Lord, open my eyes to see and my ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church today.
I. LISTEN TO THE ARCHITECT (46-47) 46“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? What does it mean to call Jesus “Lord”? When you trust Jesus you trust Him as “Lord” and Savior. So what does it mean to call Him Lord? The word translated “Lord” is the Greek word “KURIOS” and it means “supreme authority, or the one who is in control.” So is that who Jesus is for you? Is He the supreme authority in your life? Now I have to believe that the majority of us here today would say yes to that, but wait a minute. Do you realize what you are saying? Is Jesus the final authority in your life? Do you respond to His authority through the inner voice of the Holy Spirit? And if you do – if you call Jesus Lord, Lord, then why do you not do what He says? Listen to me; I’m not just talking about living a holy and moral life. If you aren’t doing that you should be. But right now I’m talking to those of you who are Christians and have been for a long time. When Jesus says, “and do not do what I say” He is talking about His word. You see if you call Him Lord then you have to confess that every word that He speaks is true. And if every word He speaks is true then why don’t you build on the foundation of His truth? Well, Pastor Mike, I do believe every word. Then are you doing what He says? I’m trying to lay a good foundation for you here so listen to this. The church can only be built to stand if the individual stones of the foundation are solid. So as this church is being built each of you need to be grounded in the Word of God, trusting that word, and then acting upon that same word. You see if there is doubt in any of you in the body of Christ then the foundation will not be stable. In Mark 6:4, 4Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” 5He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6And he was amazed at their lack of faith. Why couldn’t Jesus do any miracles among those He knew from His childhood? There was a spirit of familiarity there. The people thought they knew Him. Does that spirit of familiarity invade the church today? “Well I know Jesus as my Savior, but I’ve never seen any of the things like we are seeing in the church now. I’m not sure if people can be healed or not. That’s the same attitude that kept people in Nazareth from receiving what God wanted them to have. Verse 2 of Mark 6, 2When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! 3Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. If there is that kind of doubt in the church then the foundation will not stand. You see it is that kind of doubt that will also keep others from receiving what the Lord wants them to have. When Jesus was in Nazareth the power to work miracles was there, but it doesn’t say He wouldn’t do any. He couldn’t do any miracles because of the lack of faith. Back to Luke 6, 47I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. If you have faith in God’s word then what is keeping you from putting them into practice? It is because you hear the word with your physical ears but not with your spiritual ears because the spiritual ears are the ears of faith. The word “Hear” means to understand. It refers to the spiritual enlightenment that the Holy Spirit gives to the Word of God as you read and meditate on the word.
II. READ THE BLUEPRINT. (48) He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. I want you to understand this, notice that Jesus said that in order to build the house you have to dig down deep. Now if the church is built on the foundation of the saints who believe God’s word, it means that those same saints have taken the time to study, meditate, come to church and Sunday school, in order to let the word sink deep into their hearts. In Matthew 13 Jesus talked about that very thing. 18“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” The good soil is the soil that has been worked and worked by studying the word and then just receives the seed of the word that grows up in them and produces fruit. It is dug down deep and the foundation is laid on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. The foundation is a foundation of faith of believers that cannot be shaken. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2 19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. Why the apostles and prophets? Because they were sure of God’s word and would not back down. They knew that what Jesus had told them was true. They understood that it was Jesus’ intention for His work to continue through them after He was taken to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. They got it when Jesus told them that whoever believed in Him, the works the He did they would do also and greater works. They believed His word when He said that whatever they ask the Father in His name that God would give them. 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. It is interesting that Jesus uses this terminology here. He understands the destructive nature of the flood. So do we! But Isaiah 59:19 says, When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him. What standard is that? The same standard that Jesus used against satan while being tempted in the desert. “IT IS WRITTEN!” 21“As for Me,” says the LORD, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the LORD, “from this time and forevermore.” When you are built up on the word of God, believing the Word of God, acting on the Word of God, you will be able to stand against every trick of the enemy. It’s not just knowing the word, it is acting and responding to the word that makes the foundation strong.
III. TAKE NO SHORTCUTS (49) 49But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.” Go back to the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. The seed that is not able to go down deep doesn’t last. 19When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. When I was working in the subdivisions way back in the 90’s we had one model of a house that we built often. One foreman on a framing crew built this house over and over. But he had a problem and didn’t even know it. The blueprint had been changed. Somehow he had lost the new blueprints and instead of getting a new set he reverted to the old blueprints. Not a big deal right? Truthfully it wasn’t except for one dimension that had been changed. It was the dimension of a downstairs window that was supposed to line up with the upstairs window right above it. There were some cedar trim pieces that also were supposed to center up on the window below. Because he didn’t have the right blueprint, even though it was almost identical to the new one, for four houses in a row our crew had to go behind him and move the downstairs window after the fact. It’s a lot easier to do it right the first time. Sometimes the things that are required in building a good house require more time. Many wanted to take short cuts and ignore some of the basics of carpentry. I could tell you story after story of things I have seen in old houses as well as new construction. It is a wonder they ever stood at all. If you ignore the word, the promises of God, and all the benefits that are available to you, and try to build your house on the sand without hearing and doing God’s word you will be like the Indian Graves levee last week as the Mississippi began to flow over it. Once the break starts there is nothing to stop the flood. With no foundation there is nothing to stop the enemy. Ephesians 6: 10Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of £the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.14Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
Years ago a TV news camera crew was on assignment in southern Florida filming the widespread destruction of Hurricane Andrew. In one scene, amid the devastation and debris stood one house on its foundation. The owner was cleaning up the yard when a reporter approached him.
"Sir, why is your house the only one still standing?" asked the reporter. "How did you manage to escape the severe damage of the hurricane?"
"I built this house myself," the man replied. "I also built it according to the Florida state building code. When the code called for 2x6 roof trusses, I used 2x6 roof trusses. I was told that a house built according to code could withstand a hurricane. I did, and it did. I suppose no one else around here followed the code."
When the sun is shining and the skies are blue, building our lives on something other than the guidelines in God’s Word can be tempting. But there’s a hurricane coming - for everyone.
What are you going to do about it?
