Doing the right thing the wrong way Pt 2
Two men who built houses
Introduction
A. We are continuing our sermon series on “Doing the right thing the wrong way.” The Bible is full of stories where two people do the same thing, but one does it the right way the other does it the wrong way. Two men believed in God and prayed, one did it the wrong way and one did it the right way. Two men who did the right thing and offered sacrifices to God, but one did it the wrong way and one did it the right way. Two people who questioned God, one did it the right way and one did it the wrong way. There are also many stories of people who tried to do the right thing but did it the wrong way, like when King David wanted to bring the Ark of God into Jerusalem and he went about it the wrong way. Or when Moses tried to correct the nation of Israel because of their complaining but he went about it the wrong way.
B. It is so easy to do the right thing the wrong way. This is especially true of church going people or Christians. We want to do the right thing but we don’t always do it the right way. We’re faced with this dilemma every day. The boss finds out that Susie made the same clerical error once again. She sends out material to your customers with the same misspelled word. The right thing is to correct her so she won’t do it again. The wrong way is to yell at her and make her cry. The right thing “done wrong.” But we’re good at excusing this kind of bad behavior. “I’m the Boss; I have the right and the responsibility to demand the right products from my people.” “I’m the parent I have the right and the responsibility to teach my children to be good.” Think of how many times we’ve heard those words. We think we’re good at identifying the “right thing” very quickly, but we’re often blind to the “right way” of doing them. This happens in business, politics, in our homes and yes, even in religion
C. Last week we talked about the two men who prayed. They both did the right thing. They prayed, but one prayed the right way and the other did the right thing but did it the wrong way. If you want to hear our Sunday sermons or watch them you can go to our website or our Mobil app and download them.
D. Today we shall be looking at two men who built a house, one did it the wrong way and one did it the right way. We are going to start in the gospel of Matthew but before we do…
Honor God’s Word
2 Tim 2:15 “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that does not need to be ashamed, and become someone who can rightly divide the word of truth.”
A. Studying God’s Word means taking the time to read it and think about it. Sometimes it means to read it over and over and over. Also memorizing it is a great way to study it. When you memorize it, I truly believe that God gives you understanding of it.
B. Read Matthew 7:24-29.
Both men did the right thing. They listened to Jesus’ words.
A. Both men listened to Jesus. This is a good thing. But one did it the right way and one did it the wrong way. They apparently liked to hear what Jesus had to say. They respected Jesus as a good teacher. According to Jesus, one man listened to Jesus’ teachings and OBEYED Jesus’s words. The other man listened to Jesus’ teachings but did NOT obey Jesus words. He left saying, “I’m not ready, I will think about it.” Or, “That was interesting, etc.” This is sort of how some people leave here on Sunday. We read God’s Word, they hear it, but the ‘doing’ just never seems to happen, they never get around to it. We like to keep Jesus locked up just for Sunday. We don’t like Him getting involved in our home lives, or in our finances or in our relationships.
B. It is one thing to listen to Jesus’ words but it is another thing to ‘really’ listen to Jesus’ words. When we ‘really’ listen to Jesus words, we do them! If we believe He was truly God’s Son then we don’t listen to His Words and say, “Well let me think about it. I am not sure I agree with Him.” Or “I don’t like what He is saying.” Either we listen to Him speaking the heart and mind of God or we are not going to listen to Him at all. We can’t pick and chose which of His words we like and which ones we don’t like.
Both men were building houses. One was doing it right and one was doing it wrong.
A. Both men did a good thing. They both ‘built’ a house. The house represents their lives. Everybody is building a house. It is their life story. The two houses looked similar on the outside. But one built his house on good foundation ‘the rock,’ the other built his house on a weak foundation ‘the sand.’
B. Let take a look at some things that this sand might represent.
Video The rug Central films $20 (Sermonspice)
A. How sad, to see houses washed away in floods. Why didn’t they build them with a better foundation? Just like the story of the three little pigs, people like to take the easy way when it comes to building their lives. Building a good foundation takes time and commitment. It costs more money to build a good foundation.
B. It would be a terrible thing to lose your house in a flood, but here in Matthew the house that Jesus is talking about is more valuable than just your house. He is talking about the house of your life.
C. Both men were hit by ‘storms.’ One was destroyed by the storm. The other survived.
D. What can we learn from this parable?
Storms will come
A. Every person regardless of their spirituality or lack of spirituality will have storms in their lives, some more than others. Perhaps you are in the middle of one right now. Maybe it’s a storm of sickness or depression. Or maybe it is a financial storm or a relationship storm.
B. Following Jesus does not exempt us from life's storms! Jesus is not teaching a parable about how to build our houses in protected areas. There are no storm-free zones! This is a parable about foundations, not about avoiding the weather. The outcome is determined by the foundation we're sitting on.
C. Storms can take on a lot of different forms but they all share a common tendency. They tend to bring out what you are really made of, or what you are building your life on. Storms often bring out the ‘real you!’
D. Jesus said in John 16:33, “In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
E. I have had my share of storms in my life; the death of my older sister and the death of both of my parents, sickness and severe back pain, the loss of children through miscarriages, struggles in relationships both in my family and in the church, accidents, having things stolen, etc.
F. As much as I want to believe that bad things won’t happen to me, reality says they will and Jesus said they would. The question we need to answer is, “Are we ready for them?”
G. When a storm hits often there is a lot of confusion because we are not sure whether we brought this on ourselves by our bad decisions and God is punishing us or if this is the devil attacking us through some people or if this storm is just the result of living in a fallen world.
H. No matter the cause of the storm, when it comes what really matters is ‘our foundation’ Can we handle this storm or are we going to be destroyed by this storm? If we brought it on by our bad decisions if our foundation is strong we will make the correction and move on. If the devil is attacking us, if our foundation is strong we will put up our spiritual defenses and learn to fight spiritual warfare. If the storm is the result of living in a fallen world, if our foundation is strong, we will be strengthened in our inner man and find the will of God in it.
I. So the only thing that really matters when we are talking about the ‘storms of life’ is how strong is our foundation?
The house must be built BEFORE the storm comes.
A. There is a time for building, after that it is called maintenance. If you build right then the house needs less maintenance. A good foundation is the most important. If that is done right the building will last a long time.
B. Some don’t have the house built and then the storm comes. Then it is too late to build. Some are too busy with the cares of this life, too busy making money, trying to have fun, etc. Then the hard times come and they collapse. People are always so shocked when they see a house (family or person’s life) washed away. Should not be shocked. If they build on the sand, it will fall down during the storm.
C. Even if we build right we need to continue and keep up with the maintenance. If let it go for too long the house can really begin to have problems. For instance if have a plumbing problem and don’t take care of it, it will eventually rot away all the wood. I had a leak in my living room window. I kept trying to fix it with more caulking but it didn’t seem to work. Eventually I had Mark Poland come out and we took out the window and completely redid it. When we took out the old window, I could see that there had been some serious dry rot damage to the wood underneath. If I had waited another year or two before getting this fixed I would have had some serious problems.
D. This is true with some Christians, they started out right built a nice foundation in Christ, but then over the years have left the maintenance fall by the wayside. We need to build right and we need to keep up on the maintenance.
Doing the right thing THE RIGHT WAY
How to build a strong foundation James 1:19-25
A. James tells us not to be a hearer only but also a doer. There is no such thing as a Sunday Christian. If you are a ‘Sunday Christian’ then you are building on sand. You are not safe just being a hearer only. Some people deceive themselves, “Well at least I go to church.” You are doing the right thing and you are better off going to church, at least you get to hear the word, but we need to be doers of the word if want to build a house that can stand against the storms.
B. Why do people cave in? They collapse because they have nothing to stand on. They are all house and no foundation. They have profession and not possession. Hearing is important, but it becomes part of our foundation when we DO it, when we apply it to our everyday lives.
C. Doing God’s words is like the cement between the blocks. When we seek to obey what God asks of us, it makes our foundation strong. It starts to make sense. Revelation follows obedience. It does not precede it. Too often we are waiting for God to do something in our lives, when in reality it will never happen until we start obeying God in the things He has already shown us.
D. Obedience to God’s Word is a progressive thing. We start out just like with children. Often it is with God’s Holy Spirit asking us to stop doing things that are not good. Maybe it is to stop drinking too much, or to stop using fowl language or maybe to stop taking things from work. But obedience is progressive. God has much more for our lives and our foundation needs more than just us not doing bad things. He wants us to start doing the works of His Kingdom. He wants us to start taking back territory that the devil has stolen. He wants us to care for others, to pray for others, to reach out and serve others. This is what makes our foundation strong.
E. Jesus made it pretty clear. The man who listens and obeys His teachings is the man who is building a strong foundation. The man who just listens and does not obey is building on a weak foundation that is going to collapse when the storms come.
F. I have seen many people go through storms in their lives. I have seen many people fall apart during that storm and I have seen many people weather that storm. I can say for sure that the only difference between those who houses were destroyed and those whose houses were not destroyed was ‘the foundation.’
G. The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy has been slowly falling for years. Scientists travel yearly to measure the building’s slow descent. The 179-foot tower has been moving about one-twentieth of an inch a year, and is now 17 feet out of plumb. In order to save this 810-year-old tower they have begun rebuilding the foundation. It is interesting that the word "Pisa" means "marshy land," which gives some clue as to why the tower began to lean even before it was completed. Also its foundation is only 10 feet deep! Thousands of tourists travel to see this great edifice that is leaning so much it looks like it is going to fall, all because it was not built on the right foundation.
H. In this story of the two builders, Jesus does not say that some people are “good” and that some people are “bad!” What He does say is this: Some people are “wise” and some people are “foolish!” Both are building their lives. Both are doing the right thing, but one is doing it the wrong way and the other is doing it the right way. When the “Storms of Life” come we learn who and what we “really and truly” are made of!
I. Some people go all to pieces when the “Storms of Life” come but some people are able to weather the storm without being destroyed.
J. Jesus said storms are going to come, but He also said, “If you HEAR His Words and DO them, you won’t be destroyed by the storms of life. If you are a doer of the Word, the house of your life will not fall when a storm comes.
K. Being a ‘doer of the Word,” means a person applies the Words of Jesus to their life. If Jesus says forgive then you forgive. If Jesus says give then you give. If Jesus says serve then you serve. Whatever the Holy Spirit is telling you to do, you DO. Another word for this is ‘Obedience.’ Notice it was not prayer, faith, confessing, or hearing the word. The key to the house that stood was not in the hearing of the Word. The key is in the DOING of the Word.
L. It’s not enough to “know” Scripture. Maybe you’ve studied it long and hard, and you can discuss what the Bible says about all sorts of stuff. But unless you’re actually DOING what the Scripture talks about, then it’s all in vain. The Bible says that knowledge, by itself, puffs up.
M. How many times have we heard people talk about what they are going to do, and then never do it? We look at what people’s intentions are. We think that if our intent is to do something, it is as good as doing it! Jesus wants people who not only hear the word, and applaud the word, but instead, he wants people who will do what the Word says.
Summary
A. It is not always just about doing the right thing. It is more important that we do the right thing the right way. It is too easy to do the right thing the wrong way and that is dangerous because it can be deceptive. We can thing that since we did the right thing that is enough. Just hearing Jesus words is NOT enough. Jesus said that we need to hear and DO what He says. That means in every area of our lives.
B. If we want our lives to be able to weather the storms that will come our way we need to build it on a good foundation. The only foundation that will ever last is one built on God and His Word.
C. We are all going to face STORMS in life, both Christians and non-Christians. They may be caused by different things, but what determines how we weather the storm? Our FOUNDATION.
To build a good foundation, we need to HEAR and OBEY teachings of Jesus. It is not good enough just to hear.
