IS YOUR HOUSE BUILT ON SAND?
Matt. 7:24-27
INTRODUCTION
A. NO LONGER SIMPLE
1. Do you remember making sand castles in a sandbox or at the beach when you were a kid? Well, the sport has come a long way!
2. On June 5, 2019, the world record was set in Binz Germany of the building of the world’s tallest sand castle at 57 ft 11 in. (17.65 m) high and 85 feet across. An international team of 12 sculptors and eight technicians used 11,000 tons of sand and it took them 3 ½ weeks to build it!
3. A really gigantic sand castle was made on Treasure Island, Florida, that was bigger than a football field, required 1,000 gallons of sea water a minute and weighed 48,000 tons! But don’t go to Florida to see it – it’s not there; the winds and waves have washed it away.
4. Jesus said that people who ignore His words are like builders of sand castle:
a. All their work will be swept away;
b. Sandcastles are neat, but no one wants to live in one.
3. Yet men & women design sand castles for their souls every day – which ultimately fall – broken homes, unrealized hopes.
B. TEXT
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 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. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Mt. 7:24-27
C. THESIS
These are the closing words of the Sermon on the Mount. The title of this message is, “Is Your House Built on Sand?”
I. SIMILARITIES OF THE 2 HOUSES
A. BOTH HAD THE SAME TRIALS
1. One of the things we should notice in this passage is that the storms were the same for BOTH of these houses: “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew” (vss. 25,27). The SAME trials came to both of them.
2. So one of the things we should learn from this is that you are NOT somehow “exempt” from the trials of life if you build your house on the Rock of Christ. It’s NOT like: “OK, now that I’m a Christian, nothing bad is going to happen to me anymore.” As a Christian, you still get sick; you’ll still have problems with your job or marriage or kids; you still have “rain and floods and wind.”
3. It’s a false Gospel that says, “If you ask Jesus into your heart, you will only have prosperity from then on.” If someone told you that then you’re setting yourself up for a disappointment. “The rain falls on the just & the unjust!”
B. THE DIFFERENCE? EFFECT OF THE FOUNDATION
1. THE DIFFERENCE IS NOT THAT YOU DON’T HAVE STORMS AS A CHRISTIAN; THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT AS A CHRISTIAN YOU HAVE A FOUNDATION THAT HOLDS YOU UP THROUGH THE STORMS!
2. If you get breast cancer or lose a close family member, Jesus will be your strength and bring you through. He also may heal you – like several people I know. But like the 3 Hebrews said, “Even if He doesn’t, we’re still going to serve the Lord!” If you lose your job and your house, you can still have peace knowing that God has a different plan for your life and that He will take care of you!
3. In the same way, being a follower of Jesus will not keep YOU from “rain and floods and winds” and all kinds of trials in your life — but when you DO experience those things, you will have a peace, and a strength, and you will STAND and not fall, if you have built your life upon the ROCK!
II. WHAT IS “BUILDING YOUR HOUSE ON THE ROCK?”
A. WRONG IDEAS OF:
1. Many people think that “building your house on the rock” means to agree with the beliefs of Christianity. Others think it means to go to church, give in the offering and take Communion. NONE OF THESE ARE WHAT JESUS SAID IT MEANS.
2. Many others think that it means to take Jesus as your Lord. People say things like: “I took Jesus into my heart, so now I’m going to stand and not fall.” As good as that is, that’s still NOT what Jesus said “building your house on the rock” is. So what does “building your life on the rock” mean?
3. Jesus said in verse 24, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and PUTS THEM INTO PRACTICE....” The Apostle James says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (1:22). He continues in 2:14, “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds [obedience]? Can such faith save them?” The implied answer is “NO.” He concludes in vs. 26, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds/ [obedience] is dead.”
4. Jesus, in the verses just before the parable about the two houses, said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who DOES the will of my Father who is in heaven” Matt. 7:21.
5. SO, BUILDING YOUR HOUSE ON THE ROCK MEANS DOING WHAT JESUS SAYS! Building your house on the sand means NOT DOING what Jesus says! The difference here is NOT that one man came and LISTENED to Jesus and the other one didn’t. They both HEARD His words. It’s what they did with what they heard Jesus say that makes the difference.
6. So here Jesus says THERE IS ONE THING YOU’VE GOT TO GET: merely “hearing” what I’ve just said is not enough; you’ve got to DO IT!
B. WHERE WE CAN MISS IT
1. This gets right to the heart of it. How many of us here in church today, walk out of services each week feeling really good about ourselves, because we were at church to hear the sermon? And we think we’re good Christians — because we were “in church.” We heard the word. But Jesus tells us plainly here: that is not enough. That will not make the difference for your life. It is not enough for you to HEAR His word; you have to DO IT.
2. Herod, the wicked king who lived during the time of Jesus and John the Baptist, was committing adultery with his brother’s wife, and he had John the Baptist arrested because John preached against what Herod was doing. But interestingly enough, Mark 6:20 tells us that Herod “enjoyed listening to him.” This wicked king, living in open adultery, “enjoyed listening” to God’s word!
3. You know what the hard truth is? That some of us here today are no more saved than that wicked King Herod was. You might say: “But I like to come to church; I like to hear sermons” — so did HEROD. Being a real Christian is not about hearing the Word of God; it is about DOING it!
4. So ultimately, our attitude toward the Bible is crucial. If we recognize it as God’s Word to us, it will save, heal, & bless us. If we respect and obey God’s Word we will inherit eternal life! John 5:24; Rom. 2:7, 6:22.
III. THE POWER OF GOD’S WORD
A. “THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!”
1. The prophet said, “Water will flow in this desert” (2 Kgs. 3:17). People said, “It can’t happen!” but it did!
2. The prophet said, “Though it’s a famine, flour will sell cheaply in this city tomorrow” (2 Kgs. 7:1-2). Doubters said, “That’s impossible!” but it happened!
3. God said, “This sterile old woman (75 years old) shall bear a son next year” (Gen.18:10; Lk. 1:13). People laughed at the absurdity, but it happened just as God said.
4. God said a little army of 300 men would defeat an army of 135,000 men (450 to 1)! Crazy? But it happened!
5. The prophet said, “Israel, though defeated, sold as slaves, and scattered among the nations, will be gathered and become a nation again and rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem” (Deut. 29; Isa. 11:11-13; Jer. 25:11; Hos. 3:4-5 and Lk. 21:23-24). People said, “It will never happen!”
6. 2,000 years passed. It looked as if God’s Word would fail. But after WW2 and the Holocaust, the Israelites were allowed to resettle in their land! God’s Word came true again!
7. “Unique among all books ever written, the Bible accurately foretells specific events in detail many years or sometimes centuries before they occur. Approximately 2,500 prophecies appear in the pages of the Bible, about 2,000 of which already have been fulfilled to the letter—no errors. The remaining 500 are prophecies yet future to us.” [Hugh Ross]
B. NOT OF HUMAN, BUT DIVINE ORIGIN
1. The Bible may look like other books, but it’s not. The words of this Book are ALIVE! They’re words with spiritual power behind them. Jesus said, “The words I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life” John 6:63.
2. The Word of God is the most powerful thing in the universe; through it Jesus made the universe, Heb. 1:2-3. God's Word is an active force; creating, “upholding and maintaining and propelling all things...by His powerful Word [carrying the universe along to its predetermined goal]” Heb. 1:3, AMP.
3. The Bible is not the words of a man, a king, or a president, but of God. The voice that speaks to us from the Bible is the voice of God. Paul called it “God-breathed,” 2 Tim. 3:16.
4. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” Mt. 24:35. Once released by God, it has a life of its own – to bring about its fulfillment. “His word runs swiftly” Ps. 147:15. See Isa. 55:11.
5. It is the FINAL AUTHORITY. We will be judged by it. Jesus said, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him— the Word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.” John 12:48.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. 1. An English diamond merchant in the 1800’s was packing gems to send to a trader in India. Running out of the usual wrapping paper, he began using the pages of an old New Testament.
2. He used the first three chapters of the gospel of John. The soft paper was ideal.
3. The Hindu who received it unwrapped and read the pages. He read John 3:16. He was astounded.
4. He said to himself, "Why did I not know this before?" The Word grew in his heart by the power of God's Spirit.
5. Later when a missionary went to that city, he found a large gathering of Indian Christians, all because of a few pieces of scrap paper that contained the Words of Life!
B. THE CALL
1. Q – Will you build your life upon the Bible, the Word of God? If you will, please stand.
2. PRAYER.
[This message has some input from Shawn Thomas’ “Building Your Life on the Rock.”]
