Iliff and Saltillo UM church
September 11, 2005
Dr. Marilyn S. Murphree
“Why Do We Build On Sand?”
Matthew 7:24-29
INTRODUCTION: Jesus was talking with all kinds of people during his ministry. Some were sincerely wanting to know the truth and to do it and others were just wanting to know it but not do anything about it. Many just wanted to hear it so they could criticize. Even though some of the people “seemed” to be religious, Jesus knew that they were not going to be genuine disciples of his.
In verse 21 he tells them, “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.” Jesus wanted the people who heard him to take his Words to heart. He illustrated his teaching with a story about two builders. Let’s see how these truths apply to our lives today and what God is telling us to do this week about our “house” or our life.
1. Each House LOOKS Acceptable in Good Weather: Have you ever said, “That person doesn’t go to church or give any thought to God and he seems to get along as well as I do.” I’ve said that statement and probably some of you have too. Jesus talked about two builders who put up a house. When the sun was shining, they probably looked pretty similar on the outside. Maybe from all indications you know people who seem to be getting along fine. They have no major problems, good job, no financial concern, no problems in their family, seem happy and are living the “good life.” There is, however, no time for God. Other priorities take up all their free time. Weekends are spent doing other things. Don’t really think about God. Oh yes, “I BELIEVE in God, I’m a basically GOOD person. I HEAR but don’t have time to do anything about it. Maybe will get around to it some day.”
Each house, or each life, looks pretty similar to the casual observer. It’s GOOD weather. The roof doesn’t leak in good weather. The basement doesn’t flood in good weather. The walls stand with no problems in good weather.
So does it really matter how we build our lives? Does it really matter if we show up for church? Does it really matter if we receive Jesus into our life? Many people today think it is optional. It is more of an incidental ADDITION to your life--like adding on a deck or some other homeowner improvements to your standard of living.
Maybe it is not necessary to pray or find out what the Bible says. Maybe it is no longer all that important to go to Sunday school. We say, “After all, you know times have changed.”
We look at people and say, “They’re getting along OK. I don’t think I need to worry about my life either. I’ll just slide by.” Do you ever think this way? I think sometimes we do.
Retiring Carpenter
An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.
The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career. When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter.
"This is your house," he said, "my gift to you." What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.
So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we have built. If we had realized that we would have done it differently. Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity.
The plaque on the wall says, "Life is a do-it-yourself project."
Who could say it more clearly? Your life today is the result of your attitudes and choices in the past. Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today. (unknown illustration)
2. The Sun Doesn’t Always Shine: Jesus was probably speaking to the vast crowds of people on a sunny day. As they gathered together there may have been no hint of a storm coming up. But Jesus is telling them, “The sun doesn’t always shine,” and you know from the business of living that the sun doesn’t always shine for you either. Here is an example of two houses--one built carefully on the solid rock and the other on the sand--they both look good. But the rain began to come down one day in torrents and kept raining until the floods came up. Then if that weren’t bad enough the winds began to beat against the houses. Only storms reveal the quality of the workmanship of the two builders. The wise person had built in such a way to withstand anything. A wise person represents those who put Jesus’ words INTO PRACTICE as well as just hearing them.
You will notice that the storm was coming in from ALL DIRECTIONS--not just a little bit of rain. No problem. Can handle that. But the rains came down to the point of FLOODING the house--ruin, devastation. Besides that, strong winds--maybe a tornado hit just as the homeowner was dealing with all of the rain.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes when trouble hits you that sometimes it comes in from all directions? The car breaks down, the kids get sick, an avalanche of bills come in, somebody ends up in the hospital---You are not only feeling the rains come down on an OFF DAY but it CONTINUES to pour. The basement floods. Things are ruined.
STORY: went on vacation and someone turned the outside water faucet on and the water went into the basement and was running for days. No one was watching the house and they came home 10 days later to discover this. Their basement was a finished basement and everything had to be completely torn out and start from scratch redoing it.
The sun doesn’t always shine for us. How do we handle the storms?
Jesus said the person who HEARS these words of mine and PUTS THEM INTO PRACTICE is like the wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the floods came up, and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock.
How do you build your life on a good foundation? What does it mean to build on a rock?
The Message Bible gives us some help on this. Jesus says, “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who builds his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit--but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
What does this mean?? He goes on to say, “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach...when a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”
It is said that one of the problems today is that people cannot connect their faith to their daily lives. People do not know how to integrate their faith into their ordinary lives on Monday. It is like Sunday is a separate compartment that is left until the next Sunday.
Jesus is saying, learn to “work these words of mine into your life on Monday” as well as on Sunday. How?
(1) Pray during the week about your daily concerns. Pray in your own words. Leave out the thees and the thous. Just “Talk” to God as you would to a friend.
(2) Tell a friend how God answered one of your prayers.
(3) Ask the Blessing over your food today.
(4) Sing a chorus as you drive down the road.
(5) Attend a Bible study this week.
(6) Read a Psalm. Ask God to speak to you specifically through the words you are reading. Ask yourself, “What is God saying to me.”
(7) Meet with one other person to pray about some specific needs. Write your concern down in a notebook. Put the date on it. Write down the answer. Keep a record of what God is doing in your life.
I believe we can learn to integrate His Words into our daily life through DOING these little things each day. Jesus is saying, “Work them into your life.” Don’t just “tack them on to your life on Sunday morning.”
STORY: Fellowship of Christian magicians. Some of the performers seemed to really come across as genuine and you could see that they were living their faith. Others would do a magic trick and then think, “Well, I’ve got to have some kind of a gospel message to this. It was like it was just “tacked on” at the end. It didn’t seem genuine. Probably because it was not.
Where do we find the Rock to build on? Scripture indicates what the Rock is and WHO it is. The prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 28:16, “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.”
Paul wrote in I Cor. 3:9-11 “For we are God’s fellow workers, you are God’s field, you are God’s building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is CHRIST JESUS.” You’ve got to start first by receiving Him into your life. That’s where the foundation begins.
Paul also tells us in I Corinthians 10:4 “...our forefathers were all under the cloud and they all passed through the sea...They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them and THAT ROCK WAS CHRIST.”
When the storms come and beat against our life, our structure fools no one, especially, not God. Building on the rock requires care and effort. We must consider the cost involved in following Jesus. We want to count the cost of building a good foundation for our life. It will not always be the easiest thing to do. Luke 14:29 says, “for if a person lays a foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone will ridicule him and say, ‘this fellow began to build and was not able to finish.”
3. Why Do People Build on Sand?: Most people do not deliberately seek a false or inferior foundation to build on. Most people just don’t think about their life’s purpose. Many people even are headed for destruction not out of STUBBORNNESS but out of THOUGHTLESSNESS. Maybe you find yourself like this at times.
People build on the sand for several reasons. Some avoid the hard work of preparing the stone foundation. Just not going to make the daily commitment to HEAR and DO what the Lord is telling them to do. Are we all like that at times? Just too much effort. Don’t have the time.
Maybe the waterfront scenery is more attractive to others. Maybe a beach house has higher social status than cliff houses. Many want to join their friends who have settled in sandy areas. Do we look to what the trends are or to what our friends are doing when we are building our lives? What is the socially acceptable thing to do? Do we tend to follow the crowd? We can’t follow the crowd.
Are we blind to the weather forecast at times and say, “Oh, there’s no storm coming.” People say, “It will never happen to me.” Do we IGNORE the words of Jesus even though we HEAR them?
The foolish builder built on sand. He took the easiest way possible to put up the structure. When the rains came down, the floods came up, and the winds beat upon the house, the structure collapsed. That is sad because all of the time and effort however minimal was lost.
CONCLUSION: Today we all have a house to build--a life to live and we are building it whether wisely or foolishly. The building may look great on the surface. But remember the sun doesn’t always shine.
Are you the builder who laid the foundation on a rock and when the flood arose and the storms beat it could not be shaken?
Or are you a foolish builder who is building on the sandy beach. When the storms roll in and the waves come in, your house is going to collapse?
James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves. DO WHAT IT SAYS. That person will be blessed in what he does.”
Shall we Pray:
