Right Foundation
Notes
Transcript
What foundation are you building on? A foundation is very important for a building. It supports the building, and keeps it from sinking. In San Francisco, there is the Millenium Tower. Yet before the building sold any units, it was already sinking more than projected over its lifetime. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-tower-idUSKBN12Y2JV/ That caused it to tilt. Even though it was fixed, it is sinking at a rate of one-tenth of an inch per year. https://archinect.com/news/article/150417670/san-francisco-s-millennium-tower-is-sinking-again-despite-foundational-corrections. Issues with the foundation can cause destruction. It is the same spiritually.
We have made it to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. We made it through the Beatitudes, the Similitudes (salt and light), how Jesus relates to the law, and the misconceptions verses the correct interpretations about the law (anger, lust, marriage, oaths, dealing with those who have wronged you). That was chapter 5. In chapter 6, we saw how our motives matter for why we do things, and how to pray. We then talked about living for eternity, and why we should not worry. In chapter 7, we talked about having judgmental attitudes, and then we talked about why people reject the narrow way, and how it is because of false teachers. Now Jesus is coming to the end, and is talking about foundation. He is giving you a choice. One leads to safety, the other to destruction.
What are your choices for your foundation?
Don’t do what Jesus says
Jesus says that the second group it is not just that they do not know, is that they hear and do not do what they hear.
James 1:22–24 “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.”
The Bible says that one who hears and does not do, is one who goes to a mirror, see their hair messed up, drool on themselves, and last night’s dinner in their teeth, and go for a job interview. You are deceiving yourselves, thinking you’re alright, because what you are doing is hearing something you need to fix, and
These are the people who hear what God says, and do not do them, because they are either worshipping an idol, or going by their own feelings.
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Many Christians do not do what Jesus says because it does not feel good. Love your enemies. Do good to them that have wronged you. Be reconciled rather than bitter. Don’t do things for the fame. It all goes against what the flesh wants.
Yet the storms will come, and there is no foundation for it if you do not build your life upon Jesus’s sayings. There will be a great fall.
Let’s use the example of someone who lives their life for money. What happens when they lose it, or lose their job. They will start to worry
Do you find yourself ignoring what Jesus says? Do you tune out during the preaching of God’s Word. Do you find yourself
Do what Jesus says
Jesus says you can hear what He says
The entire Sermon on the Mount, and His teaching
Do it
You need to build upon Jesus’s teaching.
Notice that storms are mentioned as well. The storms and trials mentioned are the same. You will go through storms even if you do build upon what Jesus says. Why? Because you live in a sin-cursed world with sin all around you, bodies that are decaying and people who do not know God. Yet inspite of these storms, you can survive spiritually.
It says that the storm beat upon that house.
Also it says that the house did not fall, but there can be damage. Do not expect that if you build upon the Lord’s truth, you will not hurt.
Notice what it says in v. 28-29. Why shouldn’t you be surprised that Jesus would seem as one who had authority? Because He is God, and He has all authority
Colossians 1:16–18 “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”
When you do what Jesus says, you are following the highest authority.It should not be an issue to do what He says, because normally when an expert says anything, people listen. But why does the One with supreme authority, when he says things people ignore Him.
Do you follow what God says?
What foundation are you building on?