The Two Houses // Matthew 7:24-27

Join us as we wrap up our sermon on the mount series!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let yourself imagine with me for a minute because I
want to tell you a story.
It's the middle of the nightand it's in an underground
bunker just outside the Russiancity of Moscow.
The year is 1983, and in 1983the Cold War was going on.
And so this was the US and theSoviet Union.
They weren't actually shootingat each other, but there were a
lot of tensions and it alwaysfelt like they were just on the

(00:22):
edge of nuclear war and that onewrong move could were just on
the edge of nuclear war and thatone wrong move could push
everything over the edge.
And there's a Soviet officer andhis name was Stanislav Petrov,
and he was on duty and he waslooking at these early warning
systems and they were meant totell the Soviet Union if the
United States had fired amissile first.
And so he's just watching thesethings, business as usual.

(00:44):
And then all of a sudden thesealarms start going off and
bright red lights start to flash, and all of a sudden his screen
showed that there had been fivenuclear missiles launched from
the United States and they wereon their way to the Soviet Union
.
And the protocol here was clearhe was supposed to report the
attack immediately.
And if he did more than likely,the Soviet Union's military

(01:08):
would have launched a full-scaleretaliation nuclear attack.
Hundreds, thousands of missiles, millions of people, tens of
millions, maybe even hundreds ofmillions of people would die
instantly.
But he was wrestling with itbecause something didn't feel
right.
Why would there only be fivemissiles?
Why would there not be more?
If you're going to start this,you would have probably gone for
the kill shot.
And then why?

(01:28):
You know?
Is this a glitch?
Is it a false alarm?
But all of the sudden, theweight of the world rested on
this guy's shoulders because hehad received information so
important that it demanded aresponse, and that's a real
story, by the way, that itdemanded a response and that's a
real story, by the way.
And thankfully, obviously, hechose not to fire and it turned

(01:49):
out that that alarm wastriggered by the system catching
the reflection of the sun offthe clouds.
But why do I tell you thattonight?
It's not just a great story,but that's where we're at as we
wrap up our Sermon on the Mountseries, and we're going to be in
Matthew, chapter 7, verses 24through 27,.
If you want to go ahead andflip there, if you have your
Bible.
Jesus has just told hisdisciples in this crowd and

(02:10):
we've walked through it over thepast few weeks, this whole
semester about what life in thekingdom looks like and what it
means to be one of his followers, to be one of his disciples.
And so he ends this sermon, thesame way that we see a lot of
sermons today being ended with acall to respond that what he
just told his disciples is soimportant that they have to do

(02:32):
something with it.
They have to respond.
And the thing is, because it'sso important, everyone who hears
it responds.
Even choosing to ignore it andmove on is a response.
And so he tells a parable toflesh that out and to help make
an image.
And with this parable he'sgoing to say either you build
your life on what I've just saidor you ignore it and face the

(02:54):
consequences.
And he gives us a look at theconsequences of either one of
those decisions.
And so, if you have your Bible,go ahead and flip open with me

(03:37):
Matthew, chapter seven, 7, verse24.
It says and so Jesus closesthis sermon with what we said
earlier was a parable, and aparable was a story, kind of
like we use an illustrationSometimes.
It was meant to kind of actuallyintentionally confuse.
If you wanted to get the pointthat Jesus was trying to make,
you had to ask some questions.
You kind of had to search forit, and that was the point he's

(03:59):
trying to get.
Hey, how bad, do you reallywant to know what I'm trying to
tell you here?
But in this one he's trying toillustrate a spiritual truth
with an earthly image.
How we do analogies, like I'mtrying to explain something to
you in a sermon, I say, hey,it's kind of like this.
And so in this parable there'stwo different builders and each
one is building a house, and theonly difference is they choose

(04:20):
a different foundation to buildon.
And so, in this parable, thehouse is symbolic of someone's
life.
Right, both of these buildershave heard what Jesus just
preached, they've heard hiswords, and they're choosing to
build their life one way oranother.
The strong foundation is onJesus and the sand is on
everything else or anything else, and then there's the storm

(04:42):
coming, or the storm that comes,and it's symbolic of all the
trials, of the life, hardships,suffering, temptations, and so
Jesus is then going to show usthe results of each of those
builders' efforts.
So, that being said, we'regoing to dive into each of the
two.
The first one, if you followalong, is the wise builder.
Jesus says the wise builder issomeone who hears his words and

(05:04):
then he puts them into practice.
And this is the wise builder.
Jesus says the wise builder issomeone who hears his words and
then he puts them into practice.
And this is the person whohears the word of God, hears
what Jesus has to say, and thenhe goes and he builds his life
around it.
And the imagery here isimportant because what Jesus is
not doing is just telling themto modify their behavior.
He's not trying to give hisdisciples a list of rules that,

(05:25):
hey, if you follow these, you'regoing to turn out all right.
Because if you think back towhat we've been walking through
past all of these weeks, sure,there's been some commands in
there and Jesus has told hisfollowers some specific things,
but it's been so much more thanthat.
He's been telling them how toview the world around them, how
to view everything in it, abouthow to view their entire life.

(05:48):
And so when he's saying tobuild your house on his teaching
, he's calling you to liveaccording to his view of the
world.
He's calling you to liveaccording to the truth, capital
T, truth, right, he's saying,hey, you need to build your life
on my understanding, which, ifGod's understanding, and it
means it's reality.
You need to build your life onmy understanding, which, if
God's understanding and it meansit's reality.
You need to build your lifeseeing things the way that I see

(06:08):
them, the way that I made themTo view money as a resource to
bless and use for others, ratherthan just a tool to make
yourself more comfortable.
To view relationships as a wayto point others to Jesus and
show Jesus to the world throughlove and mercy, rather than just
finding somebody to use tocomplete you.
Or to view work as a calling,joining God in cultivating the

(06:33):
world and creating beautifulthings and helping people and
helping society and viewing thatas a calling rather than just a
necessary evil to make a checkto pay the bills one day or to
buy the things you wanna buy oneday.
To view conflict, when we argue, as an opportunity to show
God's love and mercy rather thanan opportunity to be right.

(06:53):
And look, I know in the worldthat we live in, actually living
that way and viewing thosethings sounds kind of like you
know, idealistic, like too goodto be true at best, and maybe
for you, corny, at worst.
But here's the deal.
Time and time again, theChristian way of life has been
proven to lead to flourishing.
It's been proven to lead tolife, and life to the fullest.

(07:16):
Statistics even show it.
The Barna Group found thatpracticing Christians are
significantly more likely to saythey are very satisfied with
their life compared to thegeneral population 61% to 43%.
Prayer and scripture readinghas been shown to reduce anxiety
and increase peace.
A Harvard study found thatpeople who attend church weekly

(07:37):
are 33% less likely to die ofdespair, suicide, drug overdose,
alcoholism.
Couples who attend churchweekly have a 30% to 50% lower
divorce rate than those whodon't.
And a study by the Journal ofAmerican Medical Association
found that women who attendedreligious services more than
once per week had a 33% lowerrisk of dying over a 16-year

(08:00):
period.
And so that's a lot ofstatistics.
But the point being here is hey, even though it might sound
foreign, even if you go down tothe statistics, following Jesus
and adopting his way of livingand his way of existing in this
world has led to flourishing,and I can testify.
Y'all have heard a lot about howI had a long history of
absolute dumpster firerelationships in high school and

(08:21):
I was the common denominatorand I tell that part a lot but I
don't always tell this part.
When I get to college I'm in agroup called Stonehouse and this
is men's discipleship group,where we meet once a week, we
have mentors, one-on-ones, allthat sort of stuff, and the
first semester we take a classtogether called Foundations and
in this class each week we couldcover a different topic and one
week we covered dating and wewent through Ben Stewart's

(08:44):
single dating, engaged, married.
I didn't realize that's what itwas at the time, but it was,
and so I go through that and Iget absolutely wrecked.
I realize that I've been doingso many different things wrong
when it comes to relationships.
I've been treating those girlslike they owe me something, like
they belong to me, like theyneed to complete me.
I've been basically trying toplay marriage, like all these
jacked up things, and I reallystart to submit my view of

(09:07):
relationships to God.
I don't do things the wayGarrett thinks about doing
things anymore.
I'm going to do them the wayGod calls me to do them.
And sure enough, the nextperson I meet is Christine, and
you know, I'm not saying that ifyou read a book and go through
a class, you're going to marrythe next person you meet.
But everything about ourrelationship was completely
different.
There was a peace, there was ajoy, and now we're married and

(09:29):
have two kids.
And look, here's the thing.
I'm not telling you that if youlive according to the Bible,
that everything in your life isgoing to go perfect.
Things get hard, the stormcomes for each of these builders
, life gets difficult.
But I do believe that God hasdesigned life and his design for
life is good, even if sin hascome in and twisted and warped

(09:51):
some things.
God knows how life is supposedto be lived, because he created
it, and so when you liveaccording to his word, you will
generally see things fall intotheir proper order.
God kind of knows what he'stalking about when he talks
about how to use your money,because he created the concept
of money.
He kind of knows what he'stalking about when he says how
to be married and how to haverelationships, because he
created marriage.

(10:12):
He kind of knows what he'stalking about when he says about
how to have conflict, becausehe is the God of peace.
He's the opposite of conflict.
And so, guys, what I'm trying tosay here is that God's design
for living is not a bunch ofrules to try and keep you from
having fun.
It is a way of life.
It is life, true life that'screated for you to find peace
and joy and fulfillment, andwhen the storms come, you'll

(10:36):
actually have a foundation tostand on.
Not that things will always beeasy, but you'll have a peace
when you get that phone call,when you deal with that chronic
injury or illness.
It doesn't make those things goaway, but you can look it in
the face and say I have hope,knowing that this is not the end
, this is not my identity.
There's something on the otherside of this, because of the God

(10:58):
that I know, and you can standon that, even in the storms of
life.
But, that being said, there'sanother builder in this story
and if we think back to lastweek's message about the wide
and the narrow path, this is thewide path.
There's a lot more people whoidentify in this room with this
second builder and that's thefoolish builder.
And Jesus says this is theperson who hears his words and

(11:21):
doesn't put them into practice.
And see, the interesting thingis here, both of these builders
hear the same words, they're inthe same room, they get the same
message, but they decide to dodifferent things with it.
This is the person who didnothing with it.
Maybe this is the person whogrew up in church, went to VBS,
went to camp, had someexperiences, maybe even went on

(11:43):
a mission trip, but theirresponse is not to build their
life on Jesus.
It's more of like the hey, yeah, that's cool and all, but like
I'm good, like I'll go on Easter, I'll go when, like it seems
fun enough and I don't reallyhave any other plans, you know,
I'll.
You know, read my Bible.
You know, if there's like thewhole tag thing, like somebody
tags me in a say, yeah, Ibelieve in God, I believe in

(12:12):
Jesus, like I mentallyacknowledge that God is real,
but if you look into their life,there's no actual evidence that
that's what they believe.
It's just lip service.
It's just an Instagram bio,it's just a cross necklace.
There's no meat to it.
And Jesus is trying to lovinglyprovide a warning here that if
you build your life on anythingelse, you're going to be

(12:33):
disappointed, right?
If you try to live your lifeaccording to any other truth,
it's going to let you down.
A lot of you are taking testsright now.
Who took a test today?
Like a big test Star, I thinkAP English 4 was today, eocs,
all the things.
So imagine this, your wildestfantasy.
You sit down and you're aboutto take that test, right, so you

(12:54):
got your pencil out.
Actually, everything's oncomputers today, right?
I'm so sorry.
God bless your souls.
That sounds awful.
That's absolute torture.
I would hate to do that.
So you sit down at your computer, you're about to take the test
and your teacher walks up andsays hey, you know, I really
want to see you do good on thistest.
Guys, are y'all payingattention back there that row?
Cool, thanks, I really want tosee you do good on this test,

(13:14):
and so I'm going to give you theanswer key.
Here's the answers what wouldyour response be?
Like score.
That's amazing.
That's awesome.
I can't believe it.
I'm going to ace this test.
Now imagine what if yourresponse is like hey, thanks for
that.
Appreciate the answer key.
Sure, you know what you'retalking about, but kick rocks,
right?
I like my answers better.

(13:35):
I don't really care what yougive me or what you say.
You know that might be theanswer key, but I think I can do
a better job of this, so I'mgoing to answer it my way.
How do you think that would go?
Terribly right?
Horribly Big thumbs down and welaugh and we can think about
just how stupid that would be todo that.
But here's the thing If youhave heard the word of God and

(13:56):
decided to do nothing with it,you have done the exact same
thing, because the reality islike we said earlier God
designed the world andeverything in it and we call it
God's created order.
It's a whole theological thing,but the main point is that we,
as created beings, are meant tolive under the authority of our

(14:16):
creator, god, and that's not aharsh authority.
That's an authority where wecan actually find love and peace
and joy and fulfillment, and weget to enjoy everything that he
created for us to enjoy.
As long as it is in its properplace.
We get to enjoy things likemoney and relationships and all
that sort of stuff work.

(14:36):
They're meant to exist in acertain way and when they do, we
get to enjoy it.
It's kind of like buyingfurniture from Ikea, except
honestly, I truly believe thatliving according to the
Christian life is more simplethan putting together something
from Ikea, because I hateputting together furniture, but
it's like putting that together.
There's instructions andthere's a specific way to do it
and there's a right side up andif you build it according to the
instructions, it will go wellgenerally.

(14:58):
But if you try to build it yourown way, it might hold for a
minute, but ultimately it'sgoing to break and collapse.
And that's an incrediblyimportant thing, because we live
in a world that loves to saythat truth is relative, and what
that word relative means isthat you can make it up.
You decide what truth is.
You decide how you want to liveyour life and you might not be

(15:20):
into philosophy, but you'veheard that on Netflix, social
media, instagram.
You do you Be true to yourself.
Follow your heart, don't listento the haters.
That is all relativism.
Whether you realize it or not,it's caked in there, it's baked
in there, and the truth is thatit's just not that way.
That's not how things work andwe know that.

(15:42):
Pretend that.
My truth is that I can fly.
I can fly like a prettybutterfly, flap my wings and
soar away.
What happens?
Yes, just like that, cooper.
What happens if I climb up tothe top of the Tower of Americas
and jump off.
It doesn't matter what my truthis.
I'm gonna hit the reality ofgravity and the cement at the

(16:02):
bottom.
And here's the thing, guys yougoing to hit the reality of
gravity and the cement at thebottom.
And here's the thing, guys.
You can try to live your lifethe way you want.
You can try to do things howyou want to do them.
You can try to go aboutrelationships the way you want
to do it.
You can try to use your moneyhowever you want to.
You can try to climb thesuccess ladder, regardless of
how you treat the people aroundyou, and you might make it for a
little while, but I'm tellingyou it's not going to take you
where you want it to.
And I'm not saying that to befire and brimstone.

(16:24):
I'm not saying that to be harshor cruel.
I'm saying that because I truly, in my DNA, in the heart of my
heart, believe that to be true.
And if that is true, that isthe most loving thing that I can
tell you To get off the hamsterwheel, to get off the path
that's going to lead you todestruction, to stop building
your life on sand, because it'snot going to stand.

(16:46):
And so, in summary, there's twothings that you can build your
life on Jesus and literallyanything else.
Those are the categories, andif you build your life on Jesus,
you will have life to thefullest, the good life.
And if you build your life onanything else, eventually that's
going to collapse.
And so that leaves us tonightwith the same question that

(17:09):
Jesus left that crowd with thatday what are you building your
life on?
Because the assumption that'sunderlying everything that's
been said here tonight is thateverybody is building their life
on something, specifically aset of beliefs.
Here's the reality what youbelieve will shape what you do

(17:30):
and who you become.
And I'm not just saying, likewhat you say you believe.
I'm not saying what yourparents told you to say when
someone asks you what youbelieve, or what I told you to
say when someone asks you whatto believe, but what you truly
believe in the deepest of yourheart.
If you were honest withyourself for a moment, if you

(17:50):
stopped living that lie thatyou've been living so long that
you're starting to believe aboutwho you are, about the world
that you live in, about howyou're supposed to act, about
how you're supposed to treatpeople.
What do you believe, honestly,because the answer to that
question is going to shapeeverything else in your life and

(18:10):
that might be a really bigquestion to wrestle with.
So let me rephrase it in a waythat I think is manageable and,
if I can be honest, has wreckedme in recent weeks.
Ask yourself this what do youthink you need to be happy?
What do you think you need tobe happy?
What do you think you need tobe happy?
And don't give me the rehearsedSunday school answer that you

(18:34):
give everybody else.
Be honest, what do you thinkyou need to be happy?
Because if we're real every oneof us that's probably a little
bit of a loaded question, I know.
For me, I realized fairlyrecently that deep in my heart I
had a need to be seen by peopleas impressive.
I didn't really need to beimpressive, I didn't even really
need to be liked.
I just needed people to thinkthat I was smart or intelligent

(18:56):
or a good preacher or a goodpastor.
And you know all that did forme.
It suffocated me.
It forced me to keep people wholove me and care about me at
arm's length.
It caused me to hate myselfevery time I hit the reality of
the fact that I don't have allthe answers.
I'm not that good.
All the time I mess up, I makemistakes, and I know there's

(19:16):
some of you sitting in thosechairs tonight who feel the
exact same way.
Would you just let yourself behonest for the first time in
your life?
Maybe?
Maybe for you it's not beingliked.
Maybe it's I need to have arelationship and I'll be happy.
You're going to use everysingle person that you get into
a relationship with.
Desperation leads toexploitation every single time.
Maybe it's I need to have a lotof money.

(19:37):
You're going to be a slave tothat job and it's going to steal
you from your family.
Maybe it's I need to besuccessful.
You're never going to besuccessful enough.
You're always going to viewyourself as a failure.
If you build your life onanything other than the person
and the work of Jesus, it's sand.
It's going to collapse.

(19:58):
So my invitation to you tonightis what would it look like to
build your life for the firsttime tonight?
Maybe?
Maybe it's a recommittal thing,I don't know, but what would it
look like to build your lifefor the first time tonight?
Maybe maybe it's a recommittalthing, I don't know, but what
would it look like to genuinelybuild your life on the person of
Jesus, on the truth that Godcreated this world and
everything in it.
He created us to know him, tohave a relationship with him.

(20:18):
Yet we chose to go our own way,to try and be our own gods, to
take authority.
We disrupted the order andbrought sin in, and sin colored
and killed everything.
Yet God, in his mercy, had aplan from even back in the
garden to redeem us, to bringhim to himself, to bless a
family and, through that family,bless all the nations, and
we're some of those nations.
And so, ultimately, you skippast a whole lot of the Bible I

(20:40):
don't have time to cover tonight.
But he sends his son, jesus,who lives a perfect life.
God in the flesh, the invisible,divine made visible, lived a
perfect life, earned heaven, theone man to have actually earned
heaven.
Yet at the end of his life hewas drugged, he was whipped, he
was nailed to a cross where hesuffocated to death, and it says
that that wasn't on accident.
In that moment he became oursin.

(21:03):
That God punished him for oursin.
That God has to punish sinbecause he's just.
We want him to punish sin, butwhat happens when we're the
sinners, and so he punishedJesus for that, so that God
doesn't just sweep your sinunder the rug or look the other
way.
He looks it in his face and hesays I paid for it.
And if you place your faith inthat, you'll be saved, you'll be

(21:23):
set free, you'll become hischild, you'll have access to a
heavenly father.
You know how groundbreakingthat is for us to try and wrap
our minds around what it lookslike to have a heavenly father
who's perfect and loves us.
I know that father languagetrips a lot of you guys up.
I'm telling you it's real, evenif it takes us a minute to get
it.
And now you have a hope and afuture.

(21:44):
And this is where the storm partcomes in, because when things
happen in life, when you lose aloved one, when you fail that
test, when you don't make thatteam, when your family goes
through hard things, there'smore than just the present.
There's a hope.
There's something in the future, there's something coming.
Every wrong will be made right,every tear will be wiped away,
every illness and every brokenbody will be made right.
Every tear will be wiped away,every illness and every broken

(22:05):
body will be made whole, and Iwill see my creator, god, face
to face, and everything will beright.
Every sad thing will comeuntrue, and that's offered you
tonight.