Built on the Rock (Matthew 7:24-27)How do we hear the words of Jesus?How do we obey the words of Jesus?And, What does it mean that our house will stand?Hear “Everyone then who hears these words of mine...”It is hard for us to obey if we don’t even hear the command. You need to listen so you can obey. And because of that, listening is at the heart of your relationship with God. God Speaks in Different WaysSo if hearing the words of Jesus are of such importance, how do we do it? If we believe the Bible then we believe that God can speak to us through many different ways. There could be special times that God speaks to us in an audible voice from heaven like He did with Paul. He could speak to us in dreams like we see with Joseph the husband of Mary, or through visions like he did with Peter. He can speak to us through the Holy Spirit in our hearts, guiding us, but the primary way God speaks with us today is through His word. It is the most accessible way. You can’t just ask God to speak to you from heaven audibly, you’re asleep when you’re dreaming. The Bible is always there, and whenever you open it God speaks. At any time, any place you can hear the words of God. On the bus on your way to work, God speaks. Laying in your bed, God speaks. Eating lunch in the cafeteria, God speaks. The Bible is the StandardIt is also the standard for which we measure everything else against. So, if you have a crazy dream and go to Joe and say, “I think God gave me a dream last night that I should start adding animal sacrifices back into my worship of God.” Guess what Joe is going to do? Open the Bible to see how that measures up. So our primary source of hearing from God is through His word.We Need to Read the BibleA few weeks ago I spoke about our need to behold Jesus and how 2 Cor 3:18 shows us that the more we behold Jesus the more we are transformed into His image. And if you left that service and said, “That’s sounds all well and good but how am I supposed to behold Jesus?” Here it is. If you want to become like Jesus, you need to behold Jesus, to behold Jesus you need to read the 66 books of the Bible that point to him. Because Jesus is what the entire Bible is all about. It’s not just the four Gospels, it’s not just the New Testament, the entire Bible from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 it’s all about Jesus. The Side-Effects of Not Reading Your Bibleyou don’t have much motivation to live the Christian lifeyou find it hard to resist temptationyou don’t have a great desire to prayyou’re stressed and worriedyou don’t often think about eternal thingsyou’re not overly engaged in worshipstruggling to stay awake during the sermonI know this from my own life. How you read the Bible and how you live the Christian life are are all tangled up in each other. It’s not that it’s some magic book. No, it’s not magic. It’s just the very words of the all-powerful, eternal Creator of the universe written to his creation to reveal Himself to them and show them how he wants to bring them back to Himself.It’s Hard but ImportantSo if you haven’t been reading your Bible, make today the day and go home and read your Bible. Just not right now, I’m not done yet. Look, we believe so strongly on the great need of God’s people to be reading God’s Word that we want to provide you with as many resources as we can to help you in this. Because guess what? It is hard. Just like most things that are important are. Exercising and eating healthy is tough. Building a strong healthy marriage is hard work, because it is important. The importance of raising kids in a godly way and preparing them and protecting them and guiding them will break you. In the same way reading the Bible is tough work. Sometimes it will seem like everything is against you. Your mind can’t focus. It can take energy, and self-control, and commitment but it only shows just how vital it is for your life. If you don’t eat healthy and exercise you die physically. If you don’t work on your marriage your relationship dies. If you don’t read your Bible you die spiritually. Pick up a Bible Reading Plan from the Welcome Table.Reading StatisticsAnd if you think, that it’s just too much. You’d love to read the whole Bible but it’s too big of a task. Consider this: There are 774,746 words in the Bible. A slow reader reads around 200 words per minute. If you read for just 15 minutes a day, you can read the whole Bible in 248 days, or 8.5 months. 15 minutes a day! That’s your coffee break at work. If you read for 30 minutes each day you could almost get through the Bible three times in a year. Of course, it’s not a race and it’s not about speeding through the Bible, but I tell you that to bring it into reality. A Plan, A Time, A PenWe won’t spend long here but just a few more things for those of you who will be breaking new ground by really getting into God’s Word. You’ve got a plan, now set out a time when you will read. 7:15am, Noon, 8:30pm. Your consistency will make the process easier.You’ve got a plan, set the time, now get a pen. Underline, circle, put stars exclamation points, question marks. Write notes in a journal, write notes right on the page. Verses about the Bible So, the Bible is fundamental to your relationship with God. It is like honey on your lips. It is living and active and sharper than a double-edged sword. It is like a fire that burns in your heart and a hammer that breaks stone. It stands forever. It gives light and understanding to the simple and makes us wise for salvation. It revives the soul. Man shall not live on bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Sanctify them in truth, your word is truth. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. We need to be a people who love the Word of God. Who love to read it. Love to memorize it. Love to teach it to our children. Love to hear it preached and sung and prayed. 2. Obey “...and does them...”Both Houses Look the SameThis is the key. This is what separates the two men in Jesus’ story. Both men heard the words of Jesus. Both men read their Bible. Both men came on Sunday and heard the preacher preach the word of God. Both men went to LG and studied the Gospel of Matthew. Both men heard, one man obeyed. And it made all the difference. Just take a minute to let this sink in. At first glance there is nothing that looks different from the two houses. They are framed the same way, the windows are in the same place, the have the same shingled roof, they are even built close enough together that the same storm hits them. But one is built on the rock of obeying God’s Word and the other is not. And for us today, you might read the Bible, come to church, listen to the sermon, hear the Word at LG, and do all the things that give the appearance that your house is built well but if we take the stairs to the basement we find foundation walls of packed sand ready to collapse at any sign of storm. The warning here is that as great as hearing God’s Word is, it’s not an end in itself. Hearing a sermon, reading the Bible, are fantastic... but the man whose house was destroyed heard as well.True Obedience Looks A Certain Way“Yes Daddy, I will obey, right away, all the way, the happy way!”“I will obey, right away...”The Nowness of Obedience (Hebrews 3:7-8, Joshua 24:15)This is important because we tend to put obedience off into the future. For instance, have you ever found yourself thinking something like this: “Once I get that promotion, I’ll be able to start tithing,” or, “When we get that bigger house, I’ll be able to be much more patient with the kids”, “this Bible Reading Plan looks great... I’ll start that as soon as I’m done midterms”And then, after having thought something like this, we then congratulate ourselves on our obedience. We imagine ourselves being obedient in the future, and then think of ourselves as actually being obedient. We replace actual obedience with the idea of obedience because often times we never actually end up being obedient... because the thing that we see as hindering our obedience, not a big enough paycheck, small house, midterms.. is just replaced with something else. You get the promotion but then your kid graduates and you’ve got to pay for college. You move into the big house, but that just means a bigger mess to clean and turns out your even more impatient than before. You finish your midterms, but you have to take an extra class next semester that you weren’t planning on. With God there is an immediacy to the obedience he calls you to. Hebrews 3:7 says “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” Joshua stands before the Israelites and declares, “Choose you this day who you will serve.” The idea or the intent to be obedient in the future is not obedience.“...all the way...”The Fullness of Obedience (1 Samuel 15)In the same way partial obedience is not obedience. A couple years ago, I remember I walked into Nathanael’s room, who was around three, I opened the door to what looked like a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie. There were toys and clothes everywhere. I said “Whoa buddy, how did this happen? You can’t even walk in here” “I... don’t know”. So I told him to clean it up. I shut the door and he set to work cleaning up his room. A little while later he came out and said his room was clean. Karen and I walked down the hall and at first glance everything looked perfect. The floor was completely bare. Everything appeared tidy and put away.... but then we noticed a large mound under the blanket on his bed. Curious. And then you could see some stuff sticking out from under the bed. He had taken all the toys and clothes that he could and shoved them under his bed until he couldn’t get anymore under there so he piled the rest on his bed and covered them with the blanket. He had obeyed and cleaned his room. You could walk around in there now. But it was a partial obedience. Turn to 1 Samuel 15In 1 Samuel 15, Saul is commanded by the Lord to go to Amalek and completely destroy everything. Saul goes and completely destroys almost everything but keeps some sheep and oxen supposedly to offer them as sacrifices to God. When he returns he is greeted by Samuel, the prophet of God, who says this...Read 1 Samuel 15:17-22He kind of did what God wanted him to do, just in a way that he wanted, in a way that he thought was better. Just like Nathanael pushing all the toys under his bed. He obeyed on his terms. It was a partial obedience. And when you read the story of Saul you find out that the Lord treats Saul’s partial obedience the same as disobedience. He refers it as rebellion against God and a rejection of His word. Our obedience needs to be full obedience.“I will obey, right away, all the way...”“...the happy way!”The Joyfulness of Obedience (Psalm 100:2, 2 Corinthians 9:7)Psalm 100:2 says ‘Serve the Lord with gladness”. 2 Cor 9:7 says the Lord loves a cheerful giver. Possibly the hardest of the three. But it is also the crown of obedience. How often do we ask our children to do something and they moan and groan, roll their eyes, sigh, and take on the posture of a defeated soldier returning home, slumped shoulders, dragging their feet as they go off to do what we have asked. Do they do what we ask them to do? Yes. But they do it begrudgingly through anger, and complaining, and self-pity. In the same way, we can obey God. We can read his Words, we can hear from Him and we can obey right away, and we can do everything that he asks but do it joyless. Do it without happiness. We do it, but find no pleasure in obeying God. And you may think that this is a little much. “If I do what God wants me to do, if I don’t put it off, if I do everything he asks, what difference does it make what attitude I have?”But your attitude in your obedience is everything. In fact it’s the thing the Lord cares the most about. 1 Samuel 16:7 says “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” So if you obey outwardly but in your heart you do it out of anger, or duty all you are saying is that “I will do it but deep down there is a better form of joy that my obedience is keeping me from. I take no joy in obeying because I believe my way would bring me greater joy.”Obedience and joy are all wrapped up together. If nothing else sticks just hear this. If while I’ve been talking about obedience the attitude of your heart is “Great, here’s a long list of do’s and dont’s. I hear the crack of the whip as God looks over my shoulder to see how many boxes I have checked off.” If you see no joy in obedience to God then either I haven’t done a good job or you just don’t understand the character of God. Because God is not a hard taskmaster saying “do this or else”. He is a loving Father saying “this is the best way! This is the route to the most joy, the most peace. This is the road to life. Hear my words and obey them”.I hope this helps you see this. Turn to Deut 10:12-13“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord which I command you this day for your good.” Deut 10:12-13If you go back to 1 Samuel 15 you’ll see that Samuel says the Lord takes great delight in our obedience to him. Everything God commands us to do is for our good and so what God is delighting in when he delights in our obedience is our joy. God delights in your joy. That’s the reason he commands your obedience. So how can we then not obey him joyfully knowing that the very reason he has commanded our obedience is for our everlasting ever increasing joy?It’s not obedience out of terror, it’s obedience out of love.So, we need to say to God “Yes Daddy, I will obey, right away, all the way, the happy way!”3. Stand “...but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”There are many results to our obedience, we could talk of the peace, the rest, the removal of the pressure not to fail, the removal of risk and worry, the great communion with God... but we will stick with the text this morning and look at what Jesus said was the result to hearing and obeying his words. The result is standing. And so our question is, “What does Jesus mean by your house will stand during a great storm?”And I think Jesus is saying two things here. The first one is first because of it’s importance and because the second flows from the first.The first thing the storm represents is the great storm we all will face at the end of the world. The time when Jesus returns to judge the earth. And so Jesus says, you hear and obey and you will stand at the final judgement. And this where you say, “Hold up. What’s this obey part in there. What happened to being saved by faith alone? I was here last summer when you guys went through Galatians and every sermon sounded the same because you just kept saying every week that we aren’t saved by what we do but in what Christ has done. Now you’re talking obedience!” But these two things aren’t in opposition. 20 verses after John 3:16, Jesus says that “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.” YES! Amen! “But whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life.” Faith and obedience are hand in hand. Charles Spurgeon said “Faith is the fountain, the foundation, and the fosterer of obedience. Men don’t obey God till they believe him.” Just look in Ephesians 2:8-9 is one of the most beautiful, popular verses to show us how we are saved, but don’t stop at verse 9! Look at verse 10.Your obedience is not the basis of your salvation but it is the necessary result. You cannot just claim faith in Christ and then live the way you want to live, do what you want to do, giving no attention to the commands of Jesus and then expect your house to stand during the final storm. That’s the warning Jesus’ gives here. James, Jesus’ younger brother, says that if you believe that then you are foolish, and that your faith is dead and unable to save you.On the flip side, is hearing the word of God and, in faith in the finished work of Christ for your salvation, obeying His words your house will stand. Don’t be the foolish man. Don’t build your house on the sand. Don’t just hear Jesus’ words and give no thought to obeying them. Don’t say that you believe Jesus died to give you life and then live as though your life is your own. Jesus says, “Great will be your fall.” The second thing the storm represents here is the struggles and suffering each one of us face. The storms of this life. Whether it be the death of a friend or family member, cancer, broken relationships, loss of job, loss of your home, betrayal from a friend... we all struggle for our footing when these storms hit our life but Jesus says, hear me, obey me and you will stand. And I don’t say that casually, or flippantly, I know some of you are in situations that are hurricanes and the windows are shaking and shingles are blowing off the roof and you can feel each wave rock the house as it slams against the side but Jesus says, “Fear not, hear me, obey me. And your house will stand.” How can he say that? Because he knows that through your hearing you will know the promises of God on your life, you will see the holy, compassionate, wise character of a God who is completely for you even in the midst of your suffering. Through obeying you will be conformed more into the likeness of his Son, who in the midst of his suffering fully entrusted himself to the one who judges justly and for the joy set before Him endured His own suffering. That’s why this “standing in the midst of life’s storms” flows from “standing at the final storm, the day of judgement.” If you know that you will stand at the end, what are the day to day storms that you face? Are they hard? Yes. Are they painful? Yes. But like Jesus you fix your eyes on the overwhelming, everlasting joy laid up for you and you can endure. William Cowper, an 18th century poet and hymn writer. who by the time he was 6 had already experienced the death of his mother and two siblings. Who was sent to a boarding school where he was severely bullied and abused. Who when he was older was forbidden to marry the woman he loved and battled great depression and tried to commit suicide multiple times, wrote this poem:Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,The clouds ye so much dreadAre big with mercy, and shall breakIn blessings on your head.His purposes will ripen fast,Unfolding every hour;The bud may have a bitter taste,But sweet will be the flower.If the bud has a bitter taste this morning, hear and obey the words of God and sweet will be the flower.
