The second thing these men have in common is that they have both heard the teaching of Jesus. You might say they have been to church in their lives; they have read their Bibles, attended Sunday School and been part of small groups. They both agree that the word of God is important for their lives so they have taken the time to read it and study it. They have listened to God. And the third thing they have in common is that they each know that they will face storms in life. They will face the same struggles and trials and pains that come in life to everyone, and they are both looking for shelter and protection during those storm.
What Jesus has just described here is all of the people who had just heard his sermon on the mountain. Each person gathered around him that day was there because they were looking for a life filled with God’s presence and power. They wanted something more. They were hungry for God and for something good that was going to last. They also understood the importance of God’s word, that’s why they were there. They had given up their afternoon to listen to Jesus teach because they knew his word was important. They turned to the word of God, trusted in the word of God and listened to the word of God. And they were also people who had faced storms in life and because they knew trails and pain was simply a part of life, they were looking to Jesus for shelter and safety for the storms that come. Each person who listened to Jesus that day could see themselves as one of these two builders… and so can we.
Like these two builders, each one of us shares a dream for living a life that is full of meaning and purpose and the power of God, you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t looking for that, and each one of us sees value in the word of God, again we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t see something significant in the scriptures. We wouldn’t be here gathered around the word if we didn’t believe this word had some value. And each one of us has also faced some storms in life and we know that more storms are coming. Because we know that life has its struggles, we are also looking for something to provide shelter and comfort when the rain and wind comes. Like all the listeners of Jesus that day, we are looking for God’s help to make it through life. So we have a lot in common with these two men, we share the same dreams, we share the same values and we are looking for the same hope and help.
Now while these two men shared much in common, there is one fundamental difference in their lives that makes all the difference because it has to do with the foundation on which they build. One man heard the word of God but he didn’t act on it, he didn’t live it out. This man continued to rely upon his own strength and wisdom and he either did what he wanted to do or he did what seemed right to him, or what seemed easy at the time, but he didn’t live out the word of God and so ultimately there wasn’t much of a foundation to his life. To use Jesus’ metaphor, he built his house on the sand and if you have ever been to the beach, you know that sand both washes and blows away easily and whatever you place on top of it will eventually be swept away.
The other man, however, not only heard the word of God, he lived it out and when he did he found that the teaching of Jesus was solid and it lasted and it helped him during the good times and the difficult times. What he found was that when he put into practice the teaching of Jesus – his life was strong and secure no matter what was going on around him. His life was full of meaning and purpose and joy regardless of the circumstances because his house was built upon a rock that wasn’t going anywhere.
What Jesus says to all of those gathered on the mountain that day, and what he says to all of us today, is that like these two men – we have a choice to make. We have all heard the teaching of Jesus, we have heard God tell us to love our enemy, to pray for those who persecute us and to not worry but worship and trust God, the question really is, what will we do with this? What will we do with this teaching of Jesus? What will we do with this Sermon on the Mount? Will we ignore it and continue to live life on our own, or will we take seriously God’s word and work to live it out in our lives? What choice will we make? If we choose to listen to God’s word but not live it out, the foundation of our lives is as strong and secure as shifting sand and when the difficult days come, we will not find any strength or help. If we work to apply this word to our lives, however, if we will put the word of God into practice, then we will find a firm foundation on which to stand when things are going well, and when they aren’t. I almost hate to say this, but it really is that simple. The important thing isn’t to listen to God, it’s not to read and study God’s word, it’s to live it out today and everyday.
So we need build on the foundation of living out God’s word, but let’s be clear that this foundation takes time and effort. If you think about it, if you want to build a house on a solid foundation you have to dig down until you hit the solid bedrock below the surface and this takes time and energy and effort, and if we are going to be serious about putting the word of God into practice it is also going to take time and energy and effort. In our Men’s Bible study we are studying the book of Acts and as we read about the early church trying to figure out the will of God we realized that it took them a lot of time and energy and effort. This week we read about how the church fasted and prayed before they sent out Paul and Barnabas as missionaries. They didn’t just do what seemed right, they spent time in prayer, they fasted as a church, they talked and prayed and then put into practice the word of God which said, go make disciples in Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. They acted on the word of God, but only after they dug deep to figure out what it meant.
Living out the word of God and putting into practice the teaching of Jesus isn’t going to come quickly or easily, it will take time and effort, but just as building a strong foundation for a house is worthwhile, the time and energy and effort we put into our lives of faith will be worthwhile. As we enter into this Lenten season we have an opportunity to invest some time and effort into our faith. We are going to be studying 9 spiritual disciplines that if we are going to be serious about applying to our lives will take time and effort. It’s not easy to follow the teaching and example of Jesus, but it is worthwhile because the more we follow Jesus, the more we live out the word of God, the stronger our faith is and that stronger faith will help us in times of need, but the choice is ours. Will we invest the time? Will we expend the energy to not just listen to Jesus, but figure out how to live out what he teaches us and learn to follow his example?
If we want to build our life and faith on the foundation of living out the word of Jesus then I want to suggest three steps we can take this week to help us do this. The first step is to stop making excuses about why we don’t follow the teaching of Jesus. While there are all kinds of reasons why we may not follow the teaching of Jesus, it’s time for us to lay all these excuses aside and simply ask God to forgive us. This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent and the beginning of our study on spiritual disciplines and the first discipline we are going to study is the discipline of confession. We need to be honest with God and confess to him and to one another that at times we just don’t take seriously the God’s word. We need to confess to God our sin, our failure to live out the word of God and then ask God to help us stop making excuses and start living with faith. I would invite you to set aside some time on Wednesday to confess to God our sin and use the beginning of the Lenten Season as a new beginning of leaving excuses behind as we start executing the word of God in our day to day lives.
As we start trying to live out the word of God let’s also set some reasonable expectations. The truth is there is a lot in the Bible to live out and there is no way we can live it all out on day one. There is no way we can live out the entire word of God on day one so let’s set a more reasonable expectation and maybe just re-read the sermon on the mount this week and pick out one or two teachings that we will work to apply to our lives. And maybe we shouldn’t start with love your enemy, one of the more difficult teachings; maybe we should start with the call to pray. In Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus gives us the Lord ’s Prayer, maybe we can begin to live out the teaching of Jesus by simply praying this prayer every day for the next 6 weeks. And let me be clear that praying the Lord ’s Prayer doesn’t mean just reciting the words we learned as children, it means praying the prayer. Re-write the prayer, put it in your own words, and think about what it really means to ask God for daily bread and to forgive those who sin against us. Think about what it means to call God holy and then live that out. Re-read the Sermon on the Mount and highlight the teachings God is calling you to live out today.
And the last thing I would encourage us to think about is this, most builders don’t lay out the foundation for their house by themselves, they get some help. God does not want us to live out our faith on our own; he calls us to live out our faith in community with others. From the very beginning God has always provided us with help. Adam got a help-mate in Eve. Abraham traveled with his family. Moses had Aaron, David had Jonathon, Jesus called the disciples, Peter had James and John, Paul had Barnabas and then Timothy. God never intended his people to go it alone and he doesn’t want us to go it alone either. We can not establish a solid foundation for our lives on our own – we need the help and support and love of others, so we need to seek out the help of others. You can join a small group during Lent, but if a small group isn’t where God is calling you, then invite a trusted friend to walk with you and hold you accountable in love and faith as together you live out the word of God – just don’t go it alone.
A wise person, Jesus says, isn’t someone who attends worship, it’s not someone who reads the word of God and listens to the teaching of Jesus, it is someone who takes that word and lives it out day by day. May this be our goal as we enter into the season of Lent, may we be the ones who build our lives on the foundation of following the teaching of Jesus.
