MK040 Sermons
How to Assess your Actions (Audio)
You would have realized we never finished that series and I don't know how many of you would have realized that But we never finished it and and we were as I was thinking about when to actually finish it I thought you know This is a good week to finish it and you'll it'll make more sense next week when we look at the The series as we wrap up our series entitled moving day But we wanted to take some time. I wanted to take some time this morning and just wrap that series up for us most of you know that I'm a I'm a distance runner and It's something I really really enjoy and when I talk to people about it They say to me. Oh, I could never do that I could never run long distances I could never do things like a half marathon or marathon and and I usually tell them it's all in the training It's all in the training the training for a race is actually harder than the race itself And the race itself, you know when I talk to my son about playing football He's like oh dad that was a brutal practice rarely does he say that was a brutal game usually the games are a lot You know they're hard, but there often there's a lot more enjoyment There's a lot more fulfillment than the actual practice itself because one of the things that you do in training And in practice is you prepare yourself Physically and mentally for the experience of what's about to happen So you prepare yourself when you feel certain pain you don't stop unless it's other kind of pain But you learn to run through and deal with certain pains and you realize if I keep running Oh, that pain just disappeared and if I would have stopped I would not have continued on You also learn to train in when you're tired and when you're fatigued and you learn to run through that You also learn how to train and run in various types of weather I remember this last training cycle back last fall when I was preparing for the marathon that I did I was scheduled on a Saturday to do a about a 20 mile run And I always look at the weather before I'm supposed to do before I'm supposed to do a long run to see what the weather is Gonna be like and I was watching the weather is supposed to rain. So it's about please clear out Please go out please move through please be wrong. I woke up that morning, and it's just pouring outside It is just pouring. I did not want to take one foot outside that door But I thought you know what if if I don't do this today When marathon day comes if it is raining on that day. I won't be able to do it But I walked out the door ran the 20 miles and then at the end I realized you know what on training day because I did what I needed to do I would be able to make it I would be able to make it and there's a lot of things like that in life that What we discover is we hear lots of things and we have lots of suggestions But if we don't do the things that we know we're supposed to do then we lose out We lose out if you go to our financial piece workshop And you learn about budgeting your money and and how to set aside an emergency fund and three to six months funds You learn how to pay down your debt and you learn all these things, but you never do anything with it You've wasted your time if in your job you're told you know you should take this training and you go and sit and listen and you learn how to do your Skill or your trade or your your career a little bit better, but you never put that into practice. You never do anything with it What's the point? If you go to a marriage conferences or workshops or listen to stuff on marriage, but you never implement those things in your life or relationship When your marriage hits rocky waters You're gonna be faced with a pretty tough time And so this morning we're gonna talk we're gonna look at what Jesus had to say about those who listen versus those who do What God says to do and the results that show up in their lives? If you weren't here with us in that series, we would look to the sermon on the Mount which is Jesus most famous message He preached this message on the early part of his ministry when he was here on the earth and he began that message with this Phrase that we talked about and the phrase was repent for the kingdom of God. Does anybody remember is what? near is near and The word repent is somewhat odd because he's talking to Jewish people he's talking to religious people and The idea of repent means you're going a certain way and Jesus says no you need to turn and go this way and they're scratching They're having a wait a minute. We're just good Jews. We do what the law says and we do everything. We're supposed Why do we need to go a different way? Jesus began to expose them to a different way of living a way that was not about rules But a way that was connected to a relationship first and foremost with God and then a relationship with one another that was radically different Than what they were experiencing in the culture and then the day Towards the end of this message. He gives them some choices And he says you're gonna have some choices to make He says there's a wide gate that everybody goes through you may remember that we're over at Reemstown a wide gate that everybody goes So it's kind of obvious. This is where you walk everybody's going through that gate And then there's a little tiny narrow gate that you might not even notice But it's there and it's a little inconvenience a little hard to get to the wide gate looks like the best option But that road leads to Destruction whereas the narrow gate leads as Jesus says to life He then talks about two kinds of trees and good trees and bad trees and they produce certain kinds of fruit and we ask ourselves What kind of fruit am I producing in my life? He then talks about two kinds of followers those that follow Jesus and they they do all the right things and say all the right things But on the final day when they stand before Jesus Jesus looks at him and says I don't know who you are And another group of followers who the Bible says they do the will of the Father and that's what their life is all about And so Jesus has two more options for us today as he closes this sermon on the Mount and Those individuals are those who listen and those who listen and act If you're here this morning and maybe you're checking out faith or checking out Christianity and You may have observed that there's two different responses that people of faith have when they go through hard times You might have observed someone who claims to be a person of faith and they go through a very difficult time And and you're kind of scratching your head thinking. I don't even know how you're even functioning and even vertical today and Their faith might be the reason you're sitting here listening this morning There's others who you see them they go to church they claim to be Christians They try to do the Christian thing and and yet when life comes down on top of them. They just crumble And God's not even on the on the radar And today Jesus is going to explain how this happens If you are a Christ follower today He's going to give you a clear roadmap on how to deal with the tough things that will come in life and they will come If you have your Bibles if you would turn to Matthew chapter 7 Matthew chapter 7 We're going to finish up this section on the Sermon on the Mount beginning in verse 24 Matthew chapter 7 verse 24 if you don't have a Bible our guys have some that they're passing out and I would love to have you grab one of those and follow along with us this morning If not the verses will be on the screen for you Matthew chapter 7 Beginning in verse 24 and as you're finding that out, let me read this to you It says therefore everyone who hears these words of mind and puts them into practice It's like a wise man who built his house on the rock the rain came down in the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house Yet it didn't fall because it had its foundation on the rock But everyone who hears these words of mind and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house in the sand The rain came down the streams rose the winds blew and beat against that house and fell with a great crash If you went to church when you were a little kid likely you sang this song about this passage You know the rains came down and the floods came up and the house on the rock stood and what firm You know we sang that song as kids if you went to church, you know And it sounds like kind of a fun little song and everybody likes singing there's hand motions to it, you know But I think this morning as we look at this passage I I hope that you walk away with the sense that Jesus in his final words to those who are listening Really draws a line figuratively in the sand And he doesn't end with a fun little ditty that they can remember in their heads, but he ends with a challenge that calls them To decide what they're going to do with Jesus He's really talking about two groups of people And they have one thing in common. They're all sitting there listening to him Listening Jesus is not talking about people who don't care about him People who aren't sure about him who are outside who I don't really not don't have time for the god thing or the church thing He's not talking about that He's talking about the people who are sitting here listening And he could be talking to all of us today He's speaking to people who come to church on a regular basis Maybe they go to a small group. Maybe they read their bible. He's talking to them Because the truth is He knows whether someone's faith is real or not You don't and I know I can't tell if someone's faith is genuine I can't tell if it's real or fake. I can't tell what's going on inside their hearts But he knows And in this passage he points to a comparison of two groups of people who both hear what he has to say Look at the first one in verse 24 He says everyone who hears these words of mind and puts them into practice Is like a wise man Who built this house in the rock He said he's like a wise man. He's comparing him to someone to a wise man And I understand wisdom you have to go to the book of proverbs with solemn which solemn and wrote the wisest man who ever lived and And wisdom is literally the ability to practically apply God's truth to everyday life A wise person I describe a wise person as someone who gets life and gets God and they bring those two things together There's some people that get life But God's not in the radar picture. There's some people that get God, but they don't really have a clue what real life is like But a wise person is someone who understands both of those things They understand the struggles of this life the confusion of life the heartaches of life and it's not necessarily someone who has answers Wisdom doesn't equal smarts. There's a lot of smart people that are not wise But is able to guide and discover you guide you through a situation to say let's talk about what's going on in your life Is there anything true about God that's true about your life right now and where do those things come together? If you read through the book of proverbs one of the things solemn in his approach to life was he would often say Let me tell you what will happen down there if you keep on this path This is where you will end up If you want to end up over here and you're on this path, you're never going to get from here to there You have to change the course of your life And so he's talking about someone who is a wise person and he says this person built his house in the rock and look what happens at verse 24 He says rain streams rose the winds blew beat against that house But it did not fall Because it had its foundation On the rock and Jesus might have been thinking about the town that he grew up in the town of nazareth It was built up on the hillside on solid rock As a carpenter he knew what building things it would last he knew how to do that Not things that are made of press board that you push against them and they crumble and they fall apart but things that are going to last Jesus also knew how quickly the storms in the sea of galley would come up as His followers some of them were fishermen and he would have experiences with them in just a very short time of being out on the water with them But he wasn't really talking about A storm was he? No A storm was a picture of what comes into our lives That's what the storm was all about And saw him 69 David says this he says save me oh god for waters have come up to my neck I sink in the myri depths where there's no foothold i've come to the deep waters the floods engulf me Jesus is talking about those moments in our lives when you feel like life is like right here And you don't know of how much further you can keep your head above water Jesus is talking about those times when you have said or are saying I don't know if I can take any more This is more than I can handle I don't know if I or if we will survive That's what Jesus is talking about And he's talking about those moments in time when life comes to a crossroads When life comes to a crisis when we are not sure if we are going to make it He says the people who have heard what I had to say and put that into practice they did what god wants them to do They're going to make it through the storm It might not feel like in the middle of the storm And you might not know how you're going to make it But he said the only way you can put a foundation in your life that is going to stand through the storms of this life Is if you are doing what Jesus says for you to do They didn't have radar They didn't have all of those things When do we know a storm is going to come? What do you look up in the sky and look at what? Clouds right But how often have we been out and we did not see the clouds coming where Behind us and then the storm hits Sometimes we know troubles coming right you've made a bad choice bad decision. You're like, oh, no. I'll hear it. I can't believe Right you can see it coming other times You don't see it You don't see that doctor's report coming You don't see that person walking out the door and saying I don't love you anymore coming You don't see tragedy coming And jesus says the only way you're going to make it through these storms Is if you make choices now while you have this opportunity to not just listen but do what I Have just told you to do It goes on in verse 26 to begin with to have a contrast He says but everyone who hears these words of mine And does not put them into practice It's like a foolish man who built his house on the sand Same thing they listen just like the wise man. They're both listening. Just like everyone here. They're listening Unless you're sleeping with your eyes closed out there, you know, you're listening. Maybe subconsciously it's sinking in, you know But what's the difference they don't put them into practice They don't put them into practice Why doesn't someone put them into practice? You're all sitting here in the same. Why don't you put them into practice? Well, you might say well, john, I was just too busy. I didn't have time to put it into practice You know john, that was really hard. I it's just too hard for me I'm kind of confused. I can't quite figure it out You know, it's a little too restrictive. I'm kind of a free spirit. That's too restrictive. That takes too much discipline John, that's just too hard It's too painful I can't sit in that sadness and sorrow. I don't want to stay there It's too expensive. I don't want to pay the price How often how often do we say that about lots of things in life From budgeting our money to not exercise and not take care of your health and not dealing with our past and not resolving conflict To not breaking bad habits to not doing what jesus has said. This is what I want you to do You see we pass it off and say, ah, just too busy not enough time. This is it. I'll get to it. I'll get to it But the storms are going to come And look how jesus describes this person in this verse six He doesn't say that's just verse back to verse 26 there lint. I'm sorry. Um, he doesn't just say well That's just someone who makes they're not they don't make good decisions. They're not they don't really have it all together Look at how he describes them. He says that person is like a what? Is like a what? Foolish man I think there's a person in this room that wants to be described as a fool Not a person I Again going back to proverbs which talks about a fool talks about a why wisdom and folly What's a fool? A fool is the person who sits in their recliner and says, you know what? Everything's just going to be okay. And the house is burning down around them That's what a fool does A fool is someone who's deeply in debt and the creditors are calling they're like everything is going to be okay A fool is one who when their kids are preschoolers and they run circles around them and disregard what they thought oh, they're just kids Everything is going to be okay A fool is someone who was here worshiping with us But they're busy with their kids activities and sports and camping and all kinds of other things and they we really miss it It's going to be okay A fool is one whose spouse uses sarcasm towards them or criticism because of run resolve conflict and they're like, oh, they're just laughing at it Everything is going to be okay A fool is someone when you say I don't know if you realize that this is something that you do all the time and it's really harmful in our relation Ah, you're making a big deal out of making a mountain out of molehale. Everything is going to be okay What does a fool do? In the text it says a fool builds his house on the sand You know in the ancient near east around the sea of galley where jesus might have been teaching It's in the middle east it's hot it's a desert And when the sun is really really hot on sand, you know what that sand gets hard It gets compacted But the problem is is that underneath of that sand the condition of the sand it's called eluvial Which means the sand is loose and it's not Consolidated or tightly connected And a wise builder when he's building a house on sand he would dig below that surface to 10 12 feet Deep till he hit the bedrock and he had something solid Because a wise builder would know that when the winter rains comes the jordan river that flows through the land of the middle east That that jordan river would rise and as the jordan river would rise it would spill out over its banks important to the sea of galley And then the sea would start to rise back and instantly wash away everything that was on this sand Jesus audience would have known that They were like of course what what idiot built the house in the sand who would do that, you know Why would anybody do that that doesn't make any sense I think what jesus might have been pointing to as he might have been pointing to the religious establishment the Pharisees Good religious people Good rule followers They were good at keeping the rules of doing what they were supposed to do And what jesus said is if you live your life the way they live their lives with a faith based on rules and obligation When the storms of life crash down on you Your faith is going to crumble Eventually its instability would just be exposed as not having the deepest answers to the needs of people One of the most agonizing things about my job is that I interact with people Who at one time sat where you sit? listen to what you're listening to And the storms of life crash down on them and they bailed on god and they bailed on their faith And I thought to myself why is that why is that I think they were doing the things they were doing for what they could get out of it They believed that going to church and participating in church and to activities would insulate them from the storms of life Would they believe that it would keep their kids from struggling with them and with their own faith? They believe to keep their marriage from being on the rocks or keep them from losing a job or cancer or keep A career or keep them from getting cancer and when those storms came And their lives had not been about doing what Jesus called them to do not to perform not to get something from him But because of a devoted heart love for him There was nothing at the foundation of their lives This is not a new message, but it was one for the religious community here That faith is not about rules and regulations faith is not about have to do have tos Faith should grow out of an overwhelming sense of god's love for me that fills my life so full of his love that I just want to give my life to him And want to pour my life out to serve and make a difference in the lives of others And james 122 james says this he says don't merely listen to the word And so deceive yourselves If you think just being here Is going to give you what you need to make it through the storms of life. You are deceiving yourself I'm glad that you are here And I hope you take something that you hear this morning and you take a step forward in following Jesus James James says do what it says In 1 John 1 6 it says if we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness we lie We don't live out the truth in 1 John 2 4 it says whoever says I know him but does not do what he commands is a liar And the truth is not in him Jesus is not offering just a little ditty for you to remember when you go home. He's talking about some serious stuff here A serious choice that's in front of you. That's a line drawn in the sand where you are going to have to decide What is my life going to be about? Am I just going to show up here because mom and dad tell me I should and I got to be here And when they don't tell me I have to be here or no one's telling me I have to be here then i'm not going to be here I hate to tell you this but when the storms of life come your life is going to crash Jesus is not just trying to give a set of rules for each of us to follow He's inviting us into a relationship It's about him being at the center of our lives the one that we love most and are more devoted to than anything else And out of that comes this whole series of actions in our lives that he talked about in the sermon on the mound Out of that comes the love for our enemies out of that comes avoiding hypocrisy Out of that comes praying authentically out of that comes giving generously Out of that comes treasuring what man what lasts forever Out of that comes dealing with anxiety and putting our confidence and our trust in him Out of that is god being the master of my life and not my stuff out of that is a light consumed with Jesus Seeking to imitate and live for him more than anything else That matters say john, I don't know what god wants me to do today And I would invite you to read through the rest of the sermon on the mound Go back and read through that this week read it over a few different times If you find sections that are not clear you're not sure what he's talking about just go online and listen to the messages and i'll help you reconnect with that But I have a sense that the majority of this room has some level of awareness of something god wants you to do And you've been holding out on him You've been too busy too distracted too consumed too preoccupied It's too hard. You just don't want to go there By not doing what you know he wants you to do You are putting your life at risk when the storms come That's the message he wants you to walk away with this morning Don't just be here Don't just be people that simply listen and walk away And don't do anything about it If you know what it is that god is calling you to do The question is will you do it? Will you do it? The question is what are you going to do with Jesus First Corinthians chapter three paul's talking about building a foundation And look what he says at the very end of this verse he says for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid Which is Christ Jesus As I thought about the implications of the cross that we celebrated earlier The only foundation you can put your life on that will last is a relationship with Jesus You might be smart and intelligent You might be able to earn a great living You might be charming and engaging And all of those things will lead you to things that could make your life meaningful But at the end of the day you have to decide what is that the foundation of my life Is it me or is it Jesus And that choice is in front of you today You bow your heads with me and I just want to invite you to Talk to god for A few minutes if you know what he wants you to do it's really about you saying god. I'm willing to do it And I want you to wrestle with him If you don't know what it's what he wants you to do it's just to ask for direction And if Jesus is not the foundation of your life, maybe today you just say Jesus, I'm tired of me being at the foundation I want you to be there You You You You You You You You You You You You God this morning we've looked at a very strong challenge Painful reality that Jesus paints Of being identified as a fool And of losing everything And the storms of life come God I I don't think people who are here want to end up like that My heart and my prayers that we would not just be people who listen We have people that do Not someone set of rules not to make someone else happy with us Not because we know we should God we would do what you want us to do But your spirit is leading and prompting and tugging and nudging Maybe good friends have said you really need to do this God help us to be men and women and students who who live our lives With Jesus at the foundation Doing what he invites us to do Help us God to do that So we can't do that on our own and we need you and your name amen [BLANK_AUDIO]