Matthew 7:21-29 (Contemporary English Version)
(Luke 13.26,27)
21Not everyone who calls me their Lord will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only the ones who obey my Father in heaven will get in. 22On the day of judgment many will call me their Lord. They will say, "We preached in your name, and in your name we forced out demons and worked many miracles." 23But I will tell them, "I will have nothing to do with you! Get out of my sight, you evil people!"
(Luke 6.47-49)
24Anyone who hears and obeys these teachings of mine is like a wise person who built a house on solid rock. 25Rain poured down, rivers flooded, and winds beat against that house. But it did not fall, because it was built on solid rock.
26Anyone who hears my teachings and doesn't obey them is like a foolish person who built a house on sand. 27The rain poured down, the rivers flooded, and the winds blew and beat against that house. Finally, it fell with a crash.
28When Jesus finished speaking, the crowds were surprised at his teaching. 29He taught them like someone with authority, and not like their teachers of the Law of Moses.
When I was in
In the second place this song was in my head because we were there with so many of our church’s young people, from the earliest days of high school to a few who were in college. And I kept thinking how like this verse we all were. How I could see some of them who were building on the solid rock, some who were wanting to build on the sand, others who had built on sand and were now dealing with the great collapse.
Yet, for those who built on sand could I blame them? It’s hard to build on solid ground. Any builder worth his salt knows that you have to dig down to set the foundation of any building. That topsoil of any nature is liable to shift without warning and cause defects in the structure. Partly this is why Jesus uses this illustration—he is after all a true blue collar worker, a man whose life was spent not wholly in the synagogue but in the workshop learning both his earthly and heavenly father’s trades…
I’ve been on habitat house project and the thin about digging a foundation is that… it’s really hard work. I mean you talk about ditch digging and I’ll tell you, my interests to that point in my life had been centered around watching baseball and playing video games. But they put a shovel in my hands, I met the family whose house this would be and we began digging. There is no heavier shovelful than that first one. You look out over the surveyor’s lines and you see the amount of work left to be done. Digging a foundation is TOUGH.
So how could I really blame this young people who without whatever direction they needed in their lives had on their own chosen the path of least resistance? It is a simple thing to go to church with Mom and Dad while they were growing up, there are no Christian police to check up and insure you are following God’s Law.
(Though in College we once joked about the GOD SQUAD who would come to dorm rooms of offenders, break down the door, and attack without mercy with Rubber fish—one of our group of friends had three rubber fish for no reason and we thought the symbolism was important.) But there is no such group. It is a simple and easy thing for us to pay lip service to Christ and act in the way that is easiest for us.
But this has never been enough for Christ. In the Revelation He warns of the lukewarm, saying that he will vomit us out of His mouth.
Yet, Jesus knew how much work it was to set your house on a firm stone. He uses this metaphor to tell the people not only what the wise will do but what he expects from us—hard work. But great is the reward. Your house will weather the storm.
Listen closely though to Christ’s warning in this! Yes we are fully redeemed by grace and his blood, but this act only opens the door for us to make the choice. Will our lives be that reflection of His teachings? Or when we reach the gates will we then be surprised for Jesus to look at us and say—“I’m sorry… who are you again?”
Not every one who calls me Lord… will get into the kingdom of heaven. I know many of those people. Those who claimed God with their lips but betrayed him with their actions. “But Lord, we did many things in your name!” Comes the mighty answer—“GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!” He calls those evil people.
How many of my dear teenage friends in
What we do is important. Our lives must be filled with twofold purpose. Not only must we act, must our faith have works else it be called dead; but we must in addition do it in the name of the one who sends us.
Before we went south of the border we had many orientation dates; teaching everyone young and old how to not only better “come in the name of Christ,” but also to act as He would act. (Don’t snub food, be kind in spit of everything, remember they give us the best of what they have) It is a simple thing to show up anywhere with a t-shirt that had the cross on it, it’s infinitely more difficult to change your actions more so only being in a harsh environment. And honestly even though our accommodation were adequate while we stayed there in Mexico it was hard—for some this was their first trip away from home.
But there has to come a point in life when we must leave the house our parents have built for us and decide where to build our own.
In addition, and as a warning it is never too late to have your house washed away, and to find new wisdom with which to build it again.
Being involved with Habitat I learned so many things. There was a house in rural WV that was slowly slipping into a ravine. The foundation was cracked and failing. So here was a place that was at one time built on solid ground, but the only choice we had was to tear it down, and build again.
A firm foundation requires two basic things. Firm ground and sturdy materials. With either one without the other the house is doomed to fall. Good deeds are not enough. The simple name of Christ is not enough. Both are worked together to be built upon.
The magical thing about a Habitat house is the other people working on it. The trench I dug would have taken me 6 months to get right. I remember vividly looking out at the surveyors lines and feeling hopeless. We will never get this done. It’s impossible. And after the first full day of digging and that terrible achy morning I thought about giving up, being asked to switch to a different work team for the day. Yet, I pressed on and with the right leadership and other willing hands we had it done that afternoon.
Let the body of believers held you place a deep and firm foundation. Let us rely on one another for the sturdiness in our lives which will then weather any storm that life can place upon us. In a way we are that GOD SQUAD, and we may not attack with rubber fish, but we may show up on a doorstep with a casserole and an open ear.
I was able to finish the foundation of my first house with Habitat because I came to rely on the people around me who knew—how to hold a shovel, what gloves to wear, how to switch grips and give one group of muscles a rest, how to keep true to the surveyors line…
Let the rivers flood, let life cast out onto us what it will, because I know my life to be built on the solid. An though my basement may flood, the shutter may bang in the wind and my roof may drip from time to time, these things can be repaired if I rely on those whom God has provided, and I know that the foundation of the house will stand fast and strong.
