LIVE THE WAY OF JESUS | LUKE 6:46-49 | Pastor Ryan Gerlach | 8.30.26

Hello, this is Pastor Ryan Gerlock and Pastor John Anderson.

Welcome to the Resurrection Church Podcast.

Each week we bring you Sunday's message from Resurrection Church right here in Racine, Wisconsin.

So whether you're listening on the warm up, driving to work, or just folding some laundry, or avoiding folding laundry, we hope this encourages your faith, challenges your perspective, and reminds you that resurrection isn't just something that happened.

It's something God is still doing.

Enjoy this week's message.

Good morning.

My name is Mary Houch.

And today we have a reading from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 6, verses 46 to 49.

Luke 6:46–49

Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you?

I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them.

That one is like a man building a house who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock.

When a flood arose, the river burst against that house, but could not shake it because it had been well built.

But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.

When the river burst against it, it quickly collapsed.

And great was the ruin of that house.

The gospel of our Lord.

Well, good morning, dear church.

My name is Ryan.

I'm one of the pastors here, and I am excited to bring uh this sermon series, uh putting a bow on it.

It's it's been it's been 13 weeks of just ways of getting back to the basics of what it means to follow Christ.

And today, Pastor John and I are wrapping it up for you.

Um, just to take with you a pack it in your hearts.

Uh this this morning, I got to church.

It was raining, it was lightning, it was thundering.

Any anybody wake up like in the middle of the morning, but but to that?

Okay, you heard it too.

All right, so I'm sitting in the parking lot and the rain's coming down, it's lightning, it's thundering, and I'm I'm looking, I'm like, I could probably make it from my car to the church without getting hit by lightning.

There's a good chance that'll happen.

And then I'm like, well, there's a good chance it could happen.

And so I just kind of sat there, I was praying.

And then as I was praying, a big lightning bolt came right by the steeple, not right by, but you could see it come right by the top of the church where the cross is.

And I'm like, there's a chance the lightning would hit that before it hit me.

And there is something theological that I'm still unpacking.

But the fact that that Christ is higher and bigger and will take it for me, right?

Like there's something in there.

So uh Pastor John's gonna unpack that next week, but I I I just think it was it was something that that's that's holy that I want to bring to you today.

And I I am excited to just give this this message because God has been doing some cool stuff uh these last 13 weeks.

So before we even go any deeper, let us pray.

Good and gracious God, we have been journeying with you as you have been telling us ways uh just to get the rhythm of you, uh, match heartbeats with you as we go back to the basics of what it looks like to be followers of Christ.

We pray as we bring this series to the end that this is just the beginning to some big things yet to come.

And pray this in your holy name as all God's people say, Amen.

Amen.

So today, as Mary read, we are in the gospel of Luke.

And uh Jesus was with people he loved a lot, people that were following him, and he was doing this beautiful sermon on the the mount, and he was he was sharing all these treasure troves of a spiritual wisdom that brought life, and he's given it to them.

And then at the end of it, he closes with, in conclusion, or whatever a good pastor would say at the end of his sermon to get people to listen up.

People that have fallen asleep are starting to perk up in conclusion.

Means, okay, it's almost time for lunch, I can get ready for that.

But he said, in conclusion, he says, Why do you call me Lord Lord if you're not gonna listen?

What why do you call me uh teacher and do not do what I tell you?

What's the point?

And it it kind of tongue in cheek, but it's also a a call to action.

It's like I'm giving you the winning Powerball numbers and you're just nodding your head saying, that's cool, and you do nothing about it, or I'm telling you which stocks are gonna get triple in size tomorrow, and you're not investing.

I'm telling you where exactly on the treasure map the gold is buried, and you just go about your way like it doesn't matter.

I realize five years into going to the gym every day, you actually have to work out to get results.

Did you know that?

It's more than just listening, it's more than just coming to church every single week.

You can come to church all week or every day or every hour.

You could live in the church.

And if you don't practice what you're hearing, if you don't live out what Christ is calling you to do, you could stand in the garage and say you're a car.

It just doesn't work.

It doesn't work.

Jesus is calling us to listen and do.

And this is hard because as Lutherans, we have we lean on this thing called grace, especially Martin Luther, when he was talking about a time where you had to buy your way into salvation, you had to uh get out of purgatory, whatever he wants to call it.

He has these penance and these uh these indulgences you had to buy, and there is work righteousness, and he pushed against it because we know that we are saved by grace through faith and Christ alone.

Amen.

But yet, that doesn't mean we just sit there with our ticket to heaven, our our fire insurance, so to speak, and and say that I'm good.

Let's let's let's just wait it out until that time comes.

Why do you call me Lord and not do what I tell you?

It's been really cool going on this faith journey.

I was raised in a Lutheran church, then I dabbled pretty much in every denomination, at least went there a couple times on my journey.

And I I saw some good, I saw some things I'd push up against theologically, but along the way, Christ shaped me.

Because first and foremost, before I declare I'm part of the ELCA or part of the Lutheran, I even before I declare I'm a Christian, I declare I'm a follower of Christ.

And I think sometimes we get lost in the religion of following Jesus and we lose the fact that Christ is just their open arb saying, follow me.

And you're like, wait, let me let me look at my religiosity first.

What does my religion tell me?

But those are just tools or ways to look at Christ.

James, uh Jesus' brother, says, do not merely listen to the word, do what it says.

And don't get me wrong, don't hear me saying that anything you do equates to your salvation.

There's nothing we can do that can make God love us any less, but there's also nothing we can do to make God love us any more.

And I think that's a good thing, right?

That that's something that no matter what side of the bed we wake up on, no matter our faith-filled days and our mustard seas size faith or our zero-size faith, God is still there with us.

There's nothing we can do to separate us from God's love, and that's holy.

But then he says, Let me tell you, let me tell you how ridiculous it is that you hear all this wisdom.

That I'm giving you words that that teach you what life is is about and the way that that your soul can be satiated, and for you to just listen and nod your head and and just stay here for miracles and maybe some bread and fish, like that, that is nothing compared to the treasures I am giving you spiritually.

And he says it's like it's like a man building a house who dug deeply and and laid the foundation on the rock.

And when a flood arose, that river burst against that house, but could not shake it.

But then for those of you that that just don't listen, that are just kind of listening, but then not practicing this, it's like that one man building a house uh who just uh built a house on the ground without foundation.

When the river burst against it, it quickly collapsed.

I mean, great was the ruin of the house.

Meaning, and by the way, this is Luke's version.

Perhaps you've heard Matthew's version where the wise man built his house upon the rock and the foolish one built his house upon the sand.

Luke's version is talking about just building the foundation, digging deeper, doing the work.

Now I know it's not the glamorous way of doing it.

No one's ever looked at a house and said, Oh, let me let me see the rebar.

Let me just look at, oh, look at that cement foundation.

Ooh, that is good looking.

No, we we like to, for me at least, uh I always tell my son, listen, this is a DIY by dad.

Do not push on that too hard, right?

That like that is just decorative.

Uh, there's nothing there.

Um, so anyone coming to my house, just careful what you lean too heavily on.

Uh, it's okay, we got good insurance.

So uh, but I I I think about this, and like uh my first time in really experiencing a hurricane.

Uh Neil, you guys will know about this, but my first time experiencing a hurricane was kind of scary because I never actually experienced a tornado as I lived in Wisconsin uh throughout childhood.

I there's times you get sent to the basement, then you you hang out, and then you go back up.

God willing.

That's how it worked for me at least.

And the tornado goes by quick.

Uh, it's devastating if it hits you, but it's fast, right?

It it's it's just quick.

Where a hurricane, a hurricane likes to hang out there.

It likes to rest, it likes to hang out and do some damage.

I remember I had a toddler.

We were in an apartment complex pretty high up in the air.

And I'm thinking about as this hurricane is coming through, Hurricane Michael, I'm like, I is this up to coding?

I didn't put this in.

Did they skip anything?

Is are these windows hurricane proof?

And I'm I'm piling mattresses against my window because I have a toddler in a crib and I just stay there all night as the windows bent back and forth.

And I am just freaking out because I have no trust in the people that built this place.

But meanwhile, I hear about uh as this as Hurricane Michael goes through this this place that actually withstood in the devastation.

This is on Mexico uh City Beach in Florida, and and this is just one house that stood against this massive hurricane and and asked later, how how did your house stand and while others crumbled?

And he talked about looking at the coding, the code for the the what it needed to be hurricane proof, and he says, we went above and beyond.

We looked at what what the bare minimum was and we kept on pouring cement, we kept on doing things to make sure the foundation was there and it stood.

Dear church, we have to do the work and make sure our foundation is strong because when the storm comes, we want to be left standing.

I mean, the truth is this the storm doesn't reveal how how how truly weak we are.

It reveals how deep our foundation is.

These last 13 weeks, we talked about what it looked like to follow Jesus, to love God, to love our neighbor, to practice forgiveness, to live generously, to serve others, to pray, to trust God, to seek justice, to live in community, to practice gratitude, to be peacemakers and today to live the way of Jesus.

Pastor John and I have been praying about this, and and more so, this is what Jesus is is is sharing in his sermons and his message to his disciples, the people following him.

These are the things that that we think if you you really put in the work, like it'll make this foundation, your roots will go deep.

And and when the storm comes, remember Jesus didn't say if the storm comes, Jesus says when the storm comes, your house will remain.

There's been people I've been just building relationships with here, and I I hear their stories, and there's been death of parents, death of spouse, loss of children, broken relationships, broken you name it, and in in my brain as a pastor, I'm like, how do you how did you keep your faith after that?

How did you keep your faith after that diagnosis?

And the the resounding thing was it was my faith that kept me.

If you do the work and you you really put in the time in prayer and learning your scripture and and diving deep into your community and people that love on you in those hard times, that whether you're going in a storm, in you are in a storm or you're leaving a storm, you know that your foundation is deep.

And when the storm blows over, you can stay standing, proclaiming, it is well with my soul.

A quick pause to help you remember all these.

I know it's hard to remember.

So I came up with a device that'll help you.

You take the first letter of each word, which is obviously everyone knows this, is this.

Um and so it was really hard to make that into a word since there's not a lot of vowels in it.

Um, so so I did the next best thing.

Anyone know what Ludafisk is?

Anybody ever hear of it?

Yeah, very good.

Okay, my Scandinavian Lutherans.

So this one's for you to help you remember.

You ready?

Five Lutheran ladies prepared Ludafisk.

Seven people took seconds, leaving poor Bob Ludafiskless.

Okay, now you know it.

It's easy.

You can build that firm foundation with some Ludafisk.

Everyone knows it.

Anyone ever try Ludafisk before?

Anybody?

Okay, okay.

And they're still alive.

God bless you.

Okay.

Oh.

Johnny has a new cologne.

It's Ludafisk cologne.

It's amazing.

Yeah.

Oh, is it is it true that it is cooked in lie?

Is that that wasn't a lie?

I thought that was like they're joking with me.

Uh punny.

All right, so now you know, you know, this is these are what we're we've been talking about these last 13 weeks.

And my hope is, dear church, as we begin Sunday school, as we begin school this week for our our kids going back to school, that there is a bedrock, a firm foundation in what we believe that when the wind blows, when the storms come, when trauma and heartache and hardship and things that are tough come, that we can lean on our community, that we can pray, and that that when we do follow Jesus, it's more than just religiosity.

I'll tell you what, I have been raised in a church my whole life.

And for those that that that haven't, I wonder how how how do you deal with this?

How do you deal with heartbreak and hardship?

And I would be lost without what I know God has done in my life and the relationships God has thrown in my life.

And it's really cool being um in my late 20s now, uh looking back, looking back and seeing everywhere where God has been, all his fingerprints along the way, all God's ways that God has shaped me, and that doing these things, putting in the work has helped, um, has helped in all those hardships.

So, dear church, your homework, I'm giving you real homework this week, is to answer this question in which of those ways, in which ways can I be following the way of Jesus this week?

Which way can I plug into these 13 things and do it even stronger?

Go deeper.

Take out your your sandcastle shovel and dip, dig even deeper and find that bedrock.

What does it look like to trust God more, to pray more, to practice forgiveness more, to love your neighbor more, to live more generously?

Uh, not too hard a homework, but I promise there will be fruit from it.

Amen, church.

Amen.

Amen.

Let us pray.

Good and gracious, God.

I do pray that you um you just be the bedrock of our lives.

Help our firm foundation be in you.

Not the promises of what we see on TV, uh, not the promises of what we're promised in this world, but what you promise gives true life.

A life that satiates, a life that is fulfilling, a life of abundance by your definition of the world.

God, we pray this is your holy people, as all God's people say.

Amen.

Amen, dear church.

Let's worship God together this morning.