Build Your House on the Rock

The questions we wrestle with as Christians about who God is, how do we live out our faith, what is the Bible, what is the truth of the Bible, what are we supposed to believe? How are we supposed to live? There are really big, deep questions that we ask each other, that we ask God, that we wrestle with ourselves. And that's why the Cultivate podcast exists, to help us go deeper in our understanding of who God is, his word, and the way that he's called us to live. Everyone, welcome to the Cultivate Podcast with The Grove Church.

I am Charlie Lofton, the lead pastor there, and we are here with DJ Bagel Boone. Rocking the rocking the the headphones.

Got to. It's necessary.

It's necessary for your important critical sound mixing engineer. Yes. This is next we're next leveling it.

Okay. This is one step towards headphones. Got us there.

I don't know. I'm just saying it's one. It's just one step closer. One step closer to whatever the ultimate goal is.

So next I need to get you headphones. Okay. Then what's after that? Patreon account. Oh, we should for sure do that.

Patreon. Let's see. What else do we need?

Patreon is

live. We need to every now and then just do a live stream chat. Are we cooked?

We are actually I don't know when exactly but our streaming or our RSS feed for any nerds out there. What sends our podcast to every platform is about to open up video podcasts. So when you watch it on Spotify, you'll see the video over there. Really? Just be on YouTube.

Wow. Yeah, no time of when that might happen. I have no idea

making no promises. It just said, let the headphones confuse you. We're we're not all the way there yet.

It just said coming soon,

right?

With zero date behind it. But that's exciting. That's a bump up. People could see us.

What are your feelings? Oh, we're doing puppetry again.

They could actually see what we're talking about. Yeah. Two people texted me. They're like, I'm in the car right now trying to do it and I can't do it.

There you go. It's not easy. Yeah. What are your feelings to know that I've been invited to be on a different podcast?

What podcast?

Guy in our church. Jason Sewell. Yeah, has a podcast where they talk about like ancient battles.

Oh, that's pretty cool.

And he's heard me talk about since I got back

though he's a very involved member at our church. He heard about you through this podcast that I produce. Fifteen

years ago when he cast my eldest daughter. She was in a live play.

That's pretty cool. Yep. Well, she was still on me. The world wouldn't know you without this podcast.

Right? Right. All right. So we are neck deep, almost halfway through all the parables Before we get to whatever's next we talked we've talked about it.

You know, what's next?

We talked about it. What do you want to do next?

Church history

Church history. So they came back

from my long awaited since I've come back

from and Athens. I've been neck deep in it since I got back.

I just needed to send you to another country to convince you. Right.

That's all you needed. And I guess if you if you wanted to, so I want to do something in the Old Testament, the Exodus, you'd have to send me to Egypt or something like that.

Or yeah, but I probably won't send

you there.

Won't know. Based on my interest, I will send you there.

So that'll probably this fall, but until then, we're still working our way through the parables.

A lot left

and we are now to. We've kind of done all the bangers. Okay, And now some of these we're gonna be like are gonna be ones maybe we haven't heard of or just kind of some of your shorter ones. Okay. And this one is gonna be real popular amongst the kids because it has its own kids song attached to it.

Mhmm.

It's about the the wise and the foolish builder.

Okay.

You familiar with this song? It's got hand motions. Oh, yeah.

So my niece gives me song request every once in a while. So right now, I'm trying to master Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but that one could be pulled up on it. House upon the rock.

Let's see. I probably if you ask me, I probably would be Elton John and Billy Joel song. So let's let's let's get past.

I'm learning once you get

past Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, then we can get the I'm still standing.

Oh, I should do that one. Yeah, I'm learning piano man on harmonica. That's like a peep into my brain that I just randomly find new things that I want

to try that the primary instrument in the song piano man

is a harmonica harmonica, the most known known one, but isn't it kind of like a story? He's in a bar and he's a piano guy. Yeah, but it's just that title would be piano man, not harmonica man,

but the but the but the music I have to have is probably an artistic choice there while piano man. So I it is it is probably my favorite Billy Joel song.

It's good.

I've karaoke did karaoke eed. Yeah, many, many times

karaoke eed

Very many times. Alright. The wise and the foolish builders.

Where we at?

Matthew chapter seven, starting in verse 24.

I'm getting there. I'm getting there. Matthew chapter seven.

Seven twenty four.

Do you ever get the are you enjoying the Bible app?

And and you don't want to say no because then it gets like, why not?

But I need to get somewhere.

But if you say yes, she's like, do you want to rate us? And I'm like, no. And I'm not clicking on ask me later. I'm just saying straight no. Yeah, but it's still going to ask me later.

It is asked me later many times. Matthew seven verse 24. Who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house. Yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority and not as the teachers of the law.

That time, it just brought me to the rain came down in the stream and the floods came. Mine said flood.

Yeah. And the house on the rocks to firm as opposed the house on the sandwich. Sploosh.

Is that what they said?

Sploosh splash, something like that. Sploosh. Yeah. I say sploosh. Alright.

So we are where we are in this in this passage when this when this parable comes up is this is the end of the Sermon on the Mount.

Okay.

So Jesus has been talking about prayer. He's been talking about anxiety. He's been talking about money. He's said that the beatitudes. He talked about, hey, you think murder is bad, but actually hating people is bad.

You think adultery is bad, but actually lusting after people is bad. And we just kind of, you know, just goes on. And then after giving all this this big sermon, it's like now now that you've heard it, there's really two choices. There's people who hear it and change, and there's people who hear it and don't change. And if you hear it and you make the changes and you listen to it and you obey, you're gonna be like somebody who has a has a strong house that when storms come, it'll be great.

But if you listen to it and you don't apply it, you don't make the changes you need, you're like an idiot who builds his house on the beach, like, on the sand itself, and he just gets wiped out the first thing, you know, the first big wave that comes, your house gets torn down. And so then he says all of that, and it's interesting because he got I I read the verses right after it. He's like, and they were amazed at it. Not by necessarily the specific things that he taught, but it says by one who has so much authority. Yeah.

He wasn't somebody who was just, Hey, I've got some new ideas. You should listen to him. What do think about these new ideas? Because essentially what he says is, Now that you've heard what I have to say, you have two choices.

Obey and live. Fail to obey and die. So basically, they're they're commenting on the claims.

Yeah, I mean, he's not just somebody who's getting up there and saying, Hey, here's some ideas. Here's here's some new things. Maybe you should try this. I I know people are trying to figure out exactly what it mean. What does it really mean to follow follow God on the Sabbath and to rest on the Sabbath?

Well, you should probably do this. You probably do this. You should avoid this. You avoid this. You know, people who are just kind of talking.

He's out there saying your life depends on your obedience to what I just said. Yeah, you can either thrive in life like a house built on rock withstand or you can build a house, be like someone who built a house on sand. Again, his words not mine, like an

idiot. Does he say idiot? I mean, it's that's Cool.

It's more of an English word. The foolish man.

That's one of my dad's favorite words when road rage is happening. Idiot. So you're going to say foolish man.

No, that was

gonna be like,

that's pretty fancy.

That'd be more profound. Man.

Why are you driving slow in the left lane?

That would be a

bad thing. Your dad doing that

very noble sounding going across. He's more of an idiot. Goes into pirate language. Okay. Wait before we get much further down this path.

It's interesting to me a lot of times. It seems like in the other parables that ends with whoever has ears let them hear. In this one, he says everyone heard,

right?

It's just what you do with it.

Well, I think when he says he who has ears let them hear. Really think there is a parallel between that and what he's saying here. Okay, because everybody heard. But every but like you need to like hear here. Like you need to hear it.

Everybody has ears, but who has ears? Who's really listening? If you're really listening, listen. That's really what he's saying here. It's one thing to hear all these things.

It's another thing to be like, I think I like that.

Then you just Listen

change to the the life peacemakers. That's really cool sounding. Oh, and yeah, it is more than just murder. It's kind of deeper than that. What's going on in your heart?

That's really, that's a really cool insight. High five. We should listen to this guy again. He's like, no, no, did you did you hear if you if you heard what I said? Well, actually what matters is are you are you then going to do it?

And if you do it, then you thrive. If you don't, then you'll be wiped out.

So he's basically in this passage. You said this is like the end of the Sermon on the Mount. He's basically saying like everything before you heard it. Do it.

Yeah, it's like it's like the it's like the you know, the piano when the piano player comes out at the end of the sermon kind of wrapping things up. Hey guys, you know, we're just kind of we've been talking about here's if you'll just hear this and just do this, then God will do this. Let's pray. I mean, that's kind of like he's, he's, he's wrapping it up. Somebody, somebody back there is

playing some good chords.

And what would they mean?

Some call it the pranel.

What would have been in Jesus time?

Just like a little the disciples looking at their watch.

Maybe just some sort of my goodness. Yeah. Like it just a

little dribble drum. And they're like, right. He's bringing it home.

Hey, man, guys, it's like a guy. Yeah.

Very set up, build my house.

But it's interesting because I was asked the question very recently and I'll get this from time to time in various forms. It was actually at the wrap up of the women's Bible study. Why is Paul? What's the deal with Paul? Like, why is he so like in your face?

But Jesus is such a bro

Ever since this series, I flipped that on its head.

Yeah. I mean, Jesus has some bro like qualities. That is not that this is not that's in this is not it's not it's not chill. It's not chill to end your sermon with you have two choices. Listen and obey and live.

Listen and don't obey and die.

Yeah. See, I feel like there's the intense dude in the locker room that typing you up to do better. That's Paul. And then there's Jesus who's like, come on.

I think I think we Paul gets so angry at certain people and does it just seems to be like his theme's always like, better, do better, do better, do better. And we don't really get to see his interactions, like his one on one interactions with individual people. We get to see Jesus really love hurting and sick and broken people and the woman caught in adultery and prostitutes and tax collectors. Was a really compassionate guy, one on one with people.

But what did he say to the Pharisees?

He taught with a sword. Yeah. He called, he called him snakes. Yeah. And he, one time he's like, hey, you know, it's like, you guys will go all all over everywhere to make a new convert.

Guess what you've created? Just another son of hell just like you.

Or he even is like y'all like are so proud of all the religious stuff that you keep up with, you're gonna miss the son of God. Yeah, you're gonna miss it.

And again, we're not. I'm not saying certainly not saying that Jesus is not have the

compassion or the right to

do it. Mean, he sure he speaks with authority, but it was in fact very shocking to them. Yeah, it was very shocking to them because they have a lot of teachers, including these Pharisees that are saying a lot of different things. And it's like, this is really good. And this guy's got a really good perspective.

And this guy's got a really good perspective. But he when he talks, he doesn't talk like someone who is explaining someone else's ideas. Yeah. And I think it is a very subtle, we're very early here in the Jesus ministry. We have not, we're not, you know, we're not seeing a lot of miracles.

We've not seen a lot of his explanation about deeply about who he is. And so we're just kind of getting here a little sprinkling of he is not just another rabbi.

Right.

He's not just the latest version of a prophet or a teacher or something like that. He is speaking as if he is one who has authority.

I'm assuming that like, let's I don't know where the lineup of all this is in the gospel writings, but if they had heard that he has the authority to forgive sins, but someone wasn't there and they're at this sermon.

Now we're getting to that.

But what have they like? I heard he said, I want to listen to this guy. I heard he's been saying like, would there be that talk to where there because I'm assuming the Sermon on the Mount wasn't just like a forever long sermon that lasted for two days straight.

Yeah, people. I mean, I mean, if you just read it, it would not be that particularly long of a sermon, but most people would describe his, this sermon on the mount is kind of a collection of his best teachings. But it probably there were times when he gave this whole thing. But the thing that I kind of liken it to is when there's a presidential election and a president kind of has like a candidate has their stump speech. Like they go from one town to another and one state to another.

And they sometimes they don't really get it they just get off the plane go straight to a podium they've got 100 people there and then gets on the plane and goes back and and then it's it's the same speech everywhere maybe with some different versions and tweaks here and there. It's essentially, basically, again, they call it a stump speech. It's a thing that they've given over and over. Think this is kind of a collection of the highlights of most of what Jesus says when given the opportunity to speak to a new group of people.

And so around this time, there would have been rumblings of this guy.

This guy guy is different. So now he's starting to draw crowds. And then at one point, right at he's he says this, listen, you've got a couple of choices here now. And again, I think all the way up into that point. Here's just another guy giving his

interpretation of

some ways that you can do better. Now all of a sudden, it's like, you're not talking like someone who is interpreting God's law. You are talking like someone who has their own authority. Like a preacher on a Sunday can speak authoritatively, really what we mean by that, he's speaking confidently. He speaks passionately, but you certainly should not get up there and speak as if you are the one that came up with this.

Like,

right? This is red flag.

Right? This is like, hey, hey guys, you really need to listen to exactly what I'm this what I'm saying. Like, like, like as if the ideas came from me. Even your most confident teacher, again, theoretically, should have more of a I have a confidence in the authority of the scriptures that I'm explaining to you. He's talking like someone who is

I am the scripture.

You should like you should be writing it down, adding it to the scriptures and maybe even putting it in red later on.

So I got a feeling that the color red is going to be important later. So note that that's what I want to be written. Right? So at this in the past, we've always asked, who is he speaking to this? Would have just been like a general anyone listening.

This is the masses. Okay. He's just given his stump speech about just a different approach to morality. Okay. It's not about approach.

It's not about having power. It's not about being the strongest. It's not about being the best. It's about being humble. You have more access to God than you think that you do.

You can you can talk to God. You can ask, and he will he will give things back to you. You guys are really worried about where life is gonna come from. But you need, like, God cares about grass, takes care of grass, and He cares way more about grass than you do. So just put your trust and faith in Him, and He's going to give you all these things that you're worried about.

And you've heard people say that really morality is just about what you do, but it's actually what's going on in your heart. And he's putting all of this together and he's like, guys, if you want to live, don't just hear this and go. Wow. Yeah, because one of the things actually we talk about in in connections and I talk about kind of our philosophy of preaching, which is we don't want people to walk away and go. And that was interesting.

Right.

That was where I don't think I've ever heard that before. I don't know. I think I've heard it said that way before. That was actually really good.

Thanks.

Thanks for sharing that. But it's like, like, like walking out who you are and what you do the next day is going to matter. And Jesus, obviously, he's next leveling that. You you can hear this and and agree with it. You can hear it and even like it.

I like this guy. I like what he has to say. And there's just another level to it. He is not interested in being a well thought of preacher. I want them to like me.

I want them to hear what I say, and I want them to vibe with it. Now the difference between life and death is not agreeing with me, not liking me, not liking what I have to say. But what are you now going to do

about that? I'm telling you to live, which is also interesting. And this may be more current to our day and age of interpreting or like how we relate these messages, but interesting to me that he's saying follow these like he's describing a house here and now he's not describing a house that you'll have in heaven, right? But he's saying like follow these things in your life right now will be truly living and thriving and withstanding hard hardships, whatever it might be. Not like, if you do these things, you will have eternal life with the father, which is surely something that he would agree interesting to me that this is a promise for, like, a full life here and now.

Yeah. And I think and we've talked about this in this series, of a oversimplified idea, but the kind of the twofold messaging behind what Jesus was trying to accomplish with his teaching. He first saw he has to undo generations of bad understanding of what the Old Testament law is and its purpose.

Right.

For they he's walking into a place where the purpose of the Old Testament law is if you do these things, you God will like you. If you don't do these things, God won't like you. The way to have favor with God is to do these things perfectly. Mhmm. And so Jesus is coming in and is like, man, you've kind of got this a little bit.

You don't you don't really see it. It's actually the law is actually deeper than than that. And also, God's love is very different than the way it's not transactional as you think it is, and the law is more not so much about what you do, but really more just kind of exposing the yuck that's inside you, and it's not about being prideful or being powerful or being the best at something. It's about it's about humility. It's about trust.

It's about believing that God loves you. It's about letting God kind of into your heart. And so we kind of start with that. And then now he's also then got to prep them for how everything is about to change through his death and resurrection. So we start here.

His in his entry with everybody is you've missed it. You've missed you've missed the scriptures. Okay. Okay. Okay.

I think I Okay. And then he comes in with some authority. Woah. Okay. This this is not just somebody shooting his opinions about.

So we want to see now then with miracles and different things like that, that Jesus starting to be like, I'm I'm not just a rabbi. I am I am more than that. And so, okay. Well, this is an authoritative person, dare I say, He's the Messiah? Is He the one?

And then He's going to get to, Okay, yeah, I am. And you have misunderstood what the purpose of the Messiah is. And so you kind of see this, this kind of this beginning. He's not he's not going to come in just with, but I'm the son of God, guys. And I'm about to die as a sacrifice atoning sacrifice for your sins.

So get ready.

He's he's I working towards think it's interesting reading this in context having that last verse saying that they could tell he had a lot of Authority that it wasn't just exclusively like all that guy's walking tall. He's got Authority. That guy has like an aura around him and seems to glow like it wasn't that. Mean, may have been that but he's making claims. It's not.

Think I just always had assumed that there's just some vibe about him. That was authoritative, but also they were listening to words. That was like he's saying stuff that are like, claims that point towards written truth.

Right. I thought maybe I thought maybe she about to drop the phrase aura farming What? Yeah. I guess, you know, I guess you don't have a whole lot of

what is that? A young phrase or whatever. Yeah. I don't know any of that stuff.

No. Well, someone who is just acting in such a way as to kind of draw kind of attention to themselves,

which is

like you've got you've got aura and I'm trying to draw you in with it. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure

he did for sure. But I think it just changes and that like there could be a pastor that has an aura just like you can tell they have Charisma, but that's different than saying I have a thought with what I'm saying. Have authority to guarantee life or death. That is not a totally different.

They're saying he speaks like one who has authority is not speaking to his charisma. Yeah, or his, his oratory skills.

He ended his ora means,

I'm sorry that I'm Southern, but aura is the your vibe or o r or a Tori is your ability

to speak. Okay.

A u or a Tori. Okay.

Okay.

My speech teacher would be really upset with my lack of distinct pronunciation of vowels. I tried real hard, miss Ralston. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

Sorry.

I was just saying that's interesting.

Yes. His oratory skills, right? I mean, it is he's backing it up with, if you do not listen to me, you are foolish and you will

die. And

so it makes sure we've we've kind of talked really more just about the the power behind it in the context of it. But I think it's really important here to make sure that we understand the basic principle of it to which really haven't gotten to that much. We have a little bit, right? It's a difference between listening and obeying. But then also the test is storms.

He's not saying, Hey, if you'll listen and obey, you're going to have a great life.

Right.

What he's saying is, if listen and obey, your life will be able to hold up against storms. Which is interesting because

it's not promising.

It assumes storms. Yeah. Which is a that that's worldview blowing worldview blowing to us would not have been to them. Yeah, their life was a storm. They were poor and they were living under an occupation of a foreign government that they did not trust and

did not like them. Now, listen to our current sermon series and you can hear about storms that are currently happening in people's lives.

Speaker Yeah. And so he's, you know, he's saying that he's saying like, and when the storm comes, you'll be you'll be you'll be safe. We hear that and think, well, I don't want the storm to come. They they were like, okay, no, I what I need is a storm proof life. I need that.

And that's how we should hear it to Storms are inevitable. Stop fighting back. Stop losing yourself in the why does God let storms happen

Mhmm.

Theological debate that has been raging forever. Don't get past that and move to storms are inevitable. Do I have a life that is storm proof? And Jesus saying, you want a storm proof life.

And the only way to that is obeying what Listen I and obey. Again,

he's not he's not he's not saying that bad things aren't going to happen. He's saying that your life will survive it. Again, not that you're not ever going to die, but your life, you will make it. You will thrive. You will have a life that thrives if you will obey.

Because I think it's too often we're looking for philosophies and teachings that will not necessarily storm proof them, but storm repellent. And so then we think we've missed. If you know, I'm living a life and a storm came, I must have done something wrong. Right now the storms, how you hold up against the storm. That is the determining that's the determining factor.

And so what Jesus is offering us is a life that will hold up against it. And the difference is, again, not being pro Jesus, not being someone who quotes, I get in I get in the word. Mhmm. Nope. Someone who hears

and obeys the word. Can

I just gonna drop a cliche on you? Sure. Not you getting into the word, Abigail.

The word getting into you. That's right. Amen.

Finger guns. All right. So let's kind of let's kind of set up for like a lot of the ones we're about to do. Kind of like really short, quippy ones that almost like that's not quite as like those other ones are kind of like more. You're telling this whole story with characters and things.

And these are just kind of little short quippy parables and we've got quite a few of those to get through.

But that's going to be the next 15

actually really powerful. We should like now there's actually some that are going to have longer stories to them. Okay, and I can anticipate that your reaction to that is going to be you're make this face. I don't think I've ever heard that one before. Probably.

Don't think I knew that one. So that'll be fun. Can't wait for that. Maybe then by then, you can have the RRS video feed and you can see the exact face that I made when I was impersonating Abigail.

I need to start doing edit it like a office episode where it like pans over to Jim and he's like And so whenever I get a confused space or up, pops in close to one of us. Well,

thank you so much for joining us. Abigail. Thank you as always, and would love for you to join us next week as we keep going through more of these parables. And we would love to connect with you on a Sunday if we haven't yet. And so you can find us at thegrovechurch.org.

You go to our connect page. There's a form you can fill out. Let us know you've been listening. Any questions you have, you can find out about our services. It's all right there on our website.

Again, we would love to see you there, and we'd love to see you next week. Again, thanks for joining us. Thank you for listening to the Cultivate Podcast. Our hope is that you are taking steps to go deeper in your faith, that you are asking big questions, and you're looking for answers. We hope that we can be a resource for you through our podcast and any other way that we can help you.

You can find all our episodes anywhere that you can find podcasts, including YouTube. And, again, thank you so much for joining us.