What to do? Rock Life - Pastor Kipp Penrod

Thank you for listening to this message from

Lifehouse Church. Thank you for being in the

house. I want to say one thing. I love that this

is Rise Sunday. Before I get into the message

and what God has for the day, some of you may

not know I used to be a youth pastor. So praying

over the youth is a big deal to me and praying

over the kids of this church. And I, you know,

as I was up there praying, I was thinking something,

you know, so many times we pray for protection.

We should, we pray for God's blessing, but I

pray that God makes them the head and not the

tail. Amen. So if I can get you to challenge

you to something as you pray for those students,

I want you to pray over them and just ask God

to make them the head, not the tail. Here's what

I believe about young people that follow Jesus.

I believe they're blessed and highly favored.

I believe that God goes before them and makes

a way. I believe that God goes and raises them

up in their generation. So I want to pray that

way, and I want you to join with me that way.

I cannot tell you how much it means for adults

to be praying over the students in this church

and speaking over them. over them. I remember

when I was a kid in church, I remember people

coming and speaking over my life. They recognized

the gift of God in my life. They recognized what

God was doing. So if you get the opportunity

and you see, you know, if you catch a kid, I

know we all catch kids doing the wrong thing.

When you catch them doing the right thing, speak

over them, amen? Speak into them, raise them

up, all right? That's our job as parents, grandparents,

you know, just all along the way. And I appreciate

that so much. You all do that beautifully. Just

keep doing it and do it. even more. Amen? Amen.

I got that all out. That was my youth pastor

side of things. All right. Let's pray. What I

want to do, if you would, just one more time,

extend your hand. I will even let you stay seated.

Extend your hand this way. We're going to pray

over these invitations this morning. We don't

ever want to fail to do that. These are invitations

for people to come into the kingdom of God, to

know God. So that's represented by the green

balls and the orange ones are those who have

accepted. So Lord, we thank you for this day.

God, I thank you for each person, God, that's

represented by these invitations. Lord, we're

believing God for an influx of people into the

kingdom of God. kingdom of God, that for the

kingdom of God to expand. Lord, we pray over

every invitation. We pray over every need, every

person. And Lord, we're just asking, Lord, that

God, that the light of Jesus would shine in their

hearts. And Lord, they would make commitment

to follow you. And we thank you in Jesus' name.

Everybody say it together. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Well, thank you for all that. Man, that was my

mini -sermon before the sermon. This is going

to be a good day. All right. Well, believe it

or not, believe it or not, you decided what to

do today about 2 ,000 times every waking hour.

So when you got up this morning, you made at

least a couple thousand decisions of what you're

going to do. How many of you, that makes you

tired right now just thinking about it, right?

In the littlest things, in the biggest things

in life, you've made about 2 ,000 decisions in

your waking hour. 2 ,000 times you thought, what

in the world am I going to do today? And you

might have been decisions on the way to church.

You might have thought about, do I turn my head

left or do I turn my head right? That's a simple

decision. Do I look up? Do I look down? Do I

look forward? What do I do? You've made a decision

about what you ate for breakfast or what you

did not eat for breakfast. You probably made

a decision if you went to the cafe this morning.

What flavor am I going to get? How many squirts

of flavoring am I going to get in my coffee?

Am I going to put half and half in my coffee

or am I not going to put half and half? Do I

get it hot? Do I get it cold? We do it all here,

by the way. All right. Relationships. You might

have been thinking about what do I do about a

relationship? What do I do about finances? What

do I do about my car? Come on. You can name it,

right? Anything. It's been a busy morning for

you. Turn to somebody beside you and tell them

you look tired. Come on. You look tired. You've

got a lot of decisions to make today. Right?

You've made a lot of decisions today. What to

do. Thousands of times we make decisions on what

to do. What to do. What to do. On the road of

life. And it changes as you go. And the journey

and the destination itself will depend on what

you do. The decisions that you make. And in one

of the most important moments. of interaction

between Jesus and the 12 disciples. He says something

so profoundly impactful that has to do with what

do I do? So if you got your Bibles this morning,

we're going to be jumping around a little bit.

You want to get your Bibles, we're going to be

in the New Testament. Go to Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

We're going to start off at verse 18. And it

says this, very familiar piece of scripture.

If you've been in church any length of time,

you've heard this, you can maybe quote it. And

Jesus came and said to them, all authority in

heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go

therefore and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father and

of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them

to observe all things that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of

the age. It's the Great Commission. It's what

Jesus said to his disciples before he was about

to leave. And he tells them to go do three things,

right? It's a commission to us, followers of

Jesus Christ. He said, first of all, go make

disciples of all nations. Go make other Jesus

followers. You just prayed over invitations.

This is an invitation to come into the kingdom

of God, to follow Jesus. So our job, right after

we get saved, our job in our job description

is to go make disciples. Go find people. Bring

them into the kingdom of God. Then he said, baptize

them in the name of the Father, the Son, and

the Holy Spirit. If you've been here for a baptism

Sunday, we baptize. We believe in immersion baptism.

So we put them down. We make sure they're baptized,

right? We put them under the water the whole

way. I haven't held anybody too long yet. I'm

thinking about it, right? But we baptize them

in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy

Spirit. We do that. That's what the Word of God

says. We tell them about what water baptism means,

how that's a representation. We even talk about

baptism in the Holy Spirit. But then Jesus said,

teach them to do everything that I commanded

you, right? Teach them that. Teach everybody

that comes into the kingdom what to do. It's

mandated. This is what he told us to do. Teach

them what I said to do. Teach them how to act.

Teach them what they should put their energy

to, right? Teach them what really counts in this

life and what doesn't really count in this life.

The Word of God will tell you that. Teach them

what is sinful and what's not sinful. Teach them

how we should act in the kingdom of God even

though we're in the kingdom of man. Teach them

that. Teach them what to do. And in John 10 .10,

and you can jump there if you want to, in John

10 .10, Jesus gives a summary reason, right,

why this is so important, why he said what to

do. He says this. Again, another very quoted

piece of Scripture. For the thief comes to steal,

kill, and destroy. I came, this is Jesus talking,

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Jesus spoke. What we do makes the difference

between having abundant life and not such an

abundant life. It really does. Say it out loud

with me. They're going to put it up on the screen.

There's abundant life if I do what Jesus says

to do. Ready? There's abundant life if I do what

Jesus said to do. Let me say it again. Some of

you don't believe it yet. There's abundant life

even if I do or if I do what Jesus said. to do.

There's abundant life if I do what Jesus says

to do. There's abundant life if I don't do what

Jesus says don't do. Amen? And the lack of abundant

life, even death, is when I ignore what Jesus

said to do. It's true. If I'm ignoring what Jesus

said to do or not do, I When I do that, when

I ignore what Jesus said to do or what he said

don't do, I kick the door open. If we go back

to that scripture in John 10 .10, I kick the

door open for the thief to come in to steal,

to kill, and destroy my life. It's true. It's

true. I'm going to prove it to you by the end

of today. If you don't believe it yet, you will

as you take a look at scripture. And you might

be like, well, how does this all work? It is

my obedience to Christ's command that protect

me. from the enemy's hand. And I did not try

to rhyme that on purpose, all right? It worked

out that way. It is the obedience to Christ's

command that protects me from the enemy's hand.

It is what we do that Jesus says to do that keeps

me from the enemy. I say this all the time when

I get into... premarital sessions, or sometimes

even marital sessions with individuals, I'll

tell them, listen, do what Jesus said to do about

marriage. And sometimes couples are living together,

right? And there's two sides to that whole thing.

When couples are living together, there's a side

that they could be involved in premarital sex,

and we can talk about sin on that side. But then

I come over to this side, and I say, look, why?

Why are you doing this? Because here's the thing.

If you do what Jesus said to do in a relationship

between a man and a woman, You come into covenant

relationship, it's blessed. It says that in the

Word of God. I can show you that in the Word

of God. It's already blessed. Anything that Jesus

says, anything that God's Word says that we're

supposed to do, and we launch into what we're

supposed to do, do you know it's already blessed?

Half the time, you don't even have to pray about

it. I'm going to shorten your prayer life a little

bit. If you're doing what God said to do, it

is already blessed because it is his word. It

is what he spoke. It is what he commanded. So

all I have to do is step into what he says to

do. So sometimes when I get these couples, I'm

like, hey, you don't want to stay outside of

God's blessing. You want to walk in God's blessing.

And his blessing is do what he said to do. And

this is where we do what God says to do. what

his word says, what his direction is, right?

Move on that thing. Do that thing. Step into

it because there's blessing attached. The blessing's

attached to it. There's life there. There's favor

there. We ward off the enemy and we walk in the

abundant life when we walk in obedience. Sometimes

this is what happened. Sometimes Christians...

Jesus followers, right? They feel like they're

not living in the abundant life, and sometimes

it's because in their head they're following

Jesus, right? They think Jesus is a great idea.

They may have even said a prayer at some point

in time. They kind of think in their heart they're

committed to follow Jesus, but they don't really

do what God says to do. So in their head, they

say they're following Jesus, but they don't really

follow what the word of God says to do in their

lives. And they end up, instead of experiencing

abundant life and what abundant life should be

in their lives, what they end up experiencing

is this waffling back and forth. James talks

about this a little bit. I won't go into all

that in the book of James. But they experience

this going back and forth and it's back and forth.

And they experience the enemy kind of kicking

in the door in their lives. And they're wondering

why. The enemy's hitting them on every side.

And it's because they're not walking in the blessing

of God. They're not walking in the commandments

of God. They're not walking. And so in their

head, they're like, man, I follow Jesus. And

in their lives, they're not following him at

all, right? They're not following anything he

said to do. And all this mess comes in and they

just get confused and they get waffled back and

forth. I've seen it a thousand times. See, when

talking about God's blessing, his spiritual blessing

is not spiritual pixie dust, okay? It's not.

It's not spiritual pixie dust. God's blessing

is a result of you getting underneath and involved

in and stepping into what he says to do. It's

where you're going to find God's blessing. It's

that last thing. Now, am I saying that God's

presence doesn't ever overshadow you? Absolutely

he does. But let me tell you when that happens,

when you start. When you start walking with him,

I didn't say perfection, I said walking with

him. You start walking with an obedient heart,

God begins to overshadow you. The blessing of

God comes and the presence of God comes with

all that. It's all tied together. We never get

to the abundant life in Jesus if we're locked

down into doing what I want to do and not what

God wants to do. We can't hop on the train of

God's grace. and jump off the train of God's

obedience, right? Or obedience to God. So many

times we do that. I want to jump on the train

of grace, the grace of God. I want to take that

all in, but I jump off the train of obedience.

Man, I'm not getting many amens. Charlie got

at least one, all right? Listen, we got to jump

into this. We got to follow him. Abundant life

in Jesus is God's grace. It's salvation by faith

in God, plus doing what he said. That's how we

get to abundant life. It's true. Thank you. Even

if that was a pity, amen. I'll take it. We love

the first half of that formula, don't we? I do.

God's grace extended to me. It is so easy. It

is so beautiful. Jesus paid it all on the cross

of Calvary. I can't do a thing to earn salvation.

There's nothing in me good enough. There's no

way I can come to Christ in my own power, in

my own strengths, or with anything that I do

in any way. He spilled his blood, the only blood

that would pay the price for me and redeem me

on Calvary. He died in my place. That grace extends

to me as a free gift of God. All I have to do

is receive it. He sets me free. from my sin.

It's amazing. It's grace. But we can't take the

grace and discard the obedience in the abundant

life. We obey out of result of the grace of God.

Abundant life post -salvation, right? Post -born

again is me having so much faith in Jesus Christ,

my Savior, that I will go do what he says to

do. I got more faith in him than I have in me.

I got more faith in him than I have in anybody

else. It's no longer my opinion, but his opinion.

Amen? How many know we're a society of opinions?

Amen? It's true. Many of us have opinions. I

would love to just take the mic and send it around

the room. How many of you know you have an opinion?

Raise your hand if you have an opinion this morning

about anything at all. Yes, thank you. Remember,

you made 2 ,000 decisions in the last hour. You

made your mind up over the last hour. You had

some opinion on what you should do. Where are

you going to eat? If you like this message or

not, you're going to have an opinion later on.

Why are you going out to eat? If I like my wife

or my husband today, some of you have an opinion

on that, depending on what happened before church,

right? I know you love your spouse, but how many

know sometimes you don't like your spouse? Come

on, amen, the married people. If you've been

married for a minute, you know what I'm talking

about. And Dixie and I are fine, by the way.

We had a great morning this morning, so I wanted

to clarify that. We got opinions. But I'm here

to tell you the abundant life is not on the other

side of my opinion. It's not on the other side

of my decision. It really isn't. It's what he

said to do. And I don't always love it. It doesn't

always line up with my opinion. Because Jesus

said things like, I'm supposed to love my enemies.

That is not my opinion. Don't like that opinion.

But there's abundant life on the other side of

that opinion. If I do what he says. The Lord

said, vengeance is mine, says the Lord. Not my

opinion. Probably not my opinion at all. Might

not be yours, right? But there's life on the

other side of his opinion. Hitting somebody harder,

hitting somebody back harder. If you've got siblings,

you know what I'm talking about. If you get hit

by a sibling, you want to hit them back twice

as hard, right? Vengeance is yours, saith you.

Right? It's kind of our motto. But that's really

not what Jesus said. Jesus said vengeance is

mine. I'm supposed to put down the vengeance

in my life. I experience abundant life when I

follow what he says to do. God's grace. plus

doing what he said to do equals abundant life.

And if you're not experiencing abundant life

as a Christian, it's probably not God's fault.

I'm pretty sure it's not actually, right? Probably

on your end, probably something going on in your

own life. Listen to what Jesus says. I told you

we're going to jump around a bit. We're going

to Matthew chapter seven in verses 24 through

29. He says this, he says, everyone then who

hears these words of mine, and does them. Say

does them, right? Who hears these words of mine

and does them will be like a wise man who built

his house on the rock and the rain fell and the

floods came and the winds blew and beat on that

house. But it did not fall because it had been

founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these

words of mine and does not do them will be like

a foolish man who built his house on the sand

and the rain fell, the floods came, winds blew

and beat on that against that house and it fell

and great was the fall of it. And when Jesus

finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished

at his teachings, for he was teaching them as

one who had authority and not as the scribes.

Jesus gives a detailed account of what the abundant

life actually looks like. This is what it looks

like. If you want to know what the abundant life

looks like, it's a picture of that. Because a

lot of us, when we think about abundant life,

as soon as I said the abundant life, well, a

lot of you had a lot of different ideas. I can't

read your mind, but if it was like the cartoons

where your little bubble came up above your head

and went ping. And just the words came across.

Probably a lot of you had different ideas of

what abundant life is. When I say abundant life,

you might be thinking of money and stuff, right?

Abundant life to you might be like, yep, I got

abundance at home. I got stuff. I got money in

the account. Everything's looking good. Financially,

things are all lined up. 401K is looking good.

I get to retire soon. That might be abundant

life. That might be more popped in your head.

It could be cash. your stuff. Or maybe abundant

life to you means like, you know, all my human

relationships are in good shape right now. Right?

No conflict, no stress, no strain. Like, everybody's

kind of getting along in the family, you know,

because it's always just kind of getting along.

But everybody's getting along in the family,

you know, but that's kind of abundant life, right?

Or maybe it's health -related for you. Oh, I

got my health. If you don't have your health,

you don't have anything. People say that kind

of stuff all the time. That might be abundant

life to you. There's all kind of definitions

of abundant life. There's all kind of things

we look at. For you, it might be your children

running around your home, and you're thinking

abundant life's just a piece of quiet, right?

Or you might have elderly parents falling and

stumbling around your home. And you're like,

man, if I could just go to an island somewhere

and get a few minutes peace, you know, that might

be abundant life for you. There's all kinds of

definitions. We come up with all these ideas

of what abundant life is. But Jesus says, this

is actually what it looks like. This is what

abundant life looks like. Everyone who hears

these words of mine and does them will be like

a wise man who built his house. And the rain

fell and the floods came and the winds blew and

beat on that house. And it did not fall because

it was on the rock. Abundant life is life where

you stand. It's when you don't get knocked down.

It's when you don't get drug over, right? It's

when you can stand fast on the rock. That's what

abundant life is. When rain falls. When you look

at this scripture, when rain comes, that's trouble.

I don't know how many of you ever started your

week out. Monday was looking pretty good. By

the time you got to Wednesday, you wonder what

in the world ever happened, right? How did I

miss this? There's just trouble dropping all

around you. It's like little bombs, like rain

falling. Just boom, boom, just like you came

in this morning. There's trouble all around you.

There's rainfall. Or maybe it's winds of adversity

that begin to push against you, and all of a

sudden, in one moment, everything changes, and

there's this wind, and there's struggle, and

there's stress, and there's strain in a relationship.

Or maybe it's even crisis, like a flash flood,

right? That's floods, flash flood. You're up

one minute and it feels like your feet just gonna

be ripped right out from under you because there's

a torrent coming down the hillside and you're

standing in the middle of it and you don't wanna

get washed away. To everyone that hears these

words of mine and does them is like a wise man

who has built his house on the rocks. And when

the rain came and when the wind came and when

the crisis came, he stood. It stood firm. It

stood fast. This is abundant life. This is life

in Christ. You don't get your legs taken out.

You don't get rolled over and destroyed. You

don't die in the process. You don't get swept

downstream. This is rock life. Say rock life.

I'm going to coin a new phrase around here. This

is rock life. You won't crash. It's an accurate

picture. And the one that ignores Christ, the

one ignores, it says it right at the beginning

of that scripture, what he says to do is the

person who builds their house in the sand. And

you might get through the rain, but when the

winds come and the floods come, I don't know

if you've ever been down by a beach when a hurricane

comes through and see what it does to buildings

that are built in the sand. I've been down in

places like New Orleans when the hurricane hit

down there. I went in after the aftermath. And

anything that was down along the shoreline that

was in those posts in the sand, they were gone.

There might be a post sticking out. They were

gone. History, out of there. You're going to

crash. Sooner or later, it'll come down. This

is life on the rock, Jesus Christ. This is abundant

life. This is what happens when you hear the

word of God and you begin to do it. You won't

get taken out. The enemy can't get you. Anchored

to Jesus, plus doing what he said to do, is abundant

life. Can we just keep drilling that? Is it okay

if we drill down just a little deeper? And here's

what I'm going to do. I got you in Matthew chapter

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

7. We're actually going to work through this

chapter backwards. I'm going to go back up a

couple verses. And we're going to go to verse

21 through 23. And it says, you workers of lawlessness.

Huh. This is a tough scripture, right? Like,

what? You know, do, he says, do the will of my

Father. If you look at that verse closely, you

can't separate doing what Jesus said to do and

following Jesus. Not everyone, he says, not everyone

to me who will say to me, Lord, Lord. There will

be people who will come and say, well, I prophesied.

Prophecy is speaking the word of God. Sometimes

it's quoting the word of God. Sometimes prophetic

means futuristic, even getting a sense from God

what the future is going to be. He said there

are going to be people who will come and say

they prophesied. There are going to be some who

cast out demons, and you're thinking, well, how

in the world can they not know God and cast out

demons? Because the name of Christ carries that

much authority. It is not anybody's name. It

is not the power of a man that casts out demons

from somebody. It is the name of Jesus Christ.

It is the power that is invoked when Jesus' name

is used. And he says, I'll even do mighty works.

People will do mighty works. They'll say, I did

mighty works. It is the authority and the power

of Jesus Christ. But if you're not willing to

do the will of God, walk out the will of God,

do what Jesus says, do rock life, right? He said,

you're going to walk up and you're going to say,

I did this and I did that and I did this. And

he's going to say. I never knew you, right? The

grace of God is salvation, but there's gonna

be evidence of that. Jesus said in his scripture,

lawlessness is the one who prefers to do the

will of the father or does not do the will of

the father. Lawlessness is the one who refuses

to do what Jesus said. Lawlessness is my way

and not his way. And when Jesus says this, it's

synonymous with what the father said, because

Jesus said, I am in the father and the father

is in me. If we claim Jesus as our Lord and we

do not do what he says to do, in the end, he's

going to look at us and say, I don't even know

you. I don't even know you. Now, you might be

thinking, are you preaching a works gospel? Absolutely

not. We are saved by grace, by faith, by faith

in Jesus Christ and that alone. But what I do

is the evidence. of God's grace extended in my

life. What I do is the evidence. It really is.

Let me back you up just a couple more scriptures.

It says this in 15, beware of false prophets

who come to you in sheep's clothing, but they

don't really are ravenous wolves. You will recognize

them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from

thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every

healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased

tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear

bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good

fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit

is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you

will recognize them by their fruits. Look at

the person beside you. Tell them you got some

fruits. Don't tell them they are a fruit. Tell

them you got some fruit. You got fruit. You do.

The fruit of your tree is the evidence of what's

on the inside of the tree. That's what this scripture

is saying, right? The fruit of the tree is what

a tree does. A fruit tree produces fruit. That's

what its purpose is. That's what it does. It

produces fruit. And you'll know a tree if it's

good or bad by its fruit. You'll know if a tree's

diseased if it's by its fruit. And you can say,

and it's no matter what it's pretending to be,

what that tree's pretending to be on the outside.

Because sometimes diseases are just thought you

see it on the inside. I've had trees that were

rotten on the inside and they would grow and

there's leaves and some fruit comes out, but

they're diseased on the inside of that thing,

right? They're a mess in there. And sometimes

that's what it's talking about here. What is

your fruit in your life? That's what you're doing.

That's what you're out there doing. Is it evidence

of what happened on the inside of you? The scripture

said our grapes gathered from thorn bushes or

figs from thistles, right? What is the fruit

of the tree? It's why Jesus said at the beginning

of this, beware of false prophets who come to

you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous

wolves. Prophets say things. False prophets say

things. The way you tell a prophet from a false

prophet is their fruit. What's in their lives?

right? Sometimes, man, some of you get online,

you're just taking every word coming down the

pike from somebody. Do you know who that person

is? Do you know the fruit of that person? Do

you know if it's good or if it's bad, right?

Because you might have a false prophet in front

of you. The word of God talks about it. Jesus

is saying, be careful of prophets who say one

thing and their fruit produces something else.

They look good at church. They look good at life

group. They look good when they're speaking in

front of the camera. But what are they doing

outside the church? What's happening, right?

What's the fruit of their lives? I don't know

if you, and I'm no fruit expert by any stretch,

but I don't know if you've ever seen a diseased

apple. And I'm going to put a picture up there.

They're going to flip that up on there. And you'll

see the one on the left, right? That's a diseased

apple, actually. Now, how many know that looks

pretty normal to you? I eat apples. I eat a bag

of apples about every two weeks, a full bag of

apples. And honestly, if I saw that apple on

the left, see that little, just one little mark

on it, I'd be like, no problem, right? Because

most apples have some kind of defect on them.

That's just, you'll see something on the outside.

I'd pick that thing up and start munching right

away. I would, I'd just start, I'd dig right

in. I'd bite right into that thing. But how many

know it can look perfectly healthy on the outside,

but as soon as you bite into that apple, do you

ever bite into like a diseased apple? Oh, it'll

ruin your day. This is nasty, right? You run

over to the garbage can, spitting it out. You

know, if it's rotten on the inside, worse than,

I had worm, a worm literally inside one time.

Bad day. Bad day. Really bad day. It only takes

one bite. Finding out what's on the inside, right?

To find out what's really going on. Every tree

that does not bear good fruit. What's that tree

doing? Rock life is faith in Jesus. Salvation

by grace. But what's happening on the outside?

You cannot jump on the grace train, right, and

then just leave the obedience train and run right

on by you. That's what the Word of God is telling

us. What do I do? What do I do? What do I produce?

What will be the evidence of who God is in my

life? Worship team, I'm going to ask if you would

come. As I was preparing this message, I couldn't

get away. From the word picture that Jesus spoke.

A house, right? Now, I want you to picture that.

Go ahead and close your eyes for a minute. I

do this sometimes. I've done this in actually

a funeral message that I use sometimes. And I

want you to do this. I want you just to picture

this in your mind because this will help you

grab a hold. I want you to picture in your mind

two houses on the shoreline. And pretend you're

out in the boat just a little bit from shore.

and you're staring back at the shoreline, and

you're looking on the left, and there's this

house built on the rock. There's rocks, a big

rock crag there, and somebody built a house up

on top of that rock. And then you can pan to

the right, and you can make your beach look like

anything you want, because it's your imagination

you're using right now. But you pan to the right,

and there's a house that's built in the sand.

This is what Jesus was talking about. You can

look back up at me. Rock life, rock life is the

only life. If you want abundant life, it's rock

life. It's when it rains, when trouble comes,

when I'm on the rock, I stand fast in his grace

and I keep doing what he said to do when it rains.

When trouble covers me, he shields me, right?

I keep doing, I keep. depending on the grace

of God. And I keep doing what he said to do.

In the trouble, when adversity comes and the

winds begin to push against me and from every

side, I'm starting to get pressure and the stress

is starting to come in. I talked with somebody

this week under so much stress and the stress

begins to come in and the winds begin to push

against. You lean on the grace of God and the

salvation that he provides and you just keep

doing what he said to do. Because there's safety

on the rock. When the floods come and the waters

feel like they're going to tear you apart, wash

you away, drown you in whatever's in front of

you, behind you, or beside you, you lean on the

grace of God. This is rock life, abundant life.

And you keep doing what he said to do. When you're

healthy, when you're sick, when the sun is rising,

when the storm's going, when the lightning's

flashing. Not perfection, but obedience to God.

This is abundant life. Anything outside of rock

life is that house you built over in the sand.

And it'll look good when the sun's shining. It'll

look good when there's no adversity. It'll look

good when it's just a little pitter -patter of

trouble coming down. But when in its rain and

its wind and its flood, that thing's going to

crash. It's going to come down. I'm going to

ask you to stand. This is what Jesus said to

do. Rock life. Say rock life. Rock life. I'm

telling you, I'm coining a phrase. Even if you

don't like it, I'm coining it anyway. I'm going

to give you two things. I have a digital checklist

on my computer and my devices, and I use it every

single day. And I kind of mark things this way.

Typically, I have like a red list, which is urgent.

And then I'll have a yellow list, which is important,

but not urgent. And then I'll have a green, which

means I can get to it sometime. All right. And

sometimes I'll categorize the things that I'm

doing, or sometimes I'll just put them in order

like that in my head on my list. But I'm going

to give you two things that are urgent for you

to do. Put this on your to -do list, because

we're talking about what we do, right? What to

do. The first one is know the rock. Know the

rock. And what do I mean by that? I mean, do

everything in your power to learn everything

that you can about the rock named Jesus Christ.

Find out who he is. how he functions, what he

said. Do everything within your power. One of

the reasons we do Bible through a year, and we're

going to do it again, we're going to continue

to do it every single year. I want more and more

people to participate. You need to find out who

Jesus is. You cannot come to a message on Sunday

morning, and even I know some of you listen to

podcasts, all that, that's awesome. Keep doing

that. But you're not going to find out who Jesus

is until you dive in yourself. Truly. You'll

find out pieces of it. You're not going to find

the full expanse of who God is. Find out who

he is. Know who he is. Know the rock. And then

the second thing is, is commit to rock life.

That means that by the grace of God, you're saved,

right? And if you're not saved, you can be this

morning. Know Jesus as Lord and Savior because

of what he did on the cross, and then do what

he said to do. That's rock life. That's it. Just

know him and do what he said to do. If it doesn't

make sense to you, do what he said to do. Even

when you don't like it, do what he said to do.

Even if you want to take vengeance, do what he

said to do. Just do it. Because there's abundant

life on the other side. You won't crash. You

will not go down. There should be this deep,

deep assurance for us that if we walk in this,

Do you know what it means to know that you cannot

be taken down? You should be beating your chest

right now. Right? Come on. Right? It's not you.

It's him. But if you've got a big enough big

brother, they can't take you down. They can't

take you down. The enemy cannot take you down.

Rock life. in to this message from Lifehouse

Church. We pray that you were impacted powerfully

by this message. If you have been personally

affected by our ministry and you would like to

partner with us as we love God, love people every

day, visit our website at