The Jesus Stories • The Story of the House on the Rock

Welcome to the Willow Ridge Sermons podcast. This is

where you can find audio from Sunday morning, messages and

more. Make sure you're subscribed so that you don't miss

future episodes. And thanks for listening.

Well, good morning. If you have your

bible, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to join me

in Matthew, chapter seven here in just a little

bit. We'll start with verse 24.

well, we are back from the beach. We had opportunity this past week

to get away on vacation. and

it was needed, and it was good, to be

gone, to be able to spend some time with Aaron and the kids

and celebrate Aaron's birthday was

wonderful. I'm going to say probably, like, for

me, and I know, like, this makes me sound,

older, old, older. Both of

those. But I got to listen to some good books, right?

Like, that was an exciting day. I got to eat a lot

of really good seafood. But here's the

realization. And I don't know that I even

admitted, this to my family, but they will

probably be able to say that they recognize

this about me. All right. I

have now turned into a

certain type of individual on the

beach. Maybe you're this

individual, maybe you're not this

individual. I used to notice

this individual on the beach

and would pass judgment on them,

maybe even laugh a little bit at them

as I walked by with my

bright red, sunburnt

shoulders. I am now

under the tent with a shirt on. Guy.

That's just a good spot to be. You

know, it's like I'm just here. I'm in the

shade. I want to take a nap. That's who I am. But

it was good to be at the beach. Good, to be.

Good to be back along with you guys as we continue on

with our summer series, this

morning, as we look at these stories

that Jesus told called

parables, that's what we see them in the Bible. They're called parables.

We think of them as these

stories that Jesus tells to prove a point, to teach

something in these moments. Now, normally, when Jesus tells these

stories, when he teaches these parables,

he does so because something that

someone said sparks a

thought or even. And there's some

occasions where someone thinks something,

and Jesus, knowing their thoughts,

addresses it and does so in

the form of a parable.

But this parable this morning that we're gonna look at,

it's, the parable of the wise and

the foolish builder, the parable of the

house built on the rock, it comes a little

bit differently then. Someone has

said something or someone has asked a question.

You see this parable? Jesus tells, and he tells

it at the end of the sermon on the mount. This

is important that we understand

this context in which Jesus tells this parable.

One of the things that is very important whenever we

read our Bible is to understand the,

context in which the passage that we are

reading, to understand where it's been set, what has

led to this moment, and then even times, what comes

after this, moment. So Jesus

tells this parable as

his last teaching point in the

sermon on the mount, his longest

sermon that we see recorded

in scripture. And when we

see this, most of the time when Jesus teaches,

Jesus teaches on, like, one topic or a couple

of topics, but this one, he's covered a

range of topics. And if you'll just look down, these

aren't on the screen, but if you just look down, you'll see the very

end of it. In Matthew 728

and 29, it says this. And when Jesus

finished these sayings, the

crowds were astonished at his

teaching, for he was teaching them

as one who had authority, not

as their scribes. So in

this teaching time that Jesus has

had with this group of people

outside of the city, many

have gathered to hear him. They

recognize that not

just what he is saying is

powerful, but they

recognize that the person

who is teaching that

with his very words, he

carries authority. And it's

authority that's different

than simple intellectual

authority, as what they would know with their

scribes, that this authority of

Jesus was different

than anything that they were accustomed to.

Now, the sermon on the mount starts in

Matthew five and goes all the way through here, the end

of chapter seven. And there's, like I said, there's lots of

topics that Jesus connects and threads

through as he's doing this teaching.

He begins by talking about the

beatitudes. If you don't know what the beatitudes are, those are

those blessed statements that Jesus gives as

he defines what it means, both in the context

where he finds himself and in our context of what it

truly means to be blessed and to be blessed by

God. Jesus covers topics such

as anger, lust, divorce,

oaths, in your word, retaliation.

Jesus talks about giving. Jesus

talks about praying. He talks about fasting. He talks about

anxiety. Lots of topics

that were very relevant then

and still very relevant today.

And there's other topics mixed in there.

And then at the very end, and the last

thing that Jesus is going to say to this

crowd, he closes with this

parable. And so let's look at it starting in verse

24, read through 27.

Jesus says, everyone then

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. Verse 26.

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, and

the floods came, and the wind blew and

beat against that house, and it

fell, and great was

the fall of it.

Jesus begins and lets these people

know the point of the story at the

very beginning. Everyone

who hears these words of mine

and does them, jesus

establishes from the very beginning that

there's some importance, there's value,

and to knowing his expectation, to

knowing his heart, to knowing these things that

Jesus has just taught them and then

put them into place.

And the people have sat there

probably for hours, and they've

listened. They've been

intrigued. Their minds

have been captured. But

what Jesus makes very clear for

them is that, they're going to

have to make a decision

when Jesus concludes.

And they go back to their homes, they go back to their jobs, they go back

to their families, they go back to their day

to day, their routine of life.

What are they going to do

with that which they've just heard?

Jesus says, everyone who

hears these words of

mine and does them,

these people have to make a decision

of what their mind has heard

and wrestled with.

Is it going to change who they

are? Is it going to change what they

do? You and I, right? We make this decision

all the time. We cut on the news one

morning. They say a new study

found about whatever food you really,

really like. And, you know,

like, you're hoping, like, they find. They are

going to tell us that, like, eating a candy

bar every day is going to make me skinny. You know,

like. And then we hear the news report,

and that food that we love, they tell us it's not good

for us. They show us the science. They show us

the evidence. They show us with people with

abbreviations before and after their name that

we know are smarter than we are. But yet you and

I have to make a decision of what are we going

to do with this. Maybe it's

not that complex. You're riding

down the road. We were driving back from. From Beaufort

yesterday. We like to stay off of the

interstate. We like the small towns and the small

roads. And there are those signs that come up every

so often, often that say speed limit.

And you got to make a choice. What

are you going to do when you pass

that sign? What are you going to do when you see

the yellow sign with a curve that has the

recommended speed at the bottom?

Are you going to make the choice to obey, or are you going

to do something different?

You go to the doctor.

You sit down with a doctor, and maybe your

story is a lot like my story.

You know, bo, you need to start doing

1234 XYZ.

Right? And I

believe them that I need

to, but I've got to make the

choice. Am I going to?

Jesus sits down with this group of people,

and he lays out a

scenario before them

that would have been common to them.

A scenario that they would have been aware

of, a, scenario that they would have

thought through, a, scenario that

many of them probably have

faced. And he

lays that out as the example of

what you should do with the words

that you've just heard from Jesus.

He says, there's two builders. There's

not contracting companies. There's two

builders. One builder is

wise, one builder is

foolish. I think it's interesting to

note that when you read this and you understand the

context in which it is read, that these

individuals, the definition of who they

are, and this is going to be important later, the definition

of who they are is not solely based on what

they've done, but what they've brought to the table as they've faced the

situation. You see, what they will do will

reveal who they truly are and who

they've truly been. But you've got two builders,

a wise builder and a foolish builder.

The wise builder is going to build himself a house.

The foolish builder is going to build himself, a

house. We're not giving the details of the

house. We're not giving the specifics of the house.

But for the most part, during the time of Christ,

there was a lot of similarity between the

houses that were built.

The difference that they do point out, we don't know how

many rooms or the square footage, but the difference that we

know is the foundation.

You see, the wise builder built his house on the foundation

of the rock, and the foolish builder

built their house on the foundation

of, sand. The wise on the

rock, the foolish on the sand.

So what would it have meant to work and to build

your house on the rock? Well, it was a lot of hard

work. See, when we think of desert and we think

of sand, at least in my mind,

oftentimes, I think to places

like I was at the beach, we think of

that deep, fluffy,

white sand where you've got to dig and dig

and dig and dig and dig. And the ground doesn't ever really get hard, and

you just keep digging. But that's not what we're dealing

with here. When we look at this part of the

world and what the desert would be like,

you see, their sand was not big

mounds of sand dunes.

Their sand would have been so hard, it would have

been very similar to the tile floor that we

have here in the auditorium. But

to dig down, to get to the

rock that was there, the

limestone that would have been there, would have taken a lot of

time, a lot of effort, and a lot of

energy, a lot of

expenses to dig down

deep enough to get to the point to where

your house could have this firm

foundation that obviously would

be needed in order for your house

to stand. But it's a

commitment. It's

hard work. It's going to

cost in order to

build on that type of foundation.

But the foolish built on the sand.

Again, don't think of sand the way that we think of

sand around here. Think of

the tile floor that's beneath your feet.

Oh, I mean, that's pretty

hard. It's

solid. It seems like you

can set a post on it.

You can place a rock on it and then lift up,

and it's not going anywhere.

And you've watched someone else

dig and dig and dig for

days, for weeks,

or for months in order to have

one spot where they can set their foundation.

And yet you're looking at where you're at,

and you say, well, I don't have to spend that time. I

don't have to spend that effort. I don't have to spend that money.

It's not going to cost me. It's going to be

easier for me if I

just build my house here on this

nice, good,

hard sand.

So one man digs down. One

man doesn't. The man who digs is the

wise man. The man who doesn't is the

foolish. And then a storm

comes. A storm comes.

I think it's significant that

there's two builders, there's two houses, there's one storm.

Two individuals have built

structures and will face the

same circumstances now

in their life. The Bible says that

the rain fell. You know, we

have the beauty of having our phones, or,

like, our meteorologists for us,

right? Like, we can come on a radar, on an app on our

phone and see where the storm's coming. We can. We can get

on Facebook, and follow, like, the

South Carolina weatherman, like, he's a big deal. Right? Like,

I don't know him. I want to know him. like, we can follow this. Like we

can know. We got a pretty good idea. We were at

the beach this past week and Aaron would constantly check

back us or her garden back here and say, oh, good,

it rained today, but it's not going to rain here, right?

Like, we're good on the beach and nice and dry,

but it is pouring down rain in Lexington, so it's exactly what the

bradberries need. Right? So we can see

these things, but. But when the rain would come

here, these storms would come over

the mountains and very

quickly. So in a moment's

notice, you go from

blue clear skies to

rain falling in bucket

loads on you. But

then it says that the floods came. And

this is why it's important for us to understand

the ground also that we're

dealing with here. It says that the floods came.

And if you go to the beach and you take a

bucket of water and you pour it

onto the sand, like it compacts the

sand a little bit, right? But for the most

part, that sand absorbs the

water that's there. And if you come back in a few

moments, you can barely tell what you poured

out right there in that moment. But that's not what we're

dealing with here. You see the consistency

of this sand, of this, of this floor,

of the desert of which Jesus would have been when

the water would have fallen, it would have mixed with

this fine powder. My father, in

law was deployed in this part of the world with

the military, and he said, you gotta think

of this sand not as sand, like we know,

but almost like the consistency of a

flower. So you

take that flower, you add some water to it, you keep

adding more and more water to it. And what

used to be sand in that field, what we would think

of now turns more into like,

wet pottery clay. It's

thick. Once you get on it,

it's difficult to work with.

And within there, it's now not absorbing,

but it's literally creating a

sludge around you and the ground itself

will feel like it moves.

And as the floods came, the

dried riverbeds that would have been around

had the big cracks that run through them

would have turned into raging

rivers. Not just something

that has water that's built up in

it, but literally where you can see

almost the effects of rapids have

torn down through a little bit

different than just a regular Sunday

afternoon rainstorm in the

south. And then it says,

and the winds blew. And

the winds blew. So you've

had the attack from the

top, you've had attack

from underneath. And we don't know

how hard the winds blew.

We don't know if it was the straw that

broke or the mighty force,

the m momentum that pushed against that

house. But the end

results were the house

on the rock stood,

and the house on the

sand collapsed.

We can come to the end of this parable

and ask ourselves a question,

a question that I've asked myself

many times. Bo,

are we doing the right

things? We can

look back at Jesus Sermon on the mount of

what we've just seen and look through all the topics that are

there. We can have great moments

of heart examination.

Do I reflect as a person

the standard that Jesus is communicating?

Does my life mirror

the standard that he has laid out

before us? Do I think? Do I

believe? Do I respond? Do I react? Do

I speak? Do I give? Do I live in

all of these ways?

And I'm not saying that if we do this as a

self examination, that that's

incorrect or wrong,

but what I would argue with us this

morning is that it's

incomplete. If I

get to the end of the sermon

on the mount and I, look at this

parable between the

rich, I'm sorry, the wise

builder and the foolish

builder, and my only

conclusion is, am

I doing all of the right

things? Then my

conclusion is incomplete.

And here's why. When

Jesus is teaching through the sermon on the mount, I

want you to jump back to verse 21,

chapter seven.

Jesus is given a warning of

false prophets

who come in sheep's clothing in verse

15, but inwardly

are wolves. He

says, you can see these people by their

fruit, by who they

are. We're not just looking at

their actions. We're looking at the core of

the individual. And then look at verse

21.

Jesus says, not everyone who says to

me, lord, lord, will

enter the kingdom of heaven,

but the one who does the will

of my father who is in

heaven on that

day, many will say to

me, Lord, Lord,

did we not prophesy in

your name and cast

out demons in your name

and do mighty works in

your name?

And then I will declare

to them, I

never knew you

depart from me, you

workers lawlessness.

Then Jesus tells the parable,

that last verse,

verse 23,

you've got individuals standing before

Jesus saying, but

look at all that we

have done.

But Jesus, on that

day in judgment,

will look at them and declare

to them, but I

never knew you.

I told you that I listened to a couple of books,

actually, in the process of finishing one while you're at the

beach. Right now, the book that I'm listening to right now

is a book called Atomic Habits. and I know there's

probably a lot of you, that have read

the book that I'm listening to. or maybe you've listened to

it as well. and you probably got lots of thoughts on

them, and I would love to talk about those. It's written by a guy named James

clear, and I do want to say this.

Disclaimer number one, I just said, I haven't finished the book yet,

so, don't ruin the ending for me.

second, I don't know if this guy is a follower of

Jesus or not. but something that he said

at, the very beginning of the book, I think, is

extremely important because it speaks to

the condition of humanity who's

made in the image of their creator.

It speaks to our condition,

of who we are and being

made in the image of our creator that connects us, to

Matthew seven. and he said this, and I'm

paraphrasing, he says, when

creating positive habits, and that's how he describes

it, when creating positive

habits, what you do comes from who

you are. What you do comes

from who you are. And he said,

oftentimes we think that who you are comes

from what you do, and that keeps us in a

cycle of unproductive behavior. So here's this

example that he gives. He, says, there's two people,

and they both smoke, and

so they're going to quit smoking.

They roughly smoke about the same amount

of cigarettes a day. They roughly have been

smoking, the same amount of time. And they've

decided, this isn't good for my body and this is something I want

to quit doing. And so one day

at work, someone comes up to

one of them and offers them a

cigarette, and that person

gives what I thought would have been a great

response. They say, no, thank

you, I'm trying to quit

smoking. What he says here

is that in that moment, what that person

does is they still

identify themselves and

identify with being a

smoker. And he says, as long as that's

the mindset, it will be harder for

that person to break that habit

that they desire. But the

other person, remember, same amount of time they've

stopped smoking, the same amount of time, like, they've got. They've got the

same struggle that they're carrying. With this,

someone walks up to them and says,

would you like a cigarette? And their

response is, no, thank you. I don't smoke.

What they've now done in that

moment is they've attached their

identity to who they

are, who they would like to be. And he

said, scientifically speaking, if you track

through that person, because of what they

identify as, will be

more likely to quit

smoking. And here's what stood out to

me.

How you view

yourself or

where you find your identity

or in whom you find

your identity matters.

The foolish builder

says, this house is the

most important thing.

This house is what I'm going

to invest everything into.

I want to make sure it's got the rooms. I want to make sure

that it's got the walls. I'm going to make sure that it's got

everything that it needs to do.

And they pour all of their time, their

energy, and their effort into the

house. But

the wise builder, the

wise builder says, you know

what, man? That house,

it's important. It's important

for my wife, it's important for my

kids. If this house is

built well, it will provide

generationally of what it needs to provide and

take care of. There's great

value in doing all of the

things that needs to be done

for this house. But

the wise builder says, but the

foundation that I put it on

is the most important

thing that, I could do.

The wise builder says, the

rock of what's here,

the foundation that all of this

will be built on is the most

important. Let's connect this with

Jesus in judgment.

In judgment, we will

all stand before

Jesus. And

in judgment, there's m going to

be people who are in

lines that

stretch and stretch

and stretch, and

they're going to stand

before Jesus,

and they're going to say, look at it,

Jesus. Look at the

house that I've built.

Look at the work that I've done.

Look at the rules that I have

followed. Look at what all

I've accomplished. And Jesus,

I did all of

this for you.

And his response

will be, depart from

me. I never knew

you.

How do you see yourself?

Jesus is bringing

these individuals on a

journey of what a

life surrendered

to Christ looks like.

I'm not saying that what Jesus

says doesn't matter. It doesn't count that

the standards of God's word aren't important.

I'm saying the exact opposite of

that. But the

foundation of where

it comes from is

important. You see, the

foolish builder who was his

foundation himself.

Himself. M

how do you see yourself? Do

you see yourself as a person

that says, jesus, look

at all I do for you.

Or do you see

yourself as someone who

says, Jesus,

look at all that you've

done for me.

And so all that I

do for you

comes from who I am

in you.

You see, we can fall into

patterns of

religious good enoughs.

And Jesus says, but it's

about this. Do

you know

me?

This is a message that I think rings

truest.

Not in the world that

we find ourselves, but

in the congregations in which

we gather on a Sunday morning.

You see, we can wake up every day

and figure out our

religious punch list of works

that we do.

And this. Is it

founded on the

rock? Is it

founded on Christ?

Do I know him? And does

he know me? Would you pray with me,

God, I thank you for your word,

Jesus.

My prayer for us

today is the

examination of who we are.

Not just an examination

of what we do,

but, Lord, in the examination of who we

are in Christ.

And, Lord, through the power of

your spirit, would you convict

us? Lord, are we the foolish

man building our house on the

sand, setting up for ourselves the

kingdom in which we determine the works which

we choose to do? Lord, are we the

wise man who built his house on

the rock and in that time, in

judgment? Lord, when we stand, it's not

looking around and saying, but it had this type of walls and

these type of doors and this type of beams,

Lord, but it is looking and saying, no, no, no. It's

built on Christ. It's who he is.

It's in the wonderful work of the

cross. It's in the power of the

resurrection. It's in the filling of the Holy

spirit. It's walking in obedience with

you as you work in us, as you

change us, as you challenge us, Lord, to

be more and more who we are. Yes, it is

about not just not committing sin, but it's

about hating the sin that's in our lives,

because we know that that sin cost you

your life, Jesus, and it's God is not what

you desire for us,

God. So for so

long, so many of

us,

I've walked that line.

When Jesus, look at the

boxes that I check,

Jesus, I do this for you. I do this for you. I do this

for you. I do this for you,

Lord, your words

in this sermon,

when our identity is found

in the things that we do,

your words to us will be depart.

I never knew

you so, God, I

pray. I pray that our

identity would be found in you and in you

alone. I pray that our identity would

be found and that we were sinners who not

needed to do better, but we were sinners who needed to

be saved by the grace of God, by the work

of the cross, that at the cross is found

forgiveness at the cross is found hope.

The cross has found grace, Lord, that through the work

of the cross, Lord, we are brought into a

relationship with our creator, Lord, our

sin is paid for and we're joined with

you, God. We are made sons and

daughters of the living

God. And Lord, in the power

of the resurrection. We will

live here on this earth. We will live for all of

eternity because of who Christ

is, as he overcome death in the

grave and we can walk in the new

life, which is Christ. And that

God, you give us your holy spirit.

And so that God, when we are obedient to

you because of our relationship with

you, Lord, it is evidence of the Holy

Spirit at work within us,

which is why we come here

and sing about your goodness

and sing about your greatness.

We don't come in here and

sing about how good and how great we are.

So, God, I thank you that

everything good, everything

perfect is from

above. It's from you

and God. If there's anyone here today

and they're standing on anything other than

Christ, Lord, I

pray that today would be the

day that they're taken off of their feet

and they're brought to their knees.

And then on their knees they see their

savior, Jesus.

In your name we pray. Amen.

Thanks again for listening, and be sure to check back

next week for another episode. In the meantime,

you can visit [email protected] or

by searching for Willow Ridge Church on Facebook,

Instagram and Twitter.