The Rock and the Sand

We are in the Sermon on the Mount.

We've been here since April.

Today's the last day.

We're bringing it in for a landing, and I'm eager to share this message with you.

I want to just say take a moment, and I don't think I'm overstating what I'm about to say.

I think that this is probably maybe some of the most important text, maybe arguably the most important text in the whole Bible.

And the reason I say that is because if you think about the Bible, if you're looking to the Bible to give you your view of God or theology, you think about the Bible, the Bible is 66 books.

It's written in a variety of different genres.

It's written by more than 40 authors.

It's written on multiple continents over 1,500 years.

Alright, so that's that's quite a piece of literature.

We look at it as a beautiful work of God's word.

All of that complexity actually points to Jesus.

So everything you look at in the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, from the prophetic books to the poetic books, all points at Jesus.

We look at Moses through Jesus.

We look at Jonah through Jesus.

We look at the Apostle Paul through Jesus.

It all is a revelation and pointing to Jesus.

And so if the whole Bible is pointing to Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus' point.

Okay?

It all points to Jesus, but Jesus' point is his teachings in Matthew 5 and 6 and 7 in the Sermon on the Mount, then we probably ought to really pay attention.

And we probably ought to find ways to dig deep, deep, deep to find out what is he actually saying and meaning and what is he doing with this.

And then also probably find ways to keep this in front of us throughout our lives.

And uh and so that that's why I think this is a really important conversation.

I'm gonna start reading.

This is the the very uh tail end of the uh Sermon on the Mount, it's Matthew 7, verses 24 through 27.

Matthew 7:24–27

It says, anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.

Though the rain comes in torrents and the flood waters rise and the winds beat against the house, it won't collapse because it's built on bedrock.

Verse 26.

But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.

When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.

Okay?

If you've been around church before, you've probably heard this that a wise man builds his house on a rock, and a foolish person builds their house on the sand, and it says, Well, what is the foundation?

And Jesus is saying, it's those who both listen and hear his teaching and live his teaching.

Which then have you thought about the fact that not just this idea of rock and sand and wise and foolish, but to think about where it's placed in the Bible.

The fact that it's the last teaching, it is the grand finale of the Sermon on the Mount.

And the reason that when we think about it in that context, that really lights this text up to us is it should make the first few words jump off the page.

Anyone who listens to my teaching, well, what teaching?

Well, it's the teaching that we just received, three chapters of Jesus' teaching on the Sermon on the Mount.

So what he's doing is saying, hey, everything you've just heard is like a foundation, and here are the stakes.

If you listen to what I'm saying and you live this out, you'll have a solid foundation.

If you don't, you won't.

So I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna take a little risk here.

I'm I'm going to um I want to make sure that we have top of mind before we just think rock and sand and say, cool, we're good.

We've got the foundation.

I I want to go back through the last four months of teaching, okay, in the next 15 minutes.

And what I want to do is get top of mind for us here, what in the world he's talking about my teaching and what this foundation is, so we can know if we have it or not.

All right, so we're gonna take a magic carpet ride through Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and I've presented visuals for you today, thanks to our wonderful digital team, all right, who did a little, uh, we're gonna run these threads through, okay?

So some of you have been here.

Um I don't expect you to have remembered everything since April, so we're gonna hit the high points to make sure we know what this foundation is.

All right, Jesus talks about several things, but there are themes and threads that he weaves throughout, and that's what we're gonna look at.

All right, okay, we're gonna start with this.

Jesus starts out talking about the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God.

And the kingdom of God, I want you to think about a few things.

In Matthew 4, it talks about his diverse audience.

So essentially it names their hometowns.

It's like, hey, there's people from Galilee, and it says other places, and then it says, and the ten towns or the decapolis in some of your Bibles.

And what that essentially means is it was everyone from really strict monotheistic Jewish people to polytheistic pagan people.

So people of different religions, different places, different cultures, and but it was all people who had some sort of infirmity or some sort of need.

So because Jesus was healing everything from people with diseases to casting out demons to doing all this, everybody with a problem showed up to Jesus.

So imagine people super diverse culturally, and yet all had a need, end up in front of Jesus, and he starts talking about the kingdom of God.

Um He mentions, uh, remember back in the Lord's Prayer in chapter 6, he says, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So what's he talking about?

He's talking about the kingdom of God.

What is the kingdom of God?

Well, we're gonna be talking about this for a while, but the the idea that the kingdom of God to them was a contrast to the kingdoms of the world.

To them, they would have immediately thought about the Greco-Roman world, of the Roman government, where you have, you know, Caesar, who is a dominant authoritarian leader, who um, you know, loves power.

And now you have Jesus talking about my kingdom is not of this world.

And Jesus' kingdom is the power of love, the law of love.

And that Jesus came not to crush people, but Jesus came to be sacrificial.

And so when he's talking about entering the kingdom of God, he's talking about a completely different value system, a different operating system.

We have to be in the world, in the kingdoms of the world, and those kingdoms are not just governments.

Those same sort of thought processes and value systems show up in churches.

They show up in businesses, they show up in families.

And so he's talking about his kingdom is different than that.

And so he's talking about what is the ethos and the values and the way of behaving.

And so he's uh talking about the kingdom.

This this thread runs through.

This is again Matthew 6, 33.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all the other things will be added unto you.

Uh, he talks about the narrow gate and the broad road, and he says, uh, you have to enter the kingdom of God through the narrow gate.

You've got to really aim at this thing.

Uh he says, not everybody who says Lord, Lord, not everybody who slaps the name Jesus on their car, not everybody who slaps the name Jesus on their social media, not everybody who slaps the name Jesus on their reputation is necessarily living the principles of the kingdom.

You haven't even entered just because you put Jesus' name on it.

What's the substance?

Okay, so again, he's talking kingdom of heaven.

Um, another thread that we see is the idea of Jesus came to fulfill the law.

So he says it in uh Matthew 5, 17.

He says, I came not to abolish the law or to do away with the law or to disrespect the law.

He said, I actually came to fulfill the law.

Well, what does that mean?

To fulfill the law wouldn't be two things we we talked a lot about, orthodoxy, which is right thinking, and orthopraxy, which is right behavior.

So to fulfill the law wouldn't be to just satisfy the requirements of the law, but to fulfill the spirit of the law.

And so Jesus goes first into orthodoxy, in other words, how they think, and says, I want you to understand how God thinks.

And you're gonna think, you're gonna feel like I'm abolishing the law.

You're gonna feel like I'm throwing out something sacred, but he's like, I'm not.

What I'm doing is I'm showing you what God intended from the beginning with the law.

And a lot of it is counterintuitive thinking that he introduces.

Um, okay, let's look at some of that counterintuitive thinking.

We're gonna call this next part blessed even when.

Okay, so part of his right thinking was you're blessed even when.

He's attacking a theological belief that they had, which was when things are going good for you, it's a direct result of God's blessing.

Okay, so so if if the rain falls on your crops and the sun goes on your crops and they grow and you're fruitful, all of that weather was determined because you're blessed by God.

And if there's a drought in the land, it's because God's ticked off at you.

If you have a disease, it's because you offended God.

If you're healthy, wealthy, and wise, it's because God's happy with you.

That's how they believe.

So you're gonna see this thread all throughout the Sermon on the Mount.

He attacks that and he starts with the Beatitudes, which means blessed people.

Blessed are the fortunate.

And so he's looking, who's he looking at?

Remember, we just said he's looking at people who are sick, people who are poor, people who are in need, people who are at the bottom of the social strata, and he goes, Blessed are you when you mourn.

Blessed are you when you're poor in spirit, blessed are you when you have needs.

This is an this is a direct teaching and a flipping of their theology because what they would have thought is the obstacle to me being blessed is my sickness.

And Jesus is saying, Look, I'm about to heal you and I'm about to help you, but don't get it twisted.

You won't be blessed after I heal you.

You won't be blessed after you get out of debt.

You're blessed now.

You can be blessed and grieving and mourning because you lost something.

And so he starts it, but he doesn't stop there.

He keeps working uh his way through this.

Remember when he talks about backhands, lawsuits, and going the extra mile.

So so he when he says um about turning the other cheek, right?

We looked at that.

What is the turning the other cheek?

He said, if someone strikes you on the right cheek, so it's a a backhand.

And a backhand was how you would strike an inferior.

And so when somebody does something, whether it's a literal backhand or some behavior that feels like a backhand, somebody did something intending to make you feel inferior, he says, turn the other cheek, and it's not so that you can get slapped up and down and be a doormat and never stand up for yourself.

He's like, No, this is standing up for yourself.

Now I'm not going to return a backhand with a backhand.

I'm not going to go eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

He's like, you know, that's how people end up with no eyes and no teeth and all kinds of backhands, and it just keeps escalating.

He's like, We're we're we're that's not how our kingdom works.

But don't you ever let somebody's backhand make you think that you have no dignity.

Don't you ever let somebody's backhand make you think they're less than they thought you were, but you know who you are.

So he said, Turn that other cheek and show them who you are.

Okay, now what he doesn't say is if you're in right relationship with me, nobody will ever backhand you.

Or nobody will try to backhand you.

He goes, No, you're gonna get a backhand whether you love God or not.

And then he talks about lawsuit.

He said, you know, you're in court, and he paints this really provocative image of somebody who's been sued all the way down to their cloak, which is the only thing they couldn't take away because it would keep you warm.

And he goes, you know what?

Give them that too.

And so he it's a provocative image of somebody standing in court in their underwear, having had their whole everything sued off.

You took, you took my transportation, you took my my habitat, and you took my clothing.

And and the one thing I didn't have to give you, I'll give you that too.

Because I'm not going to live in fear of what you can take.

It's just stuff to me.

It's just stuff to me.

Everybody else thinks it's everything.

That's where they find their value based on the logos they wear.

They find their value based on what they're driving or where they're living.

I don't find my value in that.

So you can have this coat too, because my that's not where my dignity comes from.

It's not where my security comes from.

So now what he didn't say was if you love God and God loves you, nobody will, no lawsuit will succeed.

He didn't say that.

You're blessed even when.

Talks about Ongaria, which is their uh it's basically a concept of the oppression of the government, where they can put something on you.

The soldier, the Roman soldier, could come say, carry my, carry my equipment a mile.

And you're out just minding your own business.

And now because you're less than them, you have to do it.

And so you're carrying it a mile with your teeth biting down and you're cursing under your breath and how much you hate this and you resent it.

And he goes, You know, I know it makes you feel less than, and I know that conventional um theology would say that if we're blessed by God, we will be the ones at the top of the food chain.

He's like, but sometimes you're at the bottom of the food chain, and sometimes you gotta have somebody put something on you you don't want.

He said, Don't let that get you down.

You go, oh, one mile?

I got two in me.

Why?

Because I can, because I'm strong.

And so it's how you view yourself regardless of how other people are making you feel.

Okay, so this is I'm blessed even when.

He talks about moths and mammon, essentially, mammon is your net worth.

He said, Don't store up your treasures, your values here on earth where moth and rust can destroy and thieves can break in and steal.

Again, think about this.

He's saying, look, even though you love God and God loves you, the economy can turn on you and you lose your business, or somebody can lie on you and steal your clients.

So it's not that I now have a uh a free pass to everything going up and to the right.

He's like, it's regardless of even if moth and rust and even if the thief succeeds, he's like, you're you're blessed anyway.

Okay, and and that's where he talks about that.

Okay, we'll keep going.

Um next is he talks about heart health.

In other words, motives, your motives matter.

So when we think orthodoxy, most people think having the right answers.

If you if we say, hey, so-and-so has great orthodoxy, it would be that you have all the right answers, that you can fill in the blank, that you can argue your position and you're right.

You're more right than everybody else.

But he takes it deeper.

He says, hey, you could be right, but he drives it into your motives.

And so um uh this is where he talks about salt and light, right?

So he says, Let your light so shine before men that they would see your good works.

So, in other words, broadcast your good works for what motive?

To glorify your father in heaven.

In the next chapter, he says, When you do your good deeds, don't be like hypocrites who are actors and actresses who do it for their own, to gain the attention of people and the approval of people.

So, what's he talking about?

It's kind of confusing because you're like, wait a second.

Am I supposed to let my light shine?

Or am I supposed to do my good deeds in private?

He's introducing a tension we're supposed to wrestle with, which is what is my motive?

Am I doing this to be seen by people, to be affirmed by people, or am I doing this ultimately as an offering to God?

So he's just driving the question beneath the surface into the realities of the heart.

Um He talks about again hypocrisy.

So he takes three hypocrisy, again, being actors and actresses.

He takes three of the virtuous behaviors like giving, praying, and fasting.

And he says, You could give, pray, and fast for the wrong reason.

And in so doing, he goes, There, you've received all your reward because everyone's like, oh, look how holy he is.

Oh, look how spiritual she is.

And he said, If if that's your motive, okay, even a good thing like praying, fasting, and giving ends up, okay, not ultimately fulfilling the law.

Um, I like this next one.

It's uh I call it the Torah sampler, which is basically the Torah is uh 613 laws, and so Jesus takes four of them and does like four little case studies.

It would be wrong for us to think that Jesus just picked the four that he thinks matters most, and he's singling those four out, he's drawing those out.

Um, it's not what he's doing, he's giving us four case studies and how to think through the law, and then he wants us to take those and apply it to every other law and every other situation.

Okay?

And so here's what he does with it.

He starts out with murder, and he says, Hey, you've heard you've heard it said, don't kill people.

And he said, But I'm gonna tell you that if you don't get control of your anger, with your mouth, you could do just as much damage as you could with a knife.

And he uses maybe the most provocative image that they had in their nation's history, which was he brings up the Valley of Hanoam, and the Valley of Hanoam is where kings had burnt their children as sacrifices to false gods.

Because they thought if I if I burn my child, then the gods will know I'm loyal and I'll be blessed by the gods.

And so it was something that was embarrassing nationally, but he says, look, if you don't get your anger under control with your mouth, you'll do just as much damage as burning your kids.

It would be like me saying, Listen, if you don't get your anger under control, you're gonna be no better than the terrorists who flew airplanes into the Twin Towers and killed people, destroyed.

It was it was that so what's he doing?

He's driving the conversation deep, going, You have a false positive because you didn't kill someone, but there are walking dead right now.

People are walking around, they can't unhear what you said because you were so angry, you fired off with your mouth, and you go, but at least I didn't kill anyone.

And he's like, it's just as bad.

God, God doesn't even see it differently.

He goes through and talks about adultery.

You know, you know, you're not supposed to go sleep with someone else's wife, or you're not supposed to cheat on your spouse.

He's like, but I say if you cheat in your mind, you're doing the same type of damage, you're dehumanizing somebody else, you're sinning against yourself, that the damage is being done between the ears and in the heart.

And so he goes, You it's you have a false positive because you didn't do the deed.

But just because you didn't do the deed doesn't mean damage was not done.

And so he's driving it deeper.

He uses divorce to talk about that, he uses vows to talk about people who have loopholes, and he it and it was a mindset where they thought, if I can just satisfy the requirements of the law, then I'm good and God's good with it.

And he said, no, there's a difference between satisfying the requirements of the law and fulfilling the spirit of the law.

So orthodoxy is not just having the right answer, it's driving deeper even into the mind and the heart.

All right, I gotta keep going here.

Uh next he talks about good eyes, bad eyes, which again represents the heart.

So he talks about, um, he starts talking about money, but he's not talking about money, he's talking about worry.

And he and he says, hey, look, if you store up your treasures uh here on earth, he goes, you're gonna be worried.

Because you're gonna be worried that if your business, okay, is is going good, you're gonna be worried someone's gonna steal it.

And so your affection is all gonna be built around earthly things.

And he said, if you store up your treasure in heaven, worry will go away because ultimately it's in God's hands.

And so, and then he says, What'll happen if you do that, it'll set off a chain reaction where instead of living in fear and selfishness, you'll end up living with faith and generosity.

And so when I'm not worried about being devastated for what I lost, I'll be much more apt to give and serve and help other people.

And so he uses the idea of a good eye, bad eye.

He's like, if you have a good eye, you're optimistic, you're positive, you're you're walking in faith, he's like, You will have an eye in the world that will bring light into your life.

But but if worry takes over, everybody will look like competition.

Everybody's competition, everybody's a threat, and it will darken your soul, and then you'll become selfish, and and it's a life of destruction.

Okay?

So he's talking about good eyes, bad eyes, and I'll keep moving here.

He talks about trusting God's heart.

You remember this when he says, he said, hey, if you want to know how God's heart is towards you, he's like a father, and he goes, think about this.

It's like you know that you're imperfect, but you know you really want good for your kids.

So he said, think about your kids.

If your kids came and said, Hey, Mom, can I have some bread?

You wouldn't give them a stone, you wouldn't give them a burden.

You'd meet their needs.

And he said, if you know that's the that's ultimately the character of God in you.

That's the image of God in you.

And he goes, and if we being evil or we being imperfect and we being sinners feel that way about our children, how much more our Heavenly Father feels about us?

Now, that doesn't mean.

You're going to get everything you want all the time because no good parent would do that.

You're going to have requests from your kids that you know it's not good for them to have, so you're going to tell them no, but your heart to them is you want the best for them.

And so he goes, that's why we have to ask, seek, knock, and we have to keep asking, keep seeking, and keep knocking.

And it's not just bang on the door till I'm annoying enough that God is finally like, just take it.

Okay?

That's not it.

It's trusting the heart of God that if he shuts a door, I don't stop knocking, I'll just find a new door.

If I ask a question and I'm not getting the right answer, maybe I'm asking the wrong question.

So I'm not going to pout and turn away and walk away from God and ghost him and cancel him and just throw it up.

No, I'm going to trust his heart.

And so I'm going to ask a new question.

And I'm going to keep asking.

And if I got to seek a new path, I'll seek a new path.

I'll keep seeking and I'll keep knocking.

And because I trust my heavenly Father, I know that when the right door is time to open, he'll open that door.

But it's my job to keep praying.

It's my job to keep asking and seeking and knocking so we trust the heart of the Father.

So this is all orthodoxy.

This is correct thinking about God.

Then we go into orthopraxy, practice.

You cannot read the Sermon on the Mountain any sort of depth and miss the point that this is absolutely designed for our human relationships.

It is designed to set us up for better relationships.

In chapter 5, and I don't have it on the bullet point here, but because I forgot to put it on, but this I'm going to put it on now, which is you remember when he's talking about, hey, you you came to God with the sacrifice, and you were one to do this holy, you and God vertical thing, and then you get there, and in the middle of presenting to God, you realize, I have somebody I need to apologize to.

I have a relationship I need to make right.

And he said, here's what I want you to understand.

God cares so much about you and that person and the reconciliation of that relationship that God not only won't be offended, but God actually wants you to leave the altar and to go get on a plane or go get on the phone and go work it out and fix it.

That's how important relationships are relationships to each other.

This is so powerfully illustrated throughout scripture in Jesus' life.

Jesus' high priestly prayer before he goes to the cross.

Father, I pray that they may be one as we are one.

That Jesus came, hear me.

He came not just to reconcile man to God, but to reconcile man to man.

And so we see this in the Sermon on the Mount, how important relationships are.

In fact, in the golden rule, Matthew 7, 12, he says, all of the law and the prophets, your whole Bible is summarized in this do unto others, as you would have for them to do to you.

It's relationship.

You can't miss it.

Look what he says next.

When he's talking about uh the Lord's Prayer, remember this?

We were reading the Lord's Prayer, which is the center of the center of the center of the Sermon on the Mount.

It's where all the weight is.

And in the Lord's Prayer, we learned a few weeks ago that the Lord's prayer that we know wasn't like Jesus didn't make it up off the dome on the mountain.

He actually was something they were already praying.

It's called the Amidah prayer.

The Amidah prayer, Jesus pretty much copies and pastes the Amidah prayer, but he inserts something that would have completely caught their ear.

And it was forgive us our debts as we forgive those, uh forgive our debtors or forgive those who trespass against us.

And so the idea of forgiving each other, to us, we kind of know at this point it's important.

To them, it was brand new.

They thought forgiveness is just God's job.

All right, it's between you and God.

God's the one that forgives.

The idea that we forgive, well, what's the point of putting that responsibility on us?

Is forgiveness is how we reconcile.

Forgiveness is how we take bad situations, and it actually we come back together.

We're able to work our way through it.

And so we know this was a huge part of his point in the Lord's Prayer, if not the main point, because right after he gets done with it, he comes right back to forgiveness and talks about it.

So again, this is relationships matter.

And then the last part here is actions matter, and and actions matter is uh where he talks about false prophets.

He goes, Look, false prophets, it's not even that they'll be saying the wrong thing, it's the fruit of their lives.

So be careful who you follow.

Narrow is the gate that leads to life, wide is the road that leads to destruction.

And then he goes, on that road, you're gonna have voices inviting you towards a gate or towards a wide road, towards life and towards destruction.

And he goes, the false prophet will will try to woo you towards destruction.

And he said, How will I know?

And it won't just be what they say, it will be the fruit of their life.

Some people are able to say true things, or they know what you want to hear, and they sound good, but what is the substance of their life?

So actions matter.

Um he talks about not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of God.

Not everybody who slaps the name Jesus on it will enter the kingdom of God.

But who will?

Those who do, he says, Do the will of my Father.

And then, of course, it brings us back to our text for the day, all right, about doing.

Let's go back and reread it real quick.

This is how he ends it.

Anyone who listens to my teaching, orthodoxy, and follows it, orthopraxy.

So he ends this whole thing with the foundation of our lives being built on hearing Jesus' teaching and following or doing Jesus' teaching.

Um, I I want to I want to give you three quick observations before we pray and call it a day.

The three things I want us to get from this uh this last stanza in the Lord's Prayer is that the foundation of our lives are built on listening and doing.

And I just want to encourage you to build disciplines, consistent routines.

We would call them spiritual habits or spiritual disciplines around open-minded, open-hearted prayer, asking the Lord to show you, Lord, is there anywhere that I'm not listening?

Is there anything I'm not seeing?

Or is there anywhere that I've become so confident in having the right answer that it's not showing up in my life?

I gotta tell you this, there's a guy in our church named Rod.

Rod Arne.

Rod is a retirement age gentleman, and uh he comes during the week, he and his wife, and they serve around the church.

And I was walking through the building, I think it was like a couple Thursdays ago, and I see Rod, and I'm like, what's up, Rod?

And we just talked for a second, and um he was like, Hey man, this Sermon on the Mount series, man, has really helped me a lot.

And I took that very uh that meant a lot to me because Rod is Rod's been around church a very long time, Rod's heard these sermons a long time, and and so he's like uh he goes, Man, I just want to thank you.

He's like, um, and he started getting specific about things that I was saying that were different than what he's heard before, thought before, or maybe even taught before.

And he goes, I didn't see it that way, I didn't know that.

And so I walked away and it was incredibly encouraging.

You know, he affirmed me and that was nice, but like more than that, my heart grew in respect for Rod.

Because I thought, man, how easy would it be when you've thought one thing or you've said one thing and somebody else says something else to go, you're wrong.

Instead of really to go, you know what, it's not about whether that person's wrong.

It's like, Lord, what are you saying to me?

And to take what might feel like new information, it might feel uncomfortable because it doesn't sort of jive with how you've thought and what you're comfortable with to really bring that to the Lord.

And I think it's oftentimes in that dissonance, in that, what at first we might feel defensive, but to go to the Lord and say, God, what do you want me to see?

And what do you want me to do?

And to never see that we graduate that process.

It's a constant state of repentance and openness and curiosity and humility.

Uh, the second thing I want you to get from this last thing is that um the storm is coming either way.

So it talks about the wise builder and the foolish builder.

And it's like, you know, the wise person built their house on the rock.

And in fact, when Luke uh writes this, look, look at this.

Look what it says in the book of Luke.

Uh, when he when he shares this teaching, it says in verse 6, 47, and 48, he says, I'll show you what it's like when somebody comes to me and listens to my teaching and then follows it.

Look at this, verse 48.

It's like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock.

So it's somebody who took the proactive responsibility to, I'm gonna, I'm gonna dig.

And I'm gonna dig till I hit rock and I'm gonna build on that foundation.

And so when you think about building your house on the rock, building your house on the sand, and wise and foolish, it's a huge responsibility and it's something we need to take very seriously.

But understand this a storm is coming whether you're wise or whether you're foolish.

A storm is coming whether you listen and live Jesus' words, or whether you don't.

A storm's coming either way.

Following Jesus, back to our point about blessed even when, okay, that thread runs all the way to the end.

That just because I love Jesus and Jesus loves me does not mean that I get special treatment in the storm.

It just means that the thing that would have broke me had I valued according to the world's values, don't break me now.

I'm still standing, I've not collapsed.

Which is the third observation, which is you don't have to collapse.

You don't have to collapse.

And how do I avoid collapse?

What is collapse?

Collapse is hopelessness.

I have no more reason to live.

I've lost, I've lost everything.

Okay?

Here's how, here's a diagnostic to know if you've built your house on the rock or on sand is if you can think of anything that if you lost it, or any person, if I lost them, if I didn't have this, life wouldn't be worth living.

If I lost him or if I lost her, as wonderful as they are, or if I lost this or that, if I lost it, life wouldn't be worth living.

All that's telling you is that you've built your life on the sand.

Because what we know is storms do come, moth and rust does happen, backhands happen, lawsuits happen, the stuff happens, and sometimes it succeeds.

And it doesn't mean that the sighting didn't take a beating, it doesn't mean that the shingles didn't blow off.

It means that the foundation, the things that I used to value with everything, I put I put my whole weight on it, I put my whole life on it.

It was every it was life and death to me.

It's not anymore.

I see differently now.

I'm able in the middle of chaos in a lawsuit and the accusation and things that would have broken me before.

I come out and I can look at the birds and I go, I'm gonna eat.

I'm gonna be okay.

I'm gonna be okay.

Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, it doesn't mean that the torrential downpours didn't beat you up.

It just means you don't collapse.

You don't have to collapse.

And the way that we don't collapse is when we build our whole life on the things Jesus' teaching and in who Jesus is.

And this is my foundation.

And so, friends, we have we have an option.

What are we gonna do?

It's it's not just enough to know it.

We have to know it, we have to live it, and we have to keep it in front of ourselves.

66 books, 1,500 years, 40 plus authors, multiple continents, all leads up to Jesus.

It all points to Jesus, and this is Jesus' point.

And Jesus ultimately teaches us if you'll do this, you'll have a clearer view of God, you'll have better relationships that will reconcile, and you'll worry less.

So I guess the question is that do you want to live with a clearer view of God?

Do you want to live in better relationships with people?

And do you want to live with a clear eye, not being driven by my fear and my worry?

That's what he's offering you.