Summer On The Mount: Choosing the Kingdom of God| Matthew 7:13-29 | Jarryd Cole

Welcome to the Ambassador Church Podcast, a church in the city for the city, on Milwaukee's east side.

We pray this message meets you where you are, challenges your faith, and draws you closer to Jesus.

All right, well, we're about to shut down our Summer on the Mount series throughout the summer.

If you're new to the room, we've been going through the uh Sermon on the Mount and the series we've been calling the Summer on the Mount.

And I hope you've been enjoying this series.

You have your Bibles, you can meet me in Matthew chapter 7, verses 13 through 29.

Matthew 7:13–29

And as we get to the end of this message, here's what Jesus is doing.

He's giving the greatest sermon ever recorded.

And right now, he's about to close down his sermon.

He's about to what we call land the plane, so to speak.

All right.

He said all these different kinds of things.

He's getting to the end, working towards his conclusion, and he's landing the plane.

And the thing that he wants us to know is this it's that it's decision-making time.

He's saying, Hey, I've said all these different things.

You've heard what I've had to say about the kingdom of God, what it means to truly follow me.

And now he's saying, Hey, you don't just listen to something like this, but now you have to make a choice.

What are you going to do with the words that I'm speaking?

You know, everybody in the room, we're pretty accustomed to making decisions, right?

Making choices.

This isn't new to anybody in the room.

We've all done this in our lives.

Some of us are more versed than others.

Okay.

Don't give me any decisions and choices to make.

I don't want to make those.

You make all my decisions and choices for me, right?

But some of us love to make choices.

And many of us have made them.

Even this morning, you're waking up, you're coming to church, you're trying to figure out what you want to wear to church, right?

And if you're like me, you can like look in your closet and you try this on, try that on.

It doesn't work.

You toss it on your bed, and next thing you know, you have your whole bed full of clothes, and you're trying to think about what am I gonna wear?

You've got to choose something, you've got to come to church, all right?

Like choices we have to make.

Or the foods you're gonna eat, it's date night.

You want to go out, right?

You're choosing between two of your favorite meals.

Do you go get tacos?

Do you go get burgers, right?

And often what happens is when you go get tacos, you wish you would have got burgers, and then when you get burgers, you wish you would have got tacos, right?

Decisions you have to make.

College.

Some of you just made the biggest decision in your life.

So far, you've decided to leave home and go away and get educated for a series of years.

Who knows?

Four.

Maybe you do it fast and three, maybe do it slow and six.

I don't know.

There's some people in the room like that.

I'm not gonna name any names.

Mike is one of them, yes, company director.

Amazing.

To trying to your future decisions, what you're gonna do, where you're gonna go, are you gonna live somewhere else?

There's choices that we all know we have to make in life.

And here's the thing about choices a yes to one thing is a no to another.

And this is obvious, right?

But this is what makes decision making so hard.

A yes to one thing is a no to another.

And we know this when we think about our clothes and our food and all the different kinds of things, right?

But also on some of the more deeper levels, too.

A yes to saying you want to marry someone is a no to all the other potential guys and girls that it could potentially be.

A yes to starting a family is a no to many of the freedoms that you might enjoy without a family.

The decisions that we we make them all the time.

And here's what we need to know: as we grow in life, the choices that we make, they actually have big impacts on what we do and who we are.

And so Jesus, as he's getting to the end of the Sermon on the Mount, he's ending his message and he's presenting the fact that hey, we have a choice to make.

He's saying, You can't just hear my words and just think I'm gonna listen to them.

They're good words, great teacher, Jesus, amazing.

No, so he's saying, He's saying there's something you have to do with the words that I now speak.

He's saying this isn't just a TED talk.

My words actually demand a decision.

So if you're in your Bible, Matthew chapter 7, 13 through 29, I want to hear how Jesus kind of unpacks this reality for us.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Look at verse 13.

We're gonna see several choices, several options he's gonna bring up here.

He says, Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it.

How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and how few find it.

You'll recognize them by their fruit.

Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles in the same way?

Every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit.

A good tree can't produce bad fruit, neither can a bad tree produce good fruit.

Every tree that doesn't produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

And so you'll recognize them by their fruit.

And not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father in heaven.

And on that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name?

Didn't we drive out demons in your name?

And didn't we do many miracles in your name?

And then I will announce to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you lawbreakers, you workers of lawlessness.

Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine, hear this, and acts on them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house, yet it did not collapse.

Why?

Because his foundation was on the rock.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

The same thing happens.

The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed.

It collapsed with a great crash.

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching because he was teaching them like one who had authority and not like their scribes.

Great sobering word from Jesus this morning.

And I want to start this morning by looking at the last couple verses, verses 28 through 29.

We just read them.

But the text says when Jesus finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching.

Why?

Because he was teaching them like one who had authority and not like their scribes.

Listen, there were a lot of teachers back in the day of Jesus, but no one really talked quite like Jesus talked.

We have to know this.

Like there was a way that Jesus spoke that was so uncommon.

And at the end of the message here, the crowds are astonished by what he's saying, and they're astonished for a certain reason.

Why?

Because he's speaking with a different type of authority that they've heard nobody else speak.

And I think if we want to understand the crux of the Sermon on the Mountain, the thing that Jesus is saying right here in this message, even, is that we have to first understand that Jesus has all authority.

Like Jesus has authority.

He's got authority over me, he's got authority over you, he has authority over the cosmos.

All authority belongs to Jesus.

See, back in this day, many of the teachers they would just mimic some of the words of the Old Testament, right?

Which they consider the word of God and the words of tradition.

And people weren't necessarily astonished when they would hear teachers speak, but they were comforted by what the teacher spoke.

Why?

Because it was easy, it was familiar to them.

They would have been learning and knowing all of these things up in their childhood.

And so when they heard it regurgitated, they would even be able to memorize and recite it.

Why?

Because it was easy and comfortable.

But Jesus comes on the scene, he's different because Jesus doesn't just quote the word.

Here's what we have to know: Jesus is the word.

See, John 1 says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

Here's what you need to know about that verse.

That verse means that Jesus is the word.

Jesus is the word.

And if the word was God and the word was with God, that means that Jesus is God.

Jesus is God.

This is a controversial statement to make, especially in today's age, but we need to know it, Ambassador Church, we unashamedly believe that Jesus is God.

He's God.

This is one of the clearest passages that show the divinity of Jesus in your Bibles.

And because Jesus can make this claim, this means that hearing from Jesus is literally hearing from God Himself.

His words are full of authority.

It astonish the crowds.

And honestly, listen to me in the room, it should be astonishing us too.

Why?

Because just like the crowds in Jesus' day, we also have a decision that we have to make.

We have to make a decision with the words that we hear Jesus speaking in the Sermon on the Mount.

So the Sermon on the Mount begs this question: what do we do with the words of Jesus?

What do we do with the Beatitudes?

Way back in chapter 5.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who persecuted, so many other things.

What do we do with those things Jesus says?

What do we do with the call to be salt and light?

That Christians are to be people who are in the world, but not of the world.

What do we do with Jesus' teachings on marriage and divorce, anger and reconciliation, our money, storing up treasures in heaven, anxiety, the way we judge one another, our prayer life?

What do we do with Jesus' words about this?

Jesus' teachings, all of these things, they're doing something specific, and we have to know this.

They're pointing towards a specific direction.

And that direction is toward the kingdom of God.

And Jesus isn't speaking just for speaking's sake, but he's speaking with this kind of astonishing authority because he is meaning for the people that hear it to do something about it.

So, Ambassador Church, what do you do with these words of Jesus?

Do you believe and act on them?

Or do you ignore them?

So Jesus in our text, he ends his sermon with four many parables to address this reality: obedience to Jesus, what it looks like to be planted and live into the kingdom of God.

Four many parables.

And each of them have two choices.

You just heard me read them.

There's two paths there's a broad path and a narrow path.

There's two trees, one with good fruit and one with bad truth.

There's two professions of faith, one real and one fake.

There's two builders: one who builds their life on the solid foundation, and one who builds their life on sinking sand.

There's choices that you have to make.

So I want to back into the text.

How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

See, Jesus is doing some of his best clarifying work right now as he's getting to the end of his sermon.

And as he splits this path apart, these two paths, there's a broad one and there's a narrow one.

And he describes the broad path that has a broad gate, that has a broad road that is easy to go down.

Like, think of this as like, you know, I don't know if you've ever been to a big amusement park or something like that, but you walk through these gates.

The gate, the road that's broad, has a gate that's kind of like that.

It's open.

There's so many ways to walk in.

There's lines, tens, ten of them that you can just walk through and get into the amusement park, right?

The road or the way on the broad road is kind of like that.

Anybody can come and bring most of anything you want.

Everybody's on it, and it's easy.

And you're saying it's not easy because there won't be any pain and suffering.

There's pain and suffering in life no matter what.

But here's the truth: there's no restriction or accountability on the broad road.

Anything goes.

The sign that you would see on the broad path, on the broad gate, would be hey, love is love, truth is truth, whatever, whatever you want, you have it, you want it your way, it's yours.

And what Jesus is saying is that life that lives a life like that, that chooses the broad road, that doesn't lead to life, that leads to destruction.

One author from a book I read this week put it this way: He says, eventually the broad road comes to the edge of the abyss, and there it stops, but the traveler does not.

There it stops, but the traveler does not.

The broad road inevitably leads to destruction, but the narrow path, this one leads to life.

But we also need to know this the narrow path is easy to overlook.

It's not as easily identifiable as the broad path.

It doesn't have all the signs that say, hey, come one, come all.

All the different kinds of things.

You can't spot like you can spot the lights on the strip in Las Vegas.

You can't spot the narrow path like that.

It's different.

It has a narrow gate.

There's a narrow road, and it's a difficult path.

Right?

Suffering comes for us all.

But Jesus wants us to know that the narrow path is a difficult road.

Why?

Because he guarantees that there will be trouble.

John 16.

He says, Hey, there will be trouble.

But the hope in Jesus that, hey, even though there will be trouble, we can have hope that he has overcome the trouble in the world.

Amen.

But he says, you will experience opposition.

You will have to navigate or even lose old relationships.

You will wrestle with your sin and struggle against your flesh as you aim to live a life pleasing to God.

This is what it looks like to walk the narrow path.

And before you're like, I knew that's what the narrow path was like, and that's why I don't walk it.

So don't even, don't even tell me.

I'm off limits.

Let me remind you, the narrow path is 100% worth it.

Why?

Because the narrow gate with a difficult narrow path doesn't lead to destruction like the broad gate does, but it leads to life.

The narrow path, even with its difficult nature, it leads to life.

And if you want to know what it means to come into the narrow path, to enter into the narrow gate, look no further than Jesus.

I love what Jesus says about himself in John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

There's seven I am statements in the Gospel of John.

One of those, Jesus says, Hey, I am the gate.

If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.

In other words, what Jesus is saying is that if anyone enters by me, they will find life, not destruction.

Enter by me, you will find life.

There's only one way.

There is no other way to find that.

Christianity is the most inclusive and yet exclusive religion around.

Which means this.

It's inclusive by this fact.

Anybody can be saved.

Anybody.

Jesus right now is working on you.

Those of you in the room who don't believe, even you, you can be saved in this moment.

I look at my life, even me.

I have no reason to be marked by Jesus in the kingdom of God, and yet he pursued me anyway.

He can save anyone.

Anyone is able to come into the faith.

Amen.

Somebody's excited about that.

But you have to go through the gate.

You have to go through Jesus.

See, everybody wants access to God.

Everybody wants this theoretical heaven, right?

We want life and bliss.

We long after this eternal rest and life as it ought to be.

And here's what the world will tell you.

They'll try to tell you you can find it in so many different ways.

You can find it on your own paths.

You can find it on your own spiritual journeys.

You can find it as you go out into nature and do this and feel that, and da da da da.

You can find it in all these other religions.

Hinduism, Buddhism, so many different things.

The world will tell you all those things, but you wouldn't know this, y'all.

That is not true.

Those are on the broad path, all of them that lead to destruction.

There's only one way that leads to life, and it's on the narrow path.

And as I say that, I know there's some ears that perk up because those of you who are fully bought into Jesus, you're like, yes, and amen.

I agree.

But those of you who are a little on the fence, or maybe you feel like you're two feet out, you're like, wait, hold on, hold on a minute.

Because that sounds a little too strong.

Are you sound like Jesus is literally the only way?

Is Jesus the only way to inherit eternal life?

Is there no other possible way to think about my life and the outcomes of it and the eternal perspective after I die?

Jesus is the only way.

I get it.

It can sound divisive, it can sound exclusive.

You hear people say it all the time.

How can you say there's the only he's the only way?

How can you say there's only one truth?

Because that's really the hang-up, isn't it?

It's about the truth element.

When I claim Jesus being the only way, I'm claiming that that is a true statement.

And so the argument is really an argument of truth.

How can I claim there's only one truth?

Truth is behind it.

Oh like who are you to claim a monopoly on what's true or not?

Here's the thing about truth, y'all.

We don't really have a problem with truth.

None of us in the room do.

Because if you argue with me about the truth of Jesus and you make another claim, even if it's like some other claim that there's another way or whatever it might have been, or maybe there is no, maybe you say there's just nothing at the end.

That's still a truth to you, which means you who are wanting to claim monopoly on truth.

So truth isn't really the problem, the problem is the source of the truth.

See, we are uncomfortable with a truth that we have no right to define.

That's what's true in the room.

And if this is you, here's what I want to say: like, search God for yourself.

Search Him for yourself.

Don't take it from me.

Try him yourself.

Search the scriptures, jump in the Christian community, see how God reveals himself to you.

You don't have to take it from me.

Look for it yourself.

Like, even some of the most secular spaces, the secular literature, secular movies, they adopt so many Christian and Jesus-centered themes.

Why?

Because they understand the good principles that come from it.

But the problem is this we often want godly principles without godly authority.

We don't want Jesus to have the authority.

And so we make it whatever we want.

We make it whatever it's convenient.

We believe it for a time and for a certain thing, but when it becomes inconvenient for our lives, then we kind of bounce out.

Listen, the narrow way does not allow for that.

So Jesus is saying, You have a choice to make.

Are you going to choose the broad path that leads to death or the narrow path that leads to life?

And next, he shows us two trees.

Matthew 7:15, he continues be on your guard against the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravaging wolves.

Matthew 7:15

False prophets.

Okay, prophets were a thing in the Bible days.

Okay, the office still kind of is around today.

But the thing about prophets is prophets are known for the things that they speak.

And what Jesus is saying is that you can't trust someone who speaks just because they're speaking.

You should take into account what they say and align it to who they are and test it against the word of God.

Everybody that speaks, including me, your pastor, speaking now from this stage.

And this is so important.

Why?

Because we are so easily swayed.

People are so easily influenced about all things.

Like some of you, as you've just begun your tracking out in college, maybe you're a freshman in the room.

Any freshmen in the room make some noise?

No, there's yeah, thank you.

That's a lie, but I appreciate I appreciate your participation.

Maybe there's not freshmen in the room, but there's some college students in the room, and you know that at one point you made the decision to step on campus, and you know you're in one of the most impressionable stages of life.

And you're gonna have to make some decisions.

You're gonna be making friends for the first time, doing things for the first time, you're leaving home for the first time, don't have parent oversight for the first time, and you're gonna be having to make some decisions.

Like your curiosity is now going to be peaked in ways that has never been peaked before.

And listen, I'm not trying to scare you.

I just want you to know like you're gonna have some decisions to make in your life.

Will you be persuaded by the voices and opportunities that sound really fun?

Maybe a little bit dangerous, and you're okay with that because you like a little bit of a thrill.

I'm a thrill seeker myself, I get it.

Or will you be persuaded by the voices that don't sound like the truth of scripture that you came to know in your early years?

And listen, this isn't like an attack on young people because we can all be affected by this.

We have access to so many a prophet in our day.

Think about it the talking heads on TV, YouTube, you click it on your social media, whatever it might be, there's countless voices.

And this is true.

But primarily types of voices that Jesus is warning against this this kind is fairly easy to spot.

If you have any eyes at all, you know and you can tell the difference.

But he's talking about the ones that aren't easy to spot.

Talking about the ones, the talking heads, the prophets that seem Christian on the surface.

They have nothing glaringly wrong with them.

They say many of the right things that talk about God, they talk about mercy, and they talk about grace.

Jesus mentions people who are wolves in sheep's clothing.

Here's the thing about wolves in sheep's clothing wolves in sheep's clothing are more easily detected more by what they don't say rather than actually what they do say.

Like they don't have to be loud, and it may even be more true that they're actually quiet.

Because wolves in sheep's clothing, they're quiet about the depravity of man and our sinful condition, that we are broken to our core in need of a savor with no ability to save ourselves.

They're quiet about the narrowness of Christianity and the true, real, and literal punishment of hell.

They're quiet about holiness and righteousness and justice.

Justice and the wrath of God and our need for repentance, they can be quiet about those kinds of things.

You can look and sound Christian without mentioning any of these things, but these are key elements to the faith.

And there are many voices, and we can be confused because they know how to say and show up and look Christian and say the right Christian thing and draw a Christian crowd, but they're not fully in the faith themselves.

And so it's hard to recognize them by what they say.

So how does Jesus say we should recognize them?

He says it right here.

He says, we should recognize them by their fruit.

Look at verse 16.

He says, You'll recognize them by their fruit.

Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

Is the same in the same way every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit.

A good tree can't produce bad fruit, neither can a bad tree produce good fruit.

Every tree that doesn't produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, so you'll recognize them by their fruit.

In other words, Jesus says you'll recognize a false prophet not only by looking at their doctrine, hearing the things that they say, but you'll know them by looking at their life.

And no it's not simply by looking at their ministry, right?

Because the ministry can be fabricated.

We'll see that a little bit later.

But you know it by looking at their character.

Are they full of the Holy Spirit?

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Do these things ooze out of them?

There are people everywhere who can talk the talk of the Christian game, but they look nothing like Christ.

The question you have to ask is: do they bear the fruit of the Spirit as they talk about and interact with other people?

How do they treat the poor and the marginalized?

Are they really behind who are they really behind closed doors?

What are they really like?

How do they handle sin and temptation in their lives?

Do they lead with a sense of humility or with arrogance and entitlement and manipulation?

Listen, it's not always about what you say about Jesus, whether they're submitting to Jesus in their everyday life.

And just like fruit, things like character, these aren't immediately obvious.

Why?

Because seeds take time to grow.

It takes time.

You may not be able to recognize it right away.

And listen, Jesus knows this.

And so he's not making any snap judgments about anyone.

He's not even asking us to make any snap judgments, but he is helping us be discerning about the voices that we listen to.

Why?

So that we can look for the fruit of their lives and not just words from their mouths.

We need to be discerning to identify.

So we have to be people who choose where we lend our ear.

Do we lend them to the people who will just scratch our ear and tell us all the things that we want to know, even though we don't look at their lives and see if they're bearing fruit for the kingdom of God.

So Jesus shows us two paths, two voices, and now we see two professions of faith.

Look at verse 21.

And these might be some of the most scariest passages in the Bible.

Hear what Jesus says not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

And on that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we hear this?

Prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name, and then I will announce to them, I will, I never knew you depart from me, you lawbreakers.

Two professions of faith.

There's some that's real, and there's some that's not.

And you can't tell a real profession of faith by the outcome of someone's gifts that they can do in their lives.

Like Jesus is talking about being in the will of the Father.

And we have to understand what being in the will of the Father is and what it isn't.

He says, being in the will of the Father is not clearly saying Lord, Lord.

Like when you see the word Lord, Lord twice like that, like that really means like with your whole being, with your whole desire.

This is the highest attention to God.

It's not just about saying Lord, Lord.

It's not that you're prophesying in your ministry or driving out demons, performing miracles.

We can say it's not that you're preaching or praying or singing or even serving all things that we hope even happens to Ambassador Church.

But you say, hey, this isn't how you primarily know if you're in the love of God.

And I think that's good news for some people in the room.

And I hope it like rests on you for a little bit because some of you come from traditions where like your faith rested on what you do.

Your faith rested on what you can do for God.

All the things, are you speaking in tongues?

Are you doing this?

Are you doing that?

And so many different things.

But the gospel is not about that, it's not about your outward demonstration, it's about your inward transformation.

Are you new in your heart?

Primarily.

You can't earn God's love.

You can't prove Him what you have by simply the things that you do.

Your works don't save you.

But here's what we do need to know: your works are evidence of your salvation.

They are not your salvation, but because you believe in Jesus, the expectation is that your life will begin to bear fruit.

So if that's not the will of the Father, then what is the will of the Father?

John 6 tells us, John 6 verse 40, Jesus says, For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

John 6:40

Everyone who sees my son and believes in him, salvation is there.

The will of the Father, believe in Jesus Christ.

Trust the narrow path, enter the narrow gate, the will of the Father, Jesus Christ.

But here's the crux because when the scripture says believe, what we've done in our 21st century space is take belief to mean this kind of intellectual ascent.

That if we have this intellectual ascent of Jesus Christ and be like, man, I believe in this theoretical idea of Jesus.

I believe in all the traditions and whatever, but it has no inner workings in your life.

The scripture is also in concert saying, hey, that might be a false belief.

That may not be in the will of the Father.

John 6 says, Hey, the will of the Father is everyone who sees the Son believes in him.

But Matthew 7, Matthew 5 through 7, the entire Sermon on the Mount also says the will of the Father is not only that we see Jesus and believe in him, but that we see Jesus and obey him.

We see him and believe, and we see him and obey.

Belief in the scripture means not only trusting in Jesus, but obeying Jesus.

We said this back in the James series.

You can go listen to that sometime later.

That the gospel is an anti-effort, but it is anti-earning.

Your life needs to show that you believe in Jesus, but you're showing that you believe in Jesus is not what's saving you.

It is the evidence, it is the outworking of the truth that the Spirit is actually in you.

So, what it's true.

What it means to be in the will of the Father is that you believe in Jesus and that you seek to obey Jesus.

Like Jesus even clarifies this in the gospel of Luke in a parallel account to where we are right now.

He says, Why do you call me Lord Lord and not do what I say?

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

And he's not trying to be harmful when he says this, he's actually trying to be helpful for us in the room.

Why?

Because he's helping us see what's really true about us so that we can change.

He's not saying you better change or else.

He's saying that, like as you're as you're changing, if you're calling me Lord, Lord, something should be now becoming true about your life.

Why?

Why why call me Lord Lord if you don't obey what I say?

Because if you're unsure and you're still alive today, this is good news that Jesus says this.

Because you have breath in your lungs, and Jesus is saying, there's still time.

There is still time for you to believe, and there is still time for you to bear fruit for his kingdom.

Like being in the will of the Father means you have a relationship with Jesus where you don't just do things for him or just know things about him, but you are primarily becoming more like him.

So we know about the Sermon on the Mount.

It's not primarily about doing, it's primarily about becoming.

And as you're becoming, this works out your doing.

God only knows those who have intimacy with him.

And the people who have intimacy with him believe in him and seek to obey him.

So you have a choice to make.

Are we just going to be Christians by name in the room?

Or are we going to live as Christians as well?

And here's the final image Jesus gives us.

It's the two builders.

In verses 24 through 27, Jesus begins to end his sermon and he says, Therefore, everyone here this who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house, and yet it did not collapse.

Why?

Because its foundation was on the rock.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

Where the rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed.

And it collapsed with a great crash.

And I love how Jesus ends it right here because you can hear the authority of Jesus come right back into the text.

He says, Everyone who hears these words of mine, these words of mine, not the words of anybody else, not just the words that you see in the Old Testament and the scriptures.

He says, the words of mine, he claims authority over the word of God.

And then he says, if you act on them, you'll be like the wise man who built his house on the rock.

But if you don't act on them, if you don't obey, then you'll be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand.

This is the warning that Jesus gives us.

But it's an interesting illustration in the text.

Why?

Because immediately both houses look to be doing pretty good.

The house that's built on the sand, love that celebration with the kiss.

The house that's built on the sand and the house that's built on the rock, they're standing.

What's the difference?

The difference is that when the elements change, when things happen in your life that's outside of your control, when you put your trust in so many different things that's not in Jesus, when you put your hope and faith in things like your job and your career and your marriage and your children, and not on the solid rock of Jesus, listen, your house may stand for a little bit, but when things happen outside of your control, when the rain comes and the wind blows and the flood waters rise, what's gonna happen is your house is inevitably going to crash.

It will plunder.

There's nothing that can hold the foundation of your house, of your life, like Jesus Christ.

The truth that Jesus is giving us right here is that building your life on the rock, it is sure to last.

When Jesus is your ultimate hope, it is sure to last.

And so the question of the text is what is your foundation of your life built on?

What would you be able to raise your hand right now and say, hey, this is the foundation of my life?

Is it your next opportunity?

Is it the money in your bank account?

Is it the way your relationships are going?

Is it the hope in the ministry that you're producing?

What is your life built on?

And that's your question is would it be able to sustain the wind and the waves that could potentially come to devastate it?

Would it be able to stand?

I can tell you firsthand, it will not.

And so the charge for the room right now is would you be a person listening to the words of Jesus, hearing all he said all throughout the Sermon on the Mount, hearing what he's saying right now as he's closing?

And would you be someone who chooses to build your life on the firm foundation, not on the soft foundation of this world, that will inevitably fail you in the end.

And listen, I know some of you might be saying, I don't know if that's true.

I don't know if it'll actually fail.

Because right now I'm feeling pretty good.

Listen, your life is more than this.

Your life is more than this.

Even if you're good for 30, 40, 50, 60 years, what's going to happen at the end of your life?

That's what matters.

Your life is amiss, your life is short.

We get this time right here and this time only.

And then there's eternity.

And I love how Jesus says if your life is built on the sand, you don't obey his words, do what he says.

He says it will fall.

He says it will fall with a great crash.

Hear me, hear me, hear me, hear me.

There is no greater crash in your life than getting to the end of your life, knowing you've trusted in other things, and where you end up in eternity is not in heaven, full known glory with the people around you, believe in Jesus, worshiping King Jesus for the rest of eternity.

No, but you end up in hell, permanently, consciously away from him.

Your life will crash with a great crash.

If you build your life on sand and it stays on sand to the end of your life, Jesus wants you to know you have a choice to make.

Would you trust in him?

Would you trust in his words?

Would you obey him?

Would you put your life on the line and say, Jesus, you are the one.

You are the one that matters.

You are the one that stands.

Would you surrender your life to him?

Would you say, I've been trying to run my life this whole time?

And now I don't want to run it any longer.

Jesus, will you take it?

Will you take over the reins of my life?

Holy Spirit, would you help me bow my knee to you?

Would you help me open my hands, give up all I have to say, King Jesus, I cherish you over everything else in my life, and I want nothing more than to live my life with you.

This is what it means to build your life on the firm foundation.

It starts right there that you give it to him.

Jesus, the greatest builder we've ever known, he is the chief cornerstone himself.

You build your life on him.

And not only will you be able to withstand the storms, the winds, and the waves of this life, but you will be able to withstand the storm, the winds, and the waves of death, and escape from that and raise with him that is true, and be with him for eternity.

So the key takeaway this morning is this true belief in Jesus pushes you to choose the kingdom of God over the kingdoms of this world.

And y'all following Jesus, saying yes to him absolutely means saying no to something else.

Saying yes to Jesus means saying yes to his word and saying yes to his ways and saying no to yourself, saying no to your heart and saying no to what you ultimately desire and say, God, would you make him know?

It's saying no to what you think is your truth, and saying, God, would you help me bend my will to the truth of the scripture?

A yes to Jesus is a no to everything else.

And here's my greatest prayer for Ambassador Church is that we would be a room where 100% of us in here are all in on that.

Why?

Because we recognize the price that Jesus paid for it.

If you've never heard the gospel, here it is.

Jesus Christ was a perfect man.

And he lived the life that we should have lived, he died the death that we should have died, he was buried in the grave, and he rose three days later.

Why?

So that you and me, sinful people like us, don't have to build our lives on foundations of sand that are here today and gone tomorrow, but we can begin to build our lives on the solid rock and foundation of Jesus Christ.

And we can enter into eternity when you believe in that.

Listen, your life begins to change.

We're not simply just about professing a faith, we're about life transformation.

Our mission statement here is that we exist to unleash, transform people, to represent Jesus to a watching world.

We believe that the Holy Spirit wants to do a transforming work in you.

And that begins with you dying to yourself, coming alive in Christ, and saying, God, would you do all you will?

Would you be the foundation that my life is built upon?

And God empowers you to live that way.

And so, church, would you choose the narrow path over the broad paths?

Would you discern the right and wrong voices to align with?

Would you choose to not just profess God with your mouth, but live for Him with your actions and to desire to build your lives on Jesus, not on the temporary things of this life.

This is the call.

So, church, we're about to celebrate baptisms.

And I'm excited to celebrate baptisms today because what we're doing is celebrating with people who are already made this declaration in their heart.

They have trusted in Jesus.

Jesus has a hold of them.

And what they're saying is that, man, I no longer want to live for myself, but I want to live for the things of God.

I don't want to live life my own way, but I want to live my life the way that Jesus says to live my life.

They have already experienced this.

Today they're not getting saved.

They're already saved.

But what they're doing in baptism is having an outward demonstration of an inward reality of the work that God has already done.

As they go into the water, what they're doing is they're dying to themselves, dying to their sin.

They come out of the water, raised in a new life, demonstrating that they are now coming alive in Jesus.

A beautiful demonstration.

And so I'm going to have the people who are getting baptized today come over here on this side of the stage.

And those who are going to be baptized, give it up for them.

And those who are baptizing them, head over to this side of the stage.

So what they're going to do is they're going to give a chance to share their testimonies, their stories in just a minute.

And I can't wait to hear how God has transformed your guys' lives.

So let me pray for you, and then you guys can come up here and share your stories.

Father, we love you.

And we're grateful for this morning.

We're grateful for a life transformation.

We're grateful for baptisms.

We're grateful for your word, Jesus Christ.

And we're grateful for who you are.

You are the firm foundation.

And would your word convict our hearts?

Would it instruct us to live in a way where we can follow you?

Where we build our lives on you, the solid foundation and not the soft foundations of this world.

None of it will last anyway.

Only you will last.

And it's worth pursuing you.

Amen and amen.

Thanks for listening to the Ambassador Church Podcast.

To learn more, visit ambassadormke.org or follow us on Instagram at AmbassadorMKE.

And if you're in the Milwaukee area, we'd love to see you this Sunday at 9 or 11 a.m.

at 2308 East Bellevue Place.

Grace and peace.