Solid Ground or Sinking Sand? Matthew 7:24-29

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Many churches have new buildings, but of course we have old ones
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The building we stand in right now was built in 1923 The parsonage across the street was built in 1936
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In the early 1950s the annex now known as the Matson building was erected So here we stand in 1920 in a building that has been here for almost 100 years and the other church structures not too long after that To have old buildings is not necessarily a bad thing historic buildings
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That have been taken care of our antiques Well one not taken care of we call junk right sometimes things just need to be done done away with Old buildings are only a pleasure to have if they stand the test of time and are maintained over the long haul
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There was an old church building in Milltown that was recently Condemned because of a design flaw all those years ago when it was built
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Now when we look at the history of our church These were built by the men of old who were members of this church and Elvin and Susan you probably remember some of them and Sean who's a very good carpenter in fact
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Mark Brooks has called him a master carpenter, and I agree with that Has told me several times that the men who built these structures were excellent carpenters
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The proof of the quality of their work is in the pudding right and we're standing in the pudding right now
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There are no major design flaws and the test of time has shown this a
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Building that is built right will last a long time You don't need to know much about carpentry to know that the most important part of the house or building is a solid foundation
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It doesn't matter how nice everything looks that's built out from that If the foundation is bad then the structure on which it will on which it was built will fail
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Sean once told me that a strong foundation can last hundreds of years maybe even longer than that So in the building industry building on a solid foundation can last and it's a must
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If you want it to continue over the long haul now as we think about our lives Every one of us is building on something
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Every one of us has a trajectory The only way the trajectory is good is if you are being driven by the right influence
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The foundation on which we build is incredibly important This cannot be overstated
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The foundation on which we build determines the glorious path from the path of destruction
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This morning as we continue our sermon series through Matthew We are going to once again see life just described described in two different categories
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We have already seen life described as two paths Remember the wide path and the narrow path
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We've seen two teachers described a true teacher and a false teacher we've seen
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Two disciples described right a true disciple and a false Disciple and today we're gonna see two different foundations that everyone is building on and there's only two in the whole world
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So Jesus is simplifying this for us. So this time I encourage you to turn in a
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Bible with me to Matthew chapter 7 We'll be looking at verses 24 through 29 and if using a red
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Bible in the pews, it's on page 9 966 966
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The sermon is titled solid rock or sinking sand
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And we'll begin by reading the text. So this is the grand finale
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Jesus is preaching the Sermon on the Mount. He's overlooking the Sea of Galilee. And this is what he says
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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
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And beat on that house but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock and Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand and The rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and Great was the fall of it
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And when Jesus finished these sayings The crowds were astonished at his teaching for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes
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The sermon is calling us to do this Build your life wisely on the right foundation in order to forever stand
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Build your life wisely on The right foundation in order to forever stand and we will see two principles how in this text
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But before we jump in I want to give a little recap of where we were last Sunday I already mentioned that we looked at the two different disciples
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And we looked at arguably the most Sobering passage in the whole Bible What Jesus told the crowd is that many will come to him at the final judgment and believe themselves to be saved
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But Jesus will deliver to them these frightening words. I never knew you
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The clear mark of each of these people According to the text is that they were workers of lawlessness
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These people did not have spirit -generated works, but rather their works were false works not done for the glory of God The plea for each of us is to examine ourselves none of us want to be that person at the final
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Judgment now, let's jump back into our text. We already read it
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But let's begin by digging into verses 24 and 25 Jesus once again says everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the 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
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Because it had been found in on the rock. So what we see in this text in these
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Verses are Jesus concluding words in the Sermon on the Mount The group of people
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That Jesus has gone after more than any other are the Jewish religious leaders
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These religious leaders made the same mistake that every false religion makes
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They believe that you can earn favor with God through your own works
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Just like the Roman Catholic Church as we talked about today But the one true religion in the world biblical
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Christianity teaches that salvation is by grace through faith alone But this does not mean that works are not important Works are not the reason that one is saved, but they are the evidence
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Once the Holy Spirit is given to someone at the beginning of conversion True works will show up over the course of a person's life
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So as we look at this passage we have to understand this background there is a right way to build and a wrong way
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In verse 24 and 25 Jesus tells us the right way to build in verse 24
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He tells us two important things that a believer must do. They must hear the word and They must live the word
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What this means is that mere? intellectual Agreement is not enough that was the problem of the false disciple there was intellectual agreement, but there was no works to show the genuineness of the person's faith
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So one can intellectually say the right things and not really be saved you can sign a doctrinal statement and say yes
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I believe that but not really be saved and the question Jesus wants everyone to ask is this
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Has the word that you have heard and Believed gone into your heart
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What do I mean by your heart? I'm not talking about the organ that pumps blood to the cells of your body
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What I mean by your heart is Your inner self your mind your will your desires your emotions
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My old pastor has said things about our inner self that I found very very helpful In our in our very true
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He said we do what we do because we want what we want We also feel what we feel because we want what we want
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You think about that we do what we do because we want what we want we feel what we feel because we want what? We want right if we don't get our way.
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We're sad If we get our way, we're happy And that's where our mind has to has to dictate things our mind is the captain
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So if our emotions lead us into sin our mind tells our emotions. No I'm not gonna go there
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One's desires rule one's life, and if you have good desires It's gonna be a good life live for God if you have bad desires.
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It's gonna be a bad life on the wide path as Jesus said earlier in the
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Sermon on the Mount in chapter 6 verse 21 We're where your treasure is there your heart will be also you can tell one's course of life by their desires
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What Jesus says in verse 24 is that the one who hears the word and desires to follow is the wise man or woman in?
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this world So in other words when you hear the Bible preached or when you read the
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Bible. What does it do to you? Do you see following Jesus as the best path, or do you see it as only part of your life?
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But your treasure is really somewhere else if it's if it's just a part of your life, then you're the treasure somewhere else
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I Remember when I was younger. I remember going to church and not caring about the sermons not listening to the sermons
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I Was looking forward to the football game after the sermon right my treasure was
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Football at that time it was not Christ and By God's grace.
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He pulled me from that and he said no this is your treasure. I am your treasure not that What this has done to me is that when
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I hear the word I? Do experience delight in God I? Delight in what he has done, and I delight in what he calls me to do
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I mean not perfectly But I can honestly say that it's there And I know that for the one who follows him he or she not only escapes judgment
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But also has glories that await you in the age to come Now the obedience is not perfection
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I say that all the time But it's worth repeating this as one author has said it's not the perfection of your life
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But it is the direction of your life. What direction are you going? Is it a good direction, or is it a bad direction?
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The true Christian is the one who little by little goes in the right direction
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This is what the Bible calls maturity The true believer hears the words and does what it says
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The foundation of the believer is Jesus Christ, and we follow Jesus by following his word
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In this passage what Jesus says? He who hears these words of mine and does them the words
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He's referring to is everything. He said so far in the Sermon on the Mount but by extension we can say it's everything he said in the
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New Testament and everything his apostles wrote in the New Testament and Everything in the
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Bible says including the Old Testament that's the foundation the foundation is the 66 books of the
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Bible and those who build their life on this foundation are in a wonderful position and It's my prayer that this is the story that this is the path of everybody in this room
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Now verse 25 gives us this image of rain floods and Wind beating against this house this house that was built on the right foundation
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Think about houses and buildings that have stood for hundreds of years I'm fascinated with old homes and old buildings, and maybe you are too
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Especially ones that are that are historical That there's something significant about them
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Ran and I on our honeymoon visited Thomas Jefferson's home in Charlottesville, Virginia It's known as Monticello The back of the home is pictured on the nickel
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So that's that's interesting and as we visited the home It was very impressive
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Jefferson had many talents and one of his fascinations was with European architecture
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The home has a Roman feel to it since he designed it after structures in Rome This house was built in the early 1800s
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It stands on a mountain overlooking the town of Charlottesville Where the
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University of Virginia is that he founded and over the last two centuries Think about how many storms this house has endured thousands of storms and Since the foundation was strong and the structure was built
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Well, this house has shown itself to be true through the test of time
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Well, it is true That believers withstand the trials of life
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This passage is not referring to the trials of life But rather the final judgment
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We know this because in the previous section Jesus talked about people standing before him at the final judgment as One author has written whether is whether once religion is true or false one day.
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It's going to be tried and That trial will prove with absolute finality
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What is wheat and what is chaff? Who have entered by the narrow gate to walk the narrow way and who have entered by the wide gate to walk the broad way?
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As I mentioned If you are truly building the right foundation, you will have works that show it
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James 122 says be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves
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These verses are describing the final judgment and a while back when I showed you
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In our sermon series on the end times. I showed you that the final judgment will be a judgment of works
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Now one receives entrance into heaven only based 100 % on what Christ has done as we said many times today
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But one's faith will be shown to be true through righteous works
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The believer will have them and the unbeliever will not as the
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Apostle Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians 510 We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ So that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body whether good or evil
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The judgment seat of Christ is the judgment for believers While the great white throne judgment described in Revelation 20 is the judgment for unbelievers
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At the judgment seat of Christ Every person present there will be a true believer who produced some good works some spirit -generated works in their life
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Everyone there will have at least somewhat built their life on the solid foundation of Christ Some better than others, but the foundation of which one's life was built will show the solid foundation
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The believers life will resemble the solid foundation of a building
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Since the foundation is there this foundation sent the believer on a path that will show at the judgment
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The believer will be like the house that stands over the centuries as the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew on that house
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Believers will not fall at the judgment as God examines the works that were built on the foundation of Jesus Christ So we are to build our life wisely on the right foundation in order to forever stand and the first principle how?
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In verses 24 and 25 is to live according to God's Sturdy word that's the first principle to live according to God's Sturdy word
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The second principle is this we are to avoid worldly philosophies that will sink you to avoid worldly philosophies that will sink you let's read again verses 26 and 27 as Jesus says and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and The rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it
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Jesus hears as he's preaching this sermon would have understood what he was saying
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Because of the geographic area in which they lived known as Galilee Galilee was located in Northern Israel and one author
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I was reading said During the hot summer months the sand around the
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Sea of Galilee was hard on the surface But a wise builder knew that he needed to dig several feet below the surface to the bedrock
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In order to establish the foundation for his house So the firm ground on the surface would have given the illusion
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That the ground was solid and then someone would build it But once the season changed and the ground softened as the rain came the structure would not hold
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The foolish man would not dig deep enough and over time this would show So Jesus once again gives this imagery to communicate the negative part of this section
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Jesus already described the wide path earlier in the Sermon on the
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Mount and Said that many travel down it the many are the ones who do not build on the right foundation in The previous section
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Jesus already told us about those who are going to receive the worst surprise of all To hear the words
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I never knew you Now These are the ones that Jesus has primarily in mind as he talks about these foundations
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These are people who told Jesus we did all these works, but Jesus calls them workers of lawlessness
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Because none of their works were spirit produced and done for the glory of God One of the most interesting parables in the
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Gospels is known as the parable of the sower And this should be very familiar to people in this neck of the woods right farmers
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The parable of the sower in this parable Jesus describes four seeds
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The seed represents the Word of God and people's response to it The seed that parallels what
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Jesus says in this verse is the second seed in Matthew 13 verses 5 and 6
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Jesus said other seeds fell on rocky ground Where they did not have much soil and immediately they sprang up Since they had no depth of soil but when the
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Sun rose they were scorched and Since they had no root they withered away
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So we see this clear picture here When the seed is planted
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It looks like all the others That are rooted deeply in the ground that will produce a nice Beautiful crop it looks like it's going to bear fruit, but it doesn't
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Elvin you probably had a few of these over the years, right? Just below the surface There's a rock and at first the soil looked good as the seed grew into a crop
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But since the soil was only on the surface and there was no root the crop withered away over time
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That's why you need a good farmer right someone who knows what they're doing Because they don't make that mistake
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Now as Jesus teaches this he knows there are pretenders in the faith He knows that throughout the
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Old Testament there were people who looked to be true believers But they did not bear good fruit
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Showing they were not real At this time when Jesus is teaching he knows that when the church is started down the road
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The people in the church by their life will show that there was no authenticity to their faith
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Some of these people will abandon church altogether and others might stay around But the life lived will not be a life lived for God Now these are professing
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Christians that I'm talking about But earlier I mentioned that everyone on the wide path
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Whatever they believe are the ones who are building on the wrong foundation Think about how many different beliefs there are in the world.
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It's there's too many to count There are false ideas false philosophies and false religions that people build
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Their life on I mean we see we see that right now. I mean you turn on the TV listen to the radio
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It's right out there for us to see right people are Building their life on all these different things and there's it's sand the foundation is sand and You know what all these people have in common they think they're building on solid ground
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It's the second seed in the parable of the sower right but there's a rock below it. It's not it's gonna wither away and They're building on sand
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Any Muslim Hindu Buddhist Mormon Jehovah's Witness or any other false religion thinks they are building on the right foundation
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But this isn't just about false religion some people don't care about religion, but everyone is living for something
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Everyone is building on some foundation for some it's a it's a successful career
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But it's self -focused To others they are building a family Which is which is good?
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But their highest treasure is in God. It's their family That's sand To others it is a foundation of friendliness, but it's not a godly friendliness, but a worldly one
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When you only like those who like you and And you don't love your enemies and even in your friendships
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There's no depth to it Believers have depth in their friendships Unbelievers often have it's just friendliness.
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It's it's shallow and this occurs The friendliness thing here it occurs when one would never correct anyone, but you just want everyone to like you
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But Luke 6 26 says woe to you and all people speak well of you We need to be honest with people right and and and say things in love, and you do that if you're a good friend to someone
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To others they want to be known as a champion and whatever they do But when one does this for yourself it is not built on the foundation of Jesus Christ John the
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Baptist said this he said Christ must increase, but I must decrease
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But the one who lives only for their own success says I must increase. I must build
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I'm I am building my life and to glorify.
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God is not even given a thought or if it is it's it's just a fleeting thought
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I Remember in college. I read the book by Stephen Covey titled seven habits of Highly effective people now
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Stephen Covey is a Mormon And there are a lot a lot of good principles in this book that Christians can learn from However, you can be successful in whatever you do, but if you don't build on the right foundation
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None of that will matter in the end you can get all sorts of awards and Admiration, but it won't matter if you built on the wrong foundation
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What Jesus says in verse 26 and 27 is that those who build their life on sand
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Will have it all come down in the end It'll just crumble The life that one lived it may have looked spectacular to the surrounding world
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But it came down at the judgment and Jesus said depart from me you worker of lawlessness
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As I mentioned I I've visited many historical monuments and even homes of famous Americans Who lived a couple hundred years ago and when people look at these what they say is success
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History recorded this person because of their achievements and their achievements are celebrated
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Thomas Jefferson listed his achievements on his tombstone. You know what they are
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Here was buried Thomas Jefferson author of the Declaration of Independence of the
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Statute of Virginia for religious freedom and the father of the
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University of Virginia Interesting he didn't mention the President United States at the time.
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He didn't think it was that important Look at how important it is today There are also many monuments that recognize people's achievements
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Now it is good to recognize their achievements things worth celebrating
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This is not just for the believer who did wonderful things like Martin Luther who we celebrate today
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We can even celebrate the achievements of an unbeliever if God enabled them to do some good things in this world
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Not through the Holy Spirit But God's common grace, that's what God's common grace means that he even helps unbelievers do good things
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But it's not this person is not saved, but they still can do some good things Historical monuments are on our minds right now because they have been torn down in many places in recent months
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And it goes without saying that to do this is foolish Now if one wants to take down the monument of a truly bad person
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No one will object to that right hardly anyone will but when George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are being taken down That's utterly foolish
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Most of the people who've been taken down. It's very foolish. We should remember the good of our past But people who got some things right
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But they did not build on the right foundation of Jesus Christ their earthly success
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Will not make them stand at the judgment Many down through world history have built on the wrong foundation
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The end of the Bible Describes the dreadful scene of all who built their life on sand
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This is what this is what it says revelation 20 verses 11 through 15
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This is the Apostle John the vision He saw he said then I saw a great white throne in him who was seated on it from his presence earth and sky fled away
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And no place was found for them, and I saw the dead great and small Standing before the throne and books were opened then another book was opened which is the book of life and The dead were judged by what was written in the books
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According to what they had done and the sea gave up the dead who were in it death and Hades Gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged each one of them according to what they had done
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Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire This is the second death the lake of fire and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life
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He was thrown into the lake of fire So in verse 27 of Matthew 7 when
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Jesus says great was the fall of it This is what he's referring to The fall of everyone who built on the wrong foundation will be great
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It will be tragic words do not do justice to say how horrible it will be for the cursed when they stand before God and Realize their whole life was built on sand
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They will realize they built on the wrong foundation And this is a common a common experience
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And sometimes we see people in life who had had a lot of success. They were loved by the world
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And something happens a big scandal happens something something happens where Everybody looks up person and says everything just came down and we see stories like that At the judgment, that'll be the case for everybody who built on sand.
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It'll all just come down And nobody wants that to be their experience But the one who knows
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Jesus Christ builds on the right foundation and this will not be your experience So this sermon is calling us to build our lives wisely on the right foundation in order to forever stand and we do this by building on the sturdy word
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This book right here building our lives on the Bible on Jesus Christ And if you do this, you will avoid
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Worldly philosophies and you'll spot them and you'll resist them And so many of the problems we see in the wider church today is
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People are not building on the sturdy foundation, but they're they're letting other things in And that's when problems happen
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Verse 28 and 29. We're gonna close with these two verses and this is that this is the end of the Sermon on the Mount and when
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Jesus finished these sayings the crowds were astonished at his teaching for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as Their scribes the people were used to receiving teaching remember he's preaching to mostly
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Jews here They were used to this teaching But they're like this is different when our scribe teaches us
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It doesn't hold any authority because all they're doing is quoting other rabbis who are trying to understand the
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Old Testament But so many of their interpretations were faulty and there was no authority with what they said
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When Jesus speaks he speaks as a prophet of God He is God himself
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Proclaiming the words of God and they're like we haven't seen anything like this. So this was this was they were astonished at His teaching and when
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God speaks It demands a response Everybody on planet
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Earth has to answer to this book This is the highest authority there is it doesn't matter how high anybody is in government
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Or how famous they are Or how loved they are by the world.
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Everybody has to answer to the Bible because it is the highest authority Even Jesus speaks here.
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What it says is he spoke as one who had authority and so this demands a response from us as Well, we are called to live as kingdom citizens now that that's what we've seen throughout the
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Sermon on the Mount And the only one who will dwell in God's kingdom forever in the future are those who live like his citizens on earth now
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And by God's grace, may we do this? may we be those who stand at the final judgment because we built on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ and Those who do this realize as the old hymn says
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All other ground is sinking sand like the old hymn all other ground is sinking sand
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Now next Sunday, we will be looking at The section after the
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Sermon on the Mount we've spent a lot of time chapters 5 through 7 of Matthew is known as the Sermon on the Mount now we're going to get back into the narrative where Jesus is on the move and We're going to see many of his mighty works
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Next week. We're gonna see him cleanse a leper and see what we need to see in that passage and as Sean mentioned
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Two weeks from today. We're gonna have the Harvest Festival and that sermon is gonna be very different from any sermon
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I've ever preached and the whole service will be of any different and different from anything. We've seen here in a while.
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So We look forward to that. But next week. I hope that we'll we'll see this and be fed once again
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Let's bow our heads in prayer Father in heaven
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Lord Everyone must answer to your word. There are only two foundations in my plea
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Lord on the behalf of everyone here today is that everyone would be building on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ and And the only way people can do that is if they have a genuine relationship with Christ.
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And so my prayer Lord is that everyone here Would have a sincere rock -solid
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Relationship with Jesus Christ that people would trust him as their Lord Savior and treasure and that our lives would show it
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Lord and That we would have that assurance of salvation There at the judgment.
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We won't hear the words. I never knew you But that we would hear the words Well done good and faithful servant because we built on the right foundation