SERMON ON THE PLAIN Solid Foundation. Luke 6:46-49

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1 SERMON ON THE PLAIN Solid Foundation Luke 6:46-49 Have you ever been in one of those situations where you were trying to accomplish something and there was the right way to do it and then there was your way to do it? *Story of growing up with legos. Legos always come with a plan. You ve got the picture on the box and then you ve got the instructions on the inside showing you exactly which piece to use when to make their creation. Well, I wasn t going to be tied down by them. I m my own man...i can make my own creation. So I would look at the picture on the box and start thinking about how I was going to make the same thing...only better. Their plane looked cool...but mine would look cooler. So I would start to build...the construction process had started. My creation was coming to life...mine...not theirs. I always thought my way was better...even though my final product looked nothing at all like I had hoped it would. *Story of playing tennis game w/ my mom. I remember getting a new tennis video game for Christmas one year. And as with any new game, there was a learning curve. You had to figure out how to play the game. Since my parents got the game for me, one of them was obligated to play it with me...that s just how it works. So my mom sits down to play the game and I am ready to destroy her. Now, I love my mom...she s awesome...i had no grudges against her...but this was a video game. All bets are off...she wasn t my mom anymore...she was my opponent...the enemy...and then she smoked me. She beat me so bad, I didn t play the game for a month. You see, my way of learning the game was to figure it out as I went. But she learned the right way by reading the instructions. I still think she cheated, but whatever. We ve all had those moments when we try to do things our way. The problem is that it doesn t always work out the way we hoped it would. There s always extra pieces or we forget an important step that is essential or it takes us 3x s as long and it s still not right. Sometimes there are several ways to accomplish the same task. But what we re talking about today, there s only one way to do it. Today we are focusing on how we can build a solid foundation for our lives. And the only way for us to have a solid foundation is to build that foundation on Jesus Christ. So as we close out the SOTP today, we are going to look at what a solid foundation needs and why we need a solid foundation. Pray Jesus has had some pretty interesting things to say in this sermon already. He s been talking about things that have just been a complete joy to hear! - Love your enemies - that s always fun, right? - Don t judge - Jesus tells us not to do the one thing that we re really good at

2 - How about taking the log out of your eye before trying to judge...i mean, help someone take the speck out of theirs - Don t be a bad fruit Real encouraging stuff, right? Keeping in the light-hearted spirit that he has had so far in the SOTP, Jesus continues by saying this in Luke 6:46: So why do you keep calling me Lord, Lord! when you don t do what I say? Um.oops.sorry. I mean, how do you respond to that? How do you respond when the Savior of the world says, Why do you keep calling out to me and then ignore what I say? It s like any of those, I told you so moments that we love so much. We re getting ready to do something, someone tells us not to, but we do it anyways because what do they know?... And after it fails horribly and we re usually lying there in pain, they give us that blank look and say those words we don t want to hear, I told you so. Jesus is asking us, Why do you keep calling me Lord if you aren t going to do what I ask you to do? And we d love to say, I don t do that. I would never ignore God. But we do it time after time. We pray to God asking for help or for a sign or for an answer, but then he responds with an answer we didn t expect or with a sign that we don t want to accept. And we tell God, thanks...but I m gonna try it my way. When we ask God for help and then we don t like the answer he gives us, we doubt it; sometimes we straight up ignore it. We say, You don t really want me to do that, do you? We say, Oh...I can t do that. Is there another option? And we continue to tell God, I don t need you. I can handle it. I ll figure it out. Matthew Henry, a preacher from long ago, said it like this: We do but mock Christ, as they that in scorn said, Hail, King of the Jews, if we call him ever so often Lord, Lord, and yet walk in the way of our own hearts and in the sight of our own eyes. If you cry out to God for help, listen when he answers. It might not be the answer you expected or even the answer that you wanted. He might give you a way out of a situation that is hard to do or doesn t even make sense. And as harsh as it is, the truth is that if he answers us or directs us and we don t follow his words, he s not our Lord. If we call on him and he responds but then we ignore his response, why did we even call on him in the first place?? He warns us about this in Matthew 7:21-23: Not everyone who calls out to me, Lord! Lord! will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day, many of you will say to me, Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name. But I will reply, I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God s laws.

3 There is a difference between simply calling Christ your Lord and actually following him. You can t live life as a Christian without following his commands. When you call him Lord, he expects you to follow. But it s your choice. You have an option. If you aren t ready to submit fully to him and obey whatever he asks you to do, then don t call him Lord. But I challenge you to trust in the words from Isaiah 55:8-9: My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the Lord. And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Our God knows what He is doing. All he asks is that we trust him enough to obey. Jesus moves on by sharing what it looks like when someone listens to his words and obeys them: Luke 6:47-49 I will show you what it s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against the house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn t obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins. Most of you have heard this before. If you ve been in church for a long time, you remember the Sunday School song, right? You know...oh, the rains came down and the floods came up, the rains came down and the floods came up. The rains came down and the floods came up and the house on the rock stood firm?? No?? Just me.ok. Jesus entire point is to show us what it looks like when someone listens to his words and obeys them compared to someone who hears his words and ignores them. He wants us to see how important it is to have a solid foundation. So what s it look like to have a solid foundation? What s it take? If you re a note taker, write these down. These things that help build a solid foundation aren t some new, grand idea that I came up...i m not that smart. No, these things are from Scripture. 1) A solid foundation requires prayer Prayer is essential to building a solid foundation. Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Philippians 4:6

4 Don t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Without prayer, without talking to our Creator, it is impossible to grow closer to him. Prayer is how we can find strength and encouragement. It s how we can ask for help or wisdom. But it s also one of the easiest things to get distracted from or to forget about. Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer. -John Bunyan It s easy to put off prayer when we have things we don t want to talk to God about. We know when we are living in a way that isn t honoring to God and those are the hardest times to pray. Those are the hardest times to be in the Word. Those are the hardest times to be in community with other believers. But that s what makes the difference between a solid foundation and no foundation at all. A solid foundation requires prayer at all times. 2) A solid foundation requires obedience I ve heard another preacher put it this way, We ve got a lot of pretty buildings walking around, but none of them have a good foundation. It s easy to put up this false front of being a Christian. It s easy to make it look like we re living right by the actions that we put out there. The Church as a whole has fallen into this way of false thinking that if we do the right actions and go through the right motions that we are all good. But that s not how God operates, that s how the world operates. Our God calls for us to live differently than the rest of the world. Romans 12:2 Don t copy the behaviors and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Hearing the words of Jesus isn t enough. You have to do them! Being a Christian isn t going to church once a week and singing the songs and hearing a sermon and closing your eyes during the prayer. Being a Christian is being obedient to the words of Christ! It s living out the words of Christ on a daily basis! The book of James talks about this: What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well --but then you don t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. -James 2:14-17 Just like Jesus said earlier in the SOTP and just like Justin reminded us last week, a tree is identified by its fruit. We prove that we have a relationship with God by the fruit we produce. A solid foundation requires us to be obedient.

5 3) A solid foundation requires us to spend time with God This one doesn t take a lot of explanation. You want to make your relationship with God stronger? Spend time with him. Pray. Be in the Word. Joshua 1:8 Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. For us to have a solid foundation that is based on God, we have to spend time with him. Here s why you need a solid foundation: It s the only way to make it through life. When we build our foundation on Jesus Christ, we will have the power, the strength, the courage, the wisdom, the drive to get through any challenge that this life throws at us. We need a solid foundation because the storms will come. Did you notice what happened in the story Jesus told of the 2 builders? Both houses faced the storm. The house built on the rock and the house built on no foundation both faced the storm. But only one made it through. Which house do you want to be? The fact is that storms will come. That s the reality of things. It doesn t matter who you are or what you do. It doesn t matter if you make $100,000 a year or you barely make it paycheck to paycheck. It doesn t matter if you ve known Jesus your whole life or you re just starting in your walk or if you re here today because someone just kept nagging you and nagging you to come to church and you finally gave in just to shut them up...storms will come. Challenges will happen. No one is untouchable. Jobs are lost. Loved ones die. Houses are foreclosed on. Friends abandon us. Family members get sick. But for those of us who have a strong, solid foundation in Christ, we know that we have hope to make it through. You might say, But how can you have hope?? Look at everything bad that s happening to you!! How can you still call out to a God that is letting this happen?? And those are hard questions to hear. But when we remain focused on God, we know that He will provide everything we need. You see, Scripture doesn t say things like, For it is by grace that we have been saved and I can do all things through Christ Jesus who gives me strength just because it sounds good and gives us this warm, fuzzy feeling inside. The Bible says these words...god said these words...because they are true! This hope that we have isn t something this world can offer. Our foundation cannot be based on the things of this world because those things will not save us. We know that our only hope is in Jesus Christ and we know that He will not leave us or forsake us or put us off to the side to figure things out on our own. We know that He has claimed us

6 as his own and that we are his children. We know that it is by his stripes that we are healed and we know that Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That s what our foundation should be built on! But we can t do it for you. We can t build your foundation for you. It s your life. It s your foundation. It s your responsibility. But we re here to help. Set up song In Your City A day is coming when the work of building the solid foundation we have dedicated our lives to will be seen. On that day we will stand before the God that created us. And when we get to heaven to spend eternity with our Creator, there will be no more pain and no more fear. We will be in the presence of our God who will reign forever. That s what this song you re getting ready to hear is about. It talks about what it will be like to be in the presence of God for eternity. It talks about the God that should be our solid foundation. Pray Invitation If you have been building a false foundation based on all the wrong things, today is the day that you can start over. If you have been calling out Lord, Lord but not obeying what God has been telling you, today is the day to come back to God and repent. Don t let another day go by without really making Christ the focus of your life. Maybe you ve realized that you haven t even started to build a foundation. Why not start today? The first step to building a solid foundation is confessing Christ and making him Lord of your life. Here s my challenge to you: Don t wait. After the service, we ll be over here on the side of stage. Come talk to us. If you have a decision, come share it. We ll be waiting for you. Pray