A couple of boys just loved building forts in their yard. Whenever it snowed they would bundle themselves up in warm clothes and head out into the brutal cold where they would spend hours shoveling and piling up snow. They had the art of building snow forts down to a science. Unfortunately there was a certain bully in their neighborhood who delighted himself in crashing through their snow forts with his snowmobile.
Late at night the boys would watch through their window in horror as the bully flew down the street, jumped the curb, and smashed through their work. This went on for quite some time until one of the boys got an idea. He convinced his brother that they could build a snow fort that could withstand even the fastest of snowmobiles.
Later that night, after working on their new fort all day, the boys waited in utter anticipation for the bully to come racing down the street on his snowmobile. Sure enough, they heard the snowmobile racing down the street. And just like all the other times, the snowmobile accelerated, jumped the curb, and smashed right into their fort. But unlike the other times, the snowmobile was stopped dead in its tracks and the bully was thrown violently through the air into a nearby snowdrift. The boys had spent the day building their snow fort around a fire hydrant!
Now granted, the bully could have been seriously injured and the boys could have found a better way to solve the problem. But we can't fault them for building wisely! They knew to build around something firm and immovable, something that could both withstand the stresses of life and see their work through the night! This morning I would propose to you that we need to build our lives in the same way.
In Jesus' time, building a house was a lot of work.
In Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus uses the analogy of building a house to help us evaluate the manner in which we build our lives. I think all of us would agree that building a home is a lot of work. In Jesus' day many of the homes were made with sun-dried mud bricks. The bricks were made by mashing clay, mud, twigs, and rubble together. The mixture would then be poured into forms to make thick, sturdy bricks. The average one-room home, built for the poor person, was about ten feet long by ten feet wide. As the homes were built, residents would dig out cubbyholes in the walls to create storage for food, tools, and cooking utensils. It was common for small rodents and insects to burrow into the mud bricks.
The roof was made by laying brushwood across large sycamore tree beams. The brushwood would be packed with mud and debris. During the rainy seasons the houses would undergo the "chia-pet" effect. The seeds in the mud bricks would sprout, turning the various homes bright green! After a heavy rain a large roller was used on the roof to repack the mud into the brushwood.
In Jesus' day almost all the houses looked the same. After all, how creative can you get with mud, brushwood, and ten foot sycamore beams? However, despite their similarities every first century Palestinian knew that not all homes were built the same. For example, some of the homes were built rather quickly and cheaply right on top of the sandy soils of Palestine. Other homes were securely constructed on the bedrock that could be found up to a few feet below the sandy soil. Because of this it is fair to say that some homes were built for life, while others, because of their weak foundations, were only built for a season or two. After a severe storm one could walk down the streets in Palestine and readily discover who built on sand and who built on the bedrock.
Just as we build a house on solid ground, our lives should be built on on solid footing.
Of specific interest to us is how Jesus draws a connection between these homes and our lives. In Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV)he says, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
When I lived at home my Dad used to pull me aside and say, "Jon, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right!" In these verses Jesus is teaching us that there is a right way and a wrong way to build our lives, just like there is a wise way and a foolish way to build a home.
If any of you have ever built your own home, you know that there are hundreds of decisions that have to be made. You have to choose doors, door knobs, windows, carpeting, paint, wall and ceiling textures, light fixtures, bathroom fixtures, appliances, kitchen cabinets, heating and cooling units, door knobs, wood trim, draperies, blinds, landscaping, flooring, outlet covers, faucets, siding, shingles, and wall coverings. The sheer number of decisions can be quite overwhelming! And you have to live with whatever decision you make for quite some time. This explains why the carpeting in your living room is still burnt orange.
In our lives we are confronted with thousands of decisions, decisions that have to be made on the fly. These are decisions we will have to live with for quite some time. When it comes to life, the primary difference between the wise man and the foolish man is that the wise man bases all of his decisions and actions on the rock solid foundation of God's word, a foundation that can never fail!
The wise man refuses to build on any other foundation! He will keep on digging until he discovers God's will and then he will build his entire life accordingly. In contrast, the foolish man makes all the decisions of his life according to the shifting sands of his feelings, emotions, human wisdom, or some personal whim. The foolish man builds his life on foundations that will inevitably disappoint and fail him. These foundations are impermanent and unstable and are insufficient to withstand the storms of life. Perhaps some examples are in order.
A great many of us have chosen to build our lives around our jobs.
We have allowed work to be everything. We've let it become our identity, our primary life purpose, and our reason for being! You know, the cell phone is always ringing, the pager is always beeping, the computer is always on, we're always working, always on the road, always behind the desk, and always on the clock! No one in our family or at work knows us in any other context except our job.
You know that God created us to work. Adam and Eve worked in the Garden of Eden. But there is a fine line between letting work be our livelihood and letting work become our number one obsession and our all-consuming passion. God never intended for our careers to be the foundation upon which we build our lives. Our work schedules and the pressures and demands of the workplace need not dictate every decision in our lives and families.
Our job is one of those foundations that periodically shifts beneath us. Just recently out of the blue, the plant where my Dad spent over twenty years working closed. I've seen men's entire lives wrecked overnight because their job was everything to them. We must be careful to build on a better foundation now, while we have a chance!
Many of us have chosen to build our lives around family activities.
I need to be careful here because God wants us to love and care for our families. But wouldn't you agree that most families are too busy today? Few families today have enough time to even sit down and have a decent meal together. You have no doubt heard about latch-key kids. Each night they come home to an empty house and have to unlock the door. Their parents are never home! In the morning, parents are rushing off to work and the children are rushing off to school. All day long parents are busy working while their children are learning. After school parents work overtime while their kids race off to sports practices. The evenings and weekends are loaded with track meets, swim meets, soccer, basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, and church activities. Virtually no day or night of the week has been left untouched!
God doesn't want us to be idle. He wants us to enjoy life. But God did not create us to worship the god of busyness. He never intended for us to make activities the foundation of our lives such that we're always racing about, planning this, planning that, and becoming so over-committed that we become slaves to our multitudinous responsibilities. If we're not careful, we may become so busy that we stop taking time to get to know our own kids, our neighbors, or even our spouses!
The sad truth is that some day all the activities will come to a screeching halt. Your kids will grow up, the nest will become empty, and your energy will fade. And if you have made activities your life's purpose, your life's foundation, what will happen when that foundation shifts? Will your house come tumbling down?
Many of us have chosen to build our lives around our health and youthfulness.
Many of us pride ourselves in being healthy enough to be independent. For almost a year I worked at Lewis Memorial Christian Village here in Springfield. Lewis Memorial is a combination nursing home and retirement community for the elderly.
One day I was walking from the congregant building over to the nursing home office when I noticed a rather frail woman walking in the opposite direction. She had just been over to the nursing home to see her husband and with walker in hand was struggling, one half-step at time, to make her way back to her apartment. As I walked past her she said something I'll never forget. She said, "Young man, you sure walk good!"
You know, most of us have built our lives on the assumption that we will always be healthy. We love being independent. We love being our own boss. We take pride in our strength. The truth is that the shifting sands of our health is an inadequate foundation off which to build our entire lives. Our health will be taken from us some day! And when that happens what will we be left with? Will our house stand?
Our lives are only as strong as the foundation we build on.
There are many other foundations that we have built our lives around. For some it is material things. For others it's a pension or investment. For some it's their home, a hobby, an extravagant lifestyle, attractiveness and body tone, or relationships. You know our lives are only as strong as the foundation we build on. The foolish man builds his life around things that are fleeting, temporary, and changing. These impermanent things cannot withstand the storms of life. In contrast, the wise man builds his life around something eternal, something that is stable, secure, immovable, and something that will never fail.
Quite specifically, Jesus says that the wise man builds his life on the word of God! Jesus says, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock."
I like Luke's version in Luke 6:47-48 (NIV)."I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock." Friends, the word of God is the best possible foundation for our lives! It's worth digging into.
The word of God is permanent.
In 1 Peter 2:24 (NIV) Peter says, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever."
In Psalm 119:89-91 (NIV)the psalmist says, "Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures. Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you."
God's word is eternal. It is permanent. We will always have it. It will never disappear! Human wisdom comes and goes. Scholars and theologians come and go. Preachers and teachers come and go. Church buildings and structures come and go. Entire nations rise and fall. Our health, our loved ones, the work of our hands, even the letters of remembrance on our gravestone, these things fade away with time. But God's word is a fixture in our lives and is every bit as dependable as the sun.
In Matthew 24:35 (NIV) Jesus says "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." If you build your life on the foundation of God's word, you will stand forever in eternity.
The word of God is reliable.
In 1 Kings 8:56 (NIV) Solomon praises God saying, "Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave us through his servant Moses."
In Isaiah 55:10-11 (NIV) God encourages the prophet Isaiah saying, "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."
We experience a lot of disappointments and broken promises in our lives. People fail us, employers fail us, our health fails us, our wealth fails us, our loved ones often fail us, and we even fail ourselves. We learn in this life not to put all our eggs into one basket. We learn not to trust any one thing absolutely or completely. The good news is that God's word is a foundation that will never fail or disappoint us. God always keeps his word. God is a promise keeper. We can trust him absolutely! God's word is permanent. It is reliable.
The word of God is right.
In Psalm 19:8 (NIV) the psalmist says, "The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes." In Psalm 119:144 (NIV) the psalmist says, "Your statutes are forever right; give me understanding that I may live."
I don't know about you, but I love the joy of knowing that I've made the right decision. During difficult times, during times of frustration and confusion and darkness, I love being able to pick up God's word and I love receiving his light. I love the assurance of knowing that God's will is forever right and that his way will always lead me to eternal life. The wisest decision a builder can make is to tap into the wisdom of God's word.
The word of God is powerful.
Hebrews 4:12 (NIV) says, "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."
God's word is powerful enough to convict us and change us for the better. God's word can rearrange our inner lives. It can re-sensitize our seared consciences. It can reinvigorate our wills. It can cleanse our thoughts of evil. It can refresh our broken spirits. It can mend our corrupted hearts. God's word is no plaything. It is no children's fairytale book. God's word is a powerful change agent that lies waiting to work in our lives, if only we would pick it up and read it for ourselves. God's word is a worthy foundation upon which to build our lives.
Notice what Jesus says. "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock."
Jesus wants us to build our foundation on God's word with two actions.
He wants us to hear. "Everyone who hears these words of mine...."
Friends, sometimes familiarity breeds contempt. It's easy to tune God's word out. It is so easy to excuse ourselves from opportunities to study God's word. It is so easy to busy ourselves in activities, our careers, or church work that we stop building our lives on God's permanent, reliable, right, and powerful word. It can be hard to stop dead in our tracks and open God's word, especially when we have been neglecting it for so long.
Jesus' words are sobering. "Everyone who hears .....is like a wise man." Hearing is not option, not if we want our house to stand for eternity.
He wants us to act. "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice...."
We are among the most over-preached and under-practiced Christians in the world. Many of us have up to a dozen copies of scripture in our homes whereas many people around the world do not even have the Bible translated into their language. Every day we can binge on the finest preaching Christian radio offers. There are a half dozen radio stations on our dial.
We can pig out on the most polished gospel communicators to ever hit the air waves. Our televisions and internet connections put us a click away from all the preaching we would ever want to hear. We can go to any of three Christian bookstores in town and stuff ourselves with hundreds of Christian books until our appetites are content. Our pantries are loaded with special Bibles and reference books. We have everything we need to understand and hear God's word clearly and fully. Our churches have Bible studies, worship services, you name it.
But Jesus indicates that something more than hearing is required. He wants us to put his word into action. He doesn't want us to be lethargic coach potatoes who sit around on the coach all day absorbing the truth of his word but never lifting a finger of obedience. He doesn't want us laying around becoming spiritually flabby, eating but never exercising our faith. Jesus wants us to take two complementary actions. Hear and obey.
In James 1:22 (NIV) James says, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."
Friends, it does us no good to only hear about how good the foundation of God's word is. The foundation of God's word only benefits us whenwe choose to build our life upon it, one choice after another, day after day, for a lifetime.
Remember that Jesus says, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock."
Will you respond? Will you build your house on the rock?