Psalm 1: Deep Rooted in Jesus

Psalm 1:1-3

INTRODUCTION

Do you remember the “Beatitudes” of Jesus?

“Blessed are the poor in spirit…”

“Blessed are those who mourn…”

“Blessed are the meek…”

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…”

In those sayings, Jesus was describing the truly happy person, the person who is blessed by God, the person who has a good life.

There are other “beatitudes” in the Bible.

The book of Psalms begins with a beatitude.

“Blessed is the one

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree

planted by streams of water,

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.”

I. This psalm tells us about what kind of person is blessed by God.

The man or woman who is blessed by God forsakes the ways of the world.

We don’t take our values from the world around us.

We don’t shape our lives by what the world around thinks is important but by what we know is important.

That’s what it means not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly.

Of course, we live with all kinds of people, and we seek to be a witness for Jesus to everyone.

But we don’t take part in behavior that we know dishonors God.

That’s what it means not to stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of the scoffers.

II. The one who is blessed by God delights in God’s law and meditates on it day and night.

A. First of all I want to tell you what the psalmist means by “God’s law.”

The word translated “law” in my Bible is the Hebrew word Torah.

It means much more than the “Ten Commandments.”

But the “Law” or “Torah” of God is more than a series of “do’s” and “don’ts.”

The word really means “instruction.”

The blessed person considers all of God’s revelation of his will.

It is everything in the Bible—the instructions, the warnings, the blessings, the promises, and the stories.

The writer of this psalm didn’t know about Jesus.

He didn’t know that Jesus would be the true “Word of God” and “Wisdom of God.”

B. So as Christian believers when we “meditate” on the “Law of God” we may think especially of Jesus.

We think about what he loves, and we try to love the same things he loves.

We think about how he wants us to respond to the problems we face.

We think about our opportunities. How can I serve the people around me—encouraging them in their problems, rather than thinking all the time about myself—my problems and my needs.

It’s very important to have precious parts of the Bible in memory.

Find some especially meaningful verse, memorize it and let it run through your mind over and over.

It could be Psalm 23, or The Lord’s Prayer, or a verse you learned in Sunday school.

“Cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you.” (1 Peter)

“You are not your own, you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body…” (1 Corinthians)

“Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3;17).

“Let no evil talk come out of your mouth, but only such as is good for building up, so that you may impart grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).

 “Do all things without grumbling or arguing that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among which you shine like stars in the world” (Philippians 2:14-15).

Remember the sayings of Jesus, and as you say them to yourself, try to picture Jesus in front of you telling you those words.

When you lie down to rest during the day, or when you lie down at night to sleep, let thoughts of Jesus and precious Bible verses go through your mind.

Confess your sins. Think about what you can do better.

The Bible says, “Pray without ceasing.” To pray without ceasing is not to be always asking for things.

To pray without ceasing is to be in constant communion with God. It is to have him in mind so constantly that it is only natural to talk to him…to share with Jesus everything that is on our mind. This is another kind of “meditating.”

C. Our pastor said something a couple of weeks ago that I think is really important.

He said, “If you think about something often enough, eventually it takes center stage in your life.”

Some people think so much about food, food is about all they can think about.

Some people think so much about money, that eventually their thoughts are dominated by money.

Some people’s minds are so full of TV that TV dominates their mind.

Some people dwell so much on the disappointments of the past that all thoughts of God are crowded out.

But if our minds are centered on Jesus, God, the Bible, and the needs of other people, God takes center stage in our life.

Jesus fills our thoughts and we are blessed.

III. This truly happy person, the psalmist says, is like a tree planted near a stream.

A. Charlotte and I are from Kansas.

Most of Kansas is flat and dry.

Western Kansas is so dry that the farmers plant their wheat only every other year.

The years when they don’t grow a crop, they disk the fields to keep the weeds from growing up and consuming the moisture.

The next year there is enough moisture in the ground to grow a crop.

As you drive through western Kansas you seldom see a tree.

But sometimes you will see a line of trees on the horizon.

When you see that line of trees, you know that there is a creek or stream there, because trees only grow in such a dry country if they are near a stream of water.

The lands of the Bible are like that. In the dry parts trees grow along rivers and streams or around oases.

B. The person who lives close to God is like a tree by the stream bank that has its roots deep in the fertile, moist soil.

No matter whether it rains or not, the tree flourishes and grows and sends out its leaves and bears fruit.

The psalmist is thinking of the date palm, the most common tree of the oases in the desert.

The date palm is the most useful tree in the world.

It is also one of the most beautiful.

The lover in the Song of Songs in our Bible says that his sweetheart is “stately as a palm tree.”

The fruit is good to eat. I read about an oasis in Egypt where the people live on dates. They even feed them to their donkeys.

They make a drink from the sap of the palm trees.

They use the wood of the trunks for building material and for fuel.

They roof their houses with the palm fronds.

From the fiber of the tree, the women make mats and baskets so closely woven that they can hold water.

The fibers are also used to make rope.

The hollowed out trunks of the palm trees are used as pipes to carry water to the canals.

If a tree could be “blessed” it would surely be the date palm.

C. What a good picture of the secure, fruitful Christian believer!

Our lives are rooted in God.

We are beautiful for God—whatever we look like on the outside.

We are useful—“fruitful” is the Bible word for those who spread happiness and contentment wherever they go.

D. “In all that he does, he prospers.”

This prosperity isn’t what the world calls “prosperity.”

We experience plenty of disappointments, plenty of unfulfilled wishes…

We take this spiritually—the eternal goodness is ours, even in our troubles—it is well with our soul.

CONCLUSION

I will read you a story from a sermon by a noted preacher named Fred Craddock. It is obviously a made-up story, but it has a good point to end my little message with.

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Wrong. If you believe in God, you can teach an old dog new tricks. I’ve never been to the greyhound races, but I’ve seen them on TV. They have these beautiful, big old dogs—I say beautiful, they’re really ugly—big old dogs and they run that mechanical rabbit around the ring, and these dogs just run, exhausting themselves chasing it. When those dogs get to where they can’t race, the owners put a little ad in the paper, and if anybody wants one for a pet, they can have it; otherwise they’re going to be destroyed. I have a niece in Arizona who can’t stand that ad. She goes and gets them. Big old dogs in the house; she loves them.

I was in a home not long ago where they’d adopted a dog that had been a racer. It was a big old greyhound, spotted hound lying there in the den. One of the kids in the family, just a toddler, was pulling on its tail and a little older kid was had his head over on that old dog’s stomach, used it for a pillow. That dog just seemed so happy, and I said to the dog, “Uh, are you still racing any?”

“No, no, no, I don’t race anymore.”

I said, “Do you miss the glitter and excitement of the track?”

He said, “No, no.”

I said, “Well, what’s the matter? You got too old?”

“No, no, I still had some race in me.”

“Well, did you not win?”

He said, “I won over a million dollars for my owner.”

“Then what was it, bad treatment?”

“Oh, no, they treated us royally when we were racing.”

I said, “Then what? Did you get crippled?”

He said, “No, no, no.”

I said, “Then what?”

And he said, “I quit.”

“You quit?”

Yeah, that ‘s what he said. “I quit.”

I said, “Why did you quit?”

And he said, “I discovered that what I was chasing was not really rabbit. And I quit.” He looked at me and said, “All that running, running, running, running, and what I was chasing, not even real.”

That’s what God does for us when we belong to him. He gives us something really real to live for—something that is good, not only for this life but for the world to come that lasts forever.

And he’s given us our time on earth to prepare for that life that lasts forever, which is all joy and no sorrow.

As the Bible says, when we enter into the joy of the Lord.

The Price of Tested Faith

1 Peter 1:6-7

INTRODUCTION

A couple at our church lost a dear little daughter to cancer a few years ago. Although they are faithful believers, they have never stopped wondering “why?”

They are sure that if they could understand why God let their little die so early in life, her loss would be more bearable.

Maybe you’ve experienced such a tragic loss—the death of a loved one at an early age, the birth of a defective child, a crippling illness, a natural disaster, a severe financial setback—something that makes you wonder just what God is thinking.

You know that if someone could just tell you why the tragedy had happened, it would be easier for you to believe that God is your loving heavenly Father.

We search the Bible in vain to find the “why?” answer.

One of the reasons the book of Psalms in our Bible is so helpful to us is because those ancient believers also asked “why?” just as we do—and yet they kept on believing.

The Bible has so much about suffering because people in Bible times suffered just like we do—and probably more than most of us—because we know so much more about the causes and cure of diseases than they did. Our government is more stable; we are unlikely to face invasions from hostile countries, and we never face starvation from droughts or floods.

In ancient times, and even until fairly recently, many women died giving birth. Many—maybe most—babies didn’t survive to adulthood, and adults typically lived only 35 or 40 years.

Although the Bible doesn’t give us the answers about why so many people endure more than their share of trouble and afflictions and calamities, the writers who wrote the books of our Bible give us many helpful ways to look at the disappointments and troubles of our lives.

These godly saints of long ago constantly reflected on the human condition and how we can live faithfully and usefully in a world that doesn’t make sense and in which sorrow touches every life.

The text:

1 Peter 1:6-7: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

This verse comes just after Peter has reminded the believers of the wonderful, living hope they have of resurrection, to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for them who by God’s power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

And then he adds the verse I read: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials…”

I. How can believers in Christ rejoice in sufferings? We all avoid suffering and it is right that we should. But Peter is telling us that we can rejoice because even our troubles can have a good result.

A. One of the world’s great psychiatrists wrote in a famous book: “We learn nothing from our pleasures. We learn only from our sufferings.”

Not long ago I heard a radio program about raising tomatoes. The horticulturist who was being interviewed told why hothouse tomatoes never taste as good as tomatoes raised in a garden.

You would think that hothouse tomatoes would be the best because all their needs are perfectly provided for. The temperatures are always right. There is good air circulation but no strong winds. They are watered whenever they need it. What more could a tomato ask?

And yet tomatoes raised in a garden are much tastier.

The horticulturist said that tomatoes need stress to bring out the flavor. They need dry spells and wet spells and windy spells and variations in temperature—in other words, they need a certain amount of hardship to bring out the best flavor.

We Christians are like tomatoes in this way. We need struggle in our life to mature us and make us sweet and good.

If you look back on your life and consider the troubles you have faced and overcome, you realize that those difficulties have made you the person you are.

Someone said, “Whatever doesn’t destroy us makes us stronger.”

For many of us the accomplishments we get the most satisfaction in recalling are the struggles we faced and overcame with the help of God.

Those are the times we proved that our faith was real.

B. When gold is dug up it is mixed with rock in the form of gold ore. The goldsmith heats the ore to a high temperature and the gold melts out our and sinks to the bottom of the vessel, and the rock and impurities float to the top.

Peter is telling us that the fire of suffering in our lives is what proves that our faith is genuine.

Suppose that you could live your life with no sickness, no loss, no failure—good health, plenty of money, in a family with no disappointments, basking in the love of everyone.

Such a life would be pleasurable. You might be thankful to God for such a good life.

But how would you know that you really loved and trusted God or that you were just enjoying his gifts?

It is interesting that Peter compares faith to gold.

We think of gold as about the most permanent thing there is.

Gold lasts forever.

Gold doesn’t tarnish or rust or decay.

No one throws gold away.

Some of the gold in your wedding ring may have been in a pharaoh’s tomb, and then it may have been melted down to make into the crown of a queen. It may have been in a statue of a saint, and finally a coin before it was melted down and made into your ring.

A few months ago Charlotte sold a couple of gold fillings from her teeth. I wonder what they have been made into by now.

But compared to true faith, Peter says gold is perishable—because tested faith lasts forever.

When our faith is tested and proved to be real, it glorifies God—it will “redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

II. In the middle of your Bible, just before the book of Psalms, is the story of Job.

A. Job was a good man. If fact, we read that he was the most righteous man in the world.

He was upright and truthful. He was kind to the poor, the widows and the orphans and strangers. He was a good father. He was admired by the people who knew him.

But trouble was on the way.

Raiders attacked his servants, killed them and stole his camels and donkeys.

Next all of his children died in when a great wind collapsed the house in which they were celebrating in the oldest brother’s house.

But Job’s faith seemed to be unshaken by the loss of all his property and his children.

He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave and the Lord took away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

But then Job was afflicted with a disgusting skin disease.

We read that he was afflicted with loathsome sores from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head.

In his despair he sat on an ask heap and scraped his itching sores with a potsherd.

The people who had admired him now scorned him.

They said that he surely must be a wicked man to be punished so severely.

Even his wife turned against him.

She said, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die.”

But Job did not curse God. He argued with God.

He questioned God. He complained to God.

He clung to God and would not let go.

Although the Hebrew religion of Job’s time did not include the truth of resurrection and eternal life, he expressed the faith that someday, somehow, he would be vindicated.

He said, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth, and after my skin has thus been destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God” (19:25-26).

At the end of the story, God speaks to Job and shows him his power. He shows Job the limitations of Job’s knowledge.

God never explains to Job why he suffered so—although the reader of the book knows.

We who are readers of the story know much more than Job did about the purpose of Job’s sufferings.

As long as life was easy—in health and prosperity—it was easy for Job to believe in God and live for God.

But at the end of the story, Job proved to himself that he really did love and trust God—even when a time came when he enjoyed none of god’s gifts and blessings.

So what did Job gain from all his troubles?

He learned one great thing: He learned—and he proved to the world—that his faith was genuine.

This is what Peter is telling the suffering believers of his day.

He is telling them that by remaining faithful in suffering, they are proving that their faith is genuine—and that faith that is tested and proved is more precious than gold.

CONCLUSION

A few weeks ago, one of you shared with Charlotte and me something of her health struggles. But then she added something like this: “But I know that others suffer even more. And when I think of what Jesus suffered on the cross for me, my troubles don’t seem so great after all.”

We all know people who have been embittered by suffering.

I have known people who have actually turned against God because of their troubles.

It’s not automatic that suffering strengthens our faith and our character.

It depends on the attitude we take.

Peter urges his readers to take the attitude that the persecutions they are facing are actually an opportunity to put their faith to work…to be a witness of God’s power in a life…to prove that God is real.

We will not face persecution for our faith, but, like these people, we will experience suffering.

A few years ago there was a woman named Hazel who came always to our services.

Before she died she had to go to a nursing home.

We visited her there. She told us that she knew she wouldn’t get better.

I said, “And then you’ll be in glory with Jesus.”

Her face lit up and she pumped her fist and said, “Yess!”

Hazel proved the reality of her faith.

She was a witness to the reality of God in a life.

The Friend at Midnight

Luke 11:5-8

INTRODUCTON

My father greatly admired his grandfather Sommerville. His grandfather had come from Scotland with his wife and three children some time during the last half of the 19th Century.

Great-grandfather Sommerville was not an educated man. After a few days in school, his teacher back in Scotland had sent him home with a note that read: “Willie’s so deaf that I can’t teach him anything. Don’t send him back to school.”

So Great-Grandfather Sommerville went to work in the coal mines while he was still a child.

After he married and his three children were born, he brought his family to the United States and went to work in the mines here.

Even though Great-Grandfather Sommerville had little education, he was a diligent student of the Bible. He was noted as a Bible teacher. But my father remembered him more for his prayers.

In his later years, his three children—William, James, and Maggie—took turns keeping their father in their homes.

My father told me that when his grandfather prayed he prayed out loud—very loud. I suppose that was because he was so hard of hearing that he didn’t realize how his voice carried.

My father told me that he used to go to the closed bedroom door and listen to his grandfather’s prayers—it was so interesting.

Great-Grandfather Sommerville really knew how to talk to God.

After his funeral Aunt Maggie said to her brother, my grandfather: “Oh, Willie, who’ll pray for us now?”

I’ve had a lot of education. I’ve studied my Bible and read many books of theology.

But I would trade all my education and all the books I’ve read to be so powerful in prayer.

So I’m preaching this sermon even more for myself that for you. But you can listen in.

I. Jesus, as you know, was a man of prayer.

A. We read that often he would go up on a mountain and pray. He was accustomed to go to a garden to pray. Sometimes he would pray all night.

I can imagine that he would pray for wisdom. He would pray for strength to heal. He would pray for his friends—and for his enemies.

He would pray that God’s word would fall into his hearers’ hearts and take root.

He would pray that those who came to him would respond with faith.

In his prayers Jesus struggled with the powers of evil. He was very much aware of the demonic world around him.

He was very much aware of the hatred of many who were offended by his teaching and his actions.

Even though he was the Son of God, he had to depend on God for everything. Jesus was a man of faith, and to be a man of faith is to be a man of prayer.

B. One day after Jesus had been praying in a certain place, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” We read about his in Luke 11.

Jesus didn’t give them a formula for preaching or special words that will always work.

He gave them a short prayer as a pattern—we call it “The Lord’s Prayer.”

The prayer Jesus gave his disciples was very short. It was certainly not to be the only words they would ever use. It was a pattern, a suggestion of things to include in our prayers.

We come to God as our Heavenly Father.

We ask our Father to honor his name in the world: “…hallowed be thy name.”

We ask our Father to bring his rule into the world of men and women: “Thy kingdom come.”

We ask our Father for our daily necessities: “Give us each day our daily bread.”

We ask our father to forgive us our sins, and we remind ourselves while we are praying that we also must forgive those who offend us.

And we ask God to guard us from the dangers of sin: “Do not bring us into the time of trial.”

After he had given his disciples this short prayer, he told them a story to encourage them—and us—to keep praying.

II. The Parable of the Friend at Midnight

A. Luke 11:5-10

And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend, will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything’?

“I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him whatever he needs.

“And I tell you, Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

B. Picture the scene.

Houses of the common people in Galilee were small, one or two little rooms.

The family slept on mats, which would be rolled up and put away during the day.

It is midnight.

The night is dark.

All the lights are out and everybody is in bed.

A tapping on the door, and a voice comes from outside, “Friend, lend me three loaves! A friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him!”

He waits. He knocks again, harder. He knows his friend inside is a sound sleeper.

Finally a voice comes through the door: “I can’t get up. We’re all in bed. Please go away.”

The man outside pounds harder.

Now everyone inside is awake.

The neighbors are waking up. A dog barks.

The friend inside finally gets up. He unbars the door and hands out hands out the loaves. “Are you sure three loaves are enough. Here, take four.” The grateful friend outside apologizes for the interruption, thanks him, and promises to do him to return the favor.

Hospitality was a serious responsibility in that time and place.

It would be a shame to fail his neighbor in his need.

III. So what is Jesus teaching his disciples, and us, about prayer?

A. It’s certainly not that our prayers are an annoyance to God or that God needs to be begged.

God is not like the man in the house who says, “Don’t bother me.”

The point of the parable is: Be patient, but keep praying.

God loves to answer prayers.

B. Real prayer isn’t a simple, routine thing of repeating familiar words.

When we pray we are in a battle with the powers of darkness that are trying to distract our minds with worries or pleasures or plans or memories.

When we pray we are in a battle with the inclinations of our bodies that are seeking ease.

I have never prayed all night. I don’t know whether I have ever prayed for a solid hour.

It’s easier to read a book than to pray. It’s easier to preach a sermon than to pray.

It’s easier to talk with a friend than to pray.

If you just pray whenever you feel like it, you will never pray with urgency—like the friend knocking at his neighbor’s door.

Prayer takes discipline, and effort.

Prayer takes time.

Prayer takes imagination. It’s not easy to speak to someone you can’t see.

When God seems reluctant to do for us what we ask, it may be because he is waiting for us to really crave the blessing we are asking for.

Our youngest granddaughter Hannah decided some years ago that she wanted a puppy.

She asked her parents to find her a dog.

They knew how much trouble a dog would be and they put her off.

But Hannah kept asking.

She researched dogs on the Internet.

She would report at the dinner table about what she had learned about dogs.

She promised to take care of the dog.

Her parents realized how important a dog was to her happiness.

And now Hannah has her dog.

I think the Lord wants us to keep praying to show him that what we ask is really important to us.

And then—if we receive what we have asked for—we are really thankful.

Prayer is not effective because we have found just the right words, or because we pray with a lot of fervor, or because we use formal pious language.

Prayer is effective because it is addressed to a Father who loves us,

because by prayer we keep connected,

and because in our requests our desire most of all is that “thy will be done.”

Prayer is effective when it brings us into submission to God, so that we lie low at his feet in humble dependence on him, grateful for every blessing.

And when disappointments come and when we can’t understand why we are suffering so, we ask God to help us draw from our experiences whatever lesson he means to teach us.

CONCLUSION

Sometimes—often—we never receive what we think we need.

In those cases we just need to go on trusting and obeying and living for God.

Maybe what we think is so important is not actually necessary for our happiness.

Maybe we can understand that we become stronger when life is difficult than if life were easier.

We may look back later and say to ourselves: I didn’t get what I thought I had to have, but God was good and things worked out.

We will have all eternity to figure these things out.

And I think that then we’ll understand.

But until then, let’s keep knocking at that door. Let’s keep praying.

How Do You “Do” Jesus’ Words?

Luke 6:46-49

INTRODUCTION

One time in a Bible study Charlotte spoke of a time before she was a Christian. One man in the study was puzzled. He said, “Before you were a Christian, what were you?”

I think he thought that if she wasn’t a Christian, she must have been a heathen.

Most people, in the United States, unless they belong to one of the other religions just assume that if they are good people they are “Christians.”

Whether people do anything about their faith or not, they generally consider themselves Christians.

In Jesus’s time, people who believed in him called him “the Lord,” or “the Lord Jesus.”

When people said they were followers of Jesus, they were owning him as the “Lord of their life,” the one whom they were committed to obey and on whom all their hopes rested.

St. Paul wrote in Romans 10:9: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

In our church we say the Apostles Creed every Sunday: “I believe in God the Father, Maker of Heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, Our Lord…”

.

But the earliest creed—the one that goes back to the very beginning of the New Testament was much shorter. It was just three words: “Jesus is Lord.”

To say that and to mean it was enough to assert one’s faith in and commitment to Jesus.

But Jesus noticed that people were calling him “Lord” who didn’t really mean it.

In Luke 6 we read these words that Jesus said to some who considered themselves to be his followers:

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and not do what I tell you?

Every one who comes to me and hears my words and does them,

I will show you what he is like:

he is like a man building a house, who dug deep,

and laid the foundation upon rock;

and when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house,

and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

But he who hears and does not do them

is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation;

against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell,

and the ruin of that house was great” (Luke 6:46-49).

It’s a serious thing to say, “Jesus is Lord.”

And it would be very silly to say, “Jesus is Lord” and not do what he tells us.

And that’s why Jesus told the little story about the two house builders.

I. So let’s consider the parable.

The first builder dug deep and set the foundation on rock.

In Iowa, a good foundation is especially important because the frost will heave the ground up and down and the house will move up and down.

In Jesus’s story, the houses were built in a place prone to flooding, so it was even more important to dig deep and set the foundation on bedrock.

So the first builder built wisely and when the flood and the river broke against his house, the house stood firm.

The other builder just built his house on the ground, without a foundation, and when the rains came, the river broke against the house and immediately it fell, and Jesus adds, “and the ruin of that house was great.”

II. Now let’s consider what Jesus is telling us with this simple story.

A. Some of us have “heard” the words of Jesus since we were little children.

We went to Sunday school and learned the stories of Jesus.

In our house we read the Bible after supper at the table.

We went to church and listened to sermons.

I figure that in my lifetime I have heard over 5000 sermons.

Some of you were “confirmed” when you were in your early teens and made a commitment to church membership.

In other churches—such as the one in which I was raised—we made a profession of faith in Christ later in life and were baptized to testify to our commitment to Jesus.

We read our Bibles. We read our devotional booklets. We say our prayers. We go to church.

I commend you for coming to our service. Most of the residents in this facility don’t bother.

Coming to worship indicates a more than average interest in your faith.

But Jesus seems to be saying that there’s something more.

I have a prayer I use often that goes like this:

“Lord, give me grace

not only to be a hearer of the word, but also a doer of it;

not only to love, but to live the gospel;

not only to profess, but also to practice thy blessed commandments,

to the honor of thy holy name. Amen.”

B. Jesus says it’s no use to just say “Lord, “Lord,” but we must “do” the his words.

We not only hear what Jesus says, we must set ourselves to do what he says.

What difference does it make in your life, that you have heard the words of Jesus?

What difference does it make in our talk?

Is our speech characterized by gracious words, by gratitude, by encouragement?

Or do we fall into the habit of criticizing…or complaining…or belittling other people?

Do we hold grudges? Can we forgive? Can we apologize? Can we acknowledge our faults?

Do we confess our sins?—or do we just excuse them? and say, “Well, nobody’s perfect.”

Do we pray and give thanks?

Do we pray for our enemies? To we love those who hate us?

If we don’t have any enemies, do we pray for the people who irritate us?

The Bible says to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 5:15). Sometimes we tell the truth, but we don’t tell the truth in love. Love and truth must go together in our talk.

Are we generous? If we have no money, we can still be generous. We can be generous with our judgments, generous with our compliments, generous in excusing the faults of others, generous with our time when someone needs a listening ear to hear their troubles.

How are you a different person than you would be if you were not a follower of Jesus?

This story comes from Scotland.

An old farm woman said to her pastor: “What was a grand sermon you preached last Lord’s Day at the kirk!”

Seeking to test her sincerity he asked, “And what was the text?”

“Ah, meenister!” she replied. “I dinna ken the text or the words. But I came home and took the false bottom out o’ my peck measure.”

Long ago a man named Ignatius was a soldier in the Spanish army of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1521. He was severely wounded in a battle, he spent many months convalescing in a castle at a town called “Loyola.”

To help pass the time he asked for some adventure stories. None were available, so he was given the lives of Christ and the saints.

He got interested in the lives of these holy men and women.

And when he recovered he decided to devote his life to the service of his God.

We know him as St. Ignatius Loyola.

He wrote a prayer that I often use because it reminds me of what we have been talking about:

“Lord, take to yourself all my freedom: take my memories,

my thoughts, my plans, my desires.

Whatever I have, you have given me.

I give it all back to you,

and entrust it to the guidance of your will.

Only give me your love and your grace and I am rich enough:

I ask for nothing more.”

C.  So what difference does it make?

For us the storms of life are already here. The river is breaking against the house of our life.

We’ve experienced loss of loved ones. We’ve experienced loss of health.

Some of us live in constant pain. We’ve had disappointments and setbacks.

People have disappointed us. We have regrets. Some of us have struggled with doubts.

Jesus says that the way to remain faithful, even through the storms of life is to “do” his words—to live our life in obedience, faithful to the end.

CONCLUSION

This is not to say that we are saved by doing good works.

We are saved by faith, and we can never be good enough to earn God’s forgiveness.

This is just to say that faith includes obedience.

St. Paul wrote, “By grace are you saved, through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

And then he goes on, “For we are his workmanship, created for good works, which God has prepared that we should walk in them.”

Salvation is a road, a road that we walk with Jesus, a road of obedience—because Jesus is not only our Savior, he is also our Lord.