Sermon on the Mount series
#12 Good Foundations
Matthew 7:24-29– 5.4.8  Dennis Mullen  

          The Wise and Foolish Builders

            ²⁴ "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. ²⁵ 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. ²⁶ 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. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

²⁸ When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, ²⁹ because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

            Foundations matter.  What you choose to build your house on – that makes a difference.

            Years ago when MHCC first expanded our parking lot up toward where this building sits, I stood on the newly leveled dirt with Rick C. and he showed me a spot where the soil had so much water in it that it was pumping. You could push down on it and it would actually give, and then push back.  He said that you could never build anything on it; you could park cars on it, but to build on that spot, you’d have to remove many feet of soil to get down to solid earth.  Why?  Because you can’t build on just anything.  You have to build on something that won’t move.

            One of my favorite funny posters = the leaning tower…Mediocrity – it takes a lot less time and most people won’t notice the difference until it’s too late.  Actually the leaning tower IS an example of a poor foundation, but you have to hand it to these guys…they started construction 835 years ago, and it started leaning before they got very far, and so they incorporated it into the design and it’s still there!  But your foundation makes a big difference.

            Jay Leno had an ad on his “Headlines” bit this week that said: “Build a home on a foundation that lasts forever.”  Sounds good.  But…how do you get your car out of the garage?

            Jesus isn’t worried about what you build your house on.  He says that it matters what you build your life on.  He’s bold enough to say that his teachings are the solid rock upon which to build, and we’re bold enough to believe him.   Or are we?  We call him Lord, after all.  How can we say “Lord, Lord” to him and not do what he says?  Those last two verses about Jesus teaching as one with authority, not like the teachers of the Law…to our ears, that sounds like an insult to the teachers of that day.  It isn’t.  The teachers of the Law had no business teaching with authority – not their own anyway.  Neither do I.  Neither do you.  The only authority we can claim is the Word of God.  Jesus did something different.  He spoke in his OWN authority.  In the Sermon on the Mount he keeps saying:  “You’ve heard it said…but now I say to you…”  He expanded on the Law and he expanded on the most ancient of applications of the Law.  I can’t do that.  It would be an arrogant and even blasphemous thing to do…except for the author of the Law Himself, the Son of the Living God, which is exactly who we say we believe Jesus to be. 

            So do we listen?  Obey?  Build upon the solid rock of his teaching?

            Today I want to finish out this series by going back over the Sermon and tracing out the big picture.  The Sermon on the Mount is the heart of his teaching on ethics, how to behave.  It’s one of the most difficult passages to put into practice.  But it is the solid rock.  And it is a description of WHO Jesus expects us to become.  So let me use some broad strokes to paint some lines and borders that (I hope) capture what Jesus is saying.

            1.  Christians preserve this world by living differently than everyone around us.  Jesus gets this across by saying in 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth.”  Salt preserves by being different than everything around it.  We don’t usually preserve our meat by rubbing salt into it.  They did.  Salt itself can’t be harmed by bacteria; rather, it does the harming TO bacteria. 

            In the OT, God preserved his people by separation and quarantine.  The OT told people to stay away from lepers and to not touch dead animals and to put sinners to death.  The idea was that if you touch something unclean, YOU become unclean.  But then came Jesus, eating with sinners and putting his arm around the shoulder of lepers and what happened?  He didn’t become unclean – THEY became clean, whole.  So when he told us to be salt, he was saying to do the same kind of thing.  But for salt to be effective, it has to be a different sort of thing than what it needs to preserve and purify.  Jesus went on to say that if salt loses its saltiness, it’s no longer good for anything except to be trampled underfoot.

            Matthew 5 is full of illustrations of how we are to be different and how different we are to be.  He says “blessed are the meek”.  Are you kidding me, Jesus?  In THIS world, where self-promotion and marketing the brand of ME is how everyone gets ahead?  Where even in the church there is a clear and definite path to the top?  But that is part of the solid rock we say we want to build upon.  How are we going to engage a selfish culture and change it simply by being a bit less selfish (at best)?  No, this world needs some salt, and salt is fundamentally different than what it seeks to preserve.

            And he says “blessed are the peacemakers” and follows that up with a whole section of love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you and if someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also.  Who DOES that?

            Jesus did it.  Now as for us, Christians who hold a high view of Scripture, we tend to be among the most warlike of all Americans.  Now we might have valid reasons to support the war, but how many of us have even tried to weigh our reasons against the Sermon on the Mount?  And it isn’t just the war – we live in a society where we really like to draw lines between friends and enemies, to call people rotten names if they disagree with us, to really be abusive and harmful in the things we say.  I guess people have always been this way.  But how are we going to engage that culture and shine a light for Jesus if we’re basically the same, only maybe just a little less violent or abusive?  Jesus calls us to be something VERY different. Love your enemies.  Turn the other cheek instead of lashing out.  Take the initiative in making peace.  This is radical stuff.  Who LIVES like that?  Jesus did.  Christ-followers do.  Salt preserves by being different.

            The touchiest subject he talks about is purity – sex, lust, marriage, divorce.  If ever there was a need to behave differently than everyone else, this is it.  If ever there was an area where we are failing, this is it. 

²⁷ "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' ²⁸ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

And: ²⁷ "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' ²⁸ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

            Several months ago I talked about how adults under 30 view Christians – they use words like legalistic, judgmental, homophobic, political…  Those criticisms are partially justified and where we have strayed from the teaching of Jesus, we need to change.  But if our goal were merely to be popular with people in the next couple of generations (a dangerous goal), I think what we’d do is to put a lot of stress on peacemaking and loving your enemies and doing works of service and kindness (all of which are straight from Jesus) while at the same time completely ignoring any hint of sexual purity in our teaching (which makes the younger generations very much like the Boomers when they were young in the late 1960s). 

            And speaking of the Boomers, and also my generation of folks over 40, if you want to remain popular with them, the thing to omit as much as possible is what Jesus said about divorce (which may be pretty much where the American church is these days).

            My most discouraging moments as a minister are those when I get an unexpected glimpse into the lives of people who go here and who have at various times really bought into Christ…to see that the way they conduct themselves sexually, whether it’s young people before marriage or adults contemplating divorce…to see that we’re not at all different than the world, and perhaps that we really don’t intend to be different.  Yes, I am painting with a broad brush, which means you can take what I’m saying as condemning you personally or, on the other hand, not applying to you at all, as you see fit.  But I want you to know that we all stand by the grace of Jesus in this and every area, AND it was this same Jesus who said these tough things about how we are to live differently in a culture that is DYING for a different example than what we’ve provided so far.  Salt preserves by being different, and Christians preserve this world by living differently than the folks around us.

            2.  Authentic religious devotion is most often unseen.   Chapter 6 is the part where Jesus says to  "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”  Then he talks about giving and prayer and fasting and how it essentially changes the act when you go public with it.

            Remember the OJ Simpson trial?  It was notorious for many things, one of which the use of cameras in the courtroom and the presence of a worldwide audience.  Suddenly it seemed like people were playing for the cameras (even the judge), perhaps thinking not only about winning the case but also about becoming a celebrity, or enhancing their chances of becoming a legal commentator on CNN or selling a book.  When people are watching, our behavior and motives tend to change.

            I was watching a TV show the other night about an actor who was on the verge of becoming famous.  He stepped over a beggar on the street, ignoring him as was his custom, but the beggar recognized him from TV.  Suddenly the actor felt compelled to go back and give money to the beggar and also to try to coach the guy on how to report his generosity to the press.  Having an audience changes things.

            Having an audience raises doubts about your integrity, which is an occupational hazard of the preacher.  Sure I can pray in public and study my Bible for a paycheck, but does that mean I do these things ONLY for acclaim and money?  And what about YOUR unseen devotion?  Can you do good and then resist telling people?  It does us all good to serve others and try to NOT be discovered.

            If we were trying to raise money for the food pantry or the Refuge or the Lakota missions trip, and I got up here and said:  “Here’s a hundred dollars.  I’m tossing it into the plate.  Now what are the rest of you cheapskates gonna do?”    Some people would be impressed by my generosity and some would think I gave too little and in either case I would be the center of attention.  Jesus says that if you’re all about being praised today by folks who probably don’t mean it ad then forgotten tomorrow, do it just like that.  But if you prefer an eternal reward from a Father who always sees, keep it hidden, because authentic and unseen are words that usually fit well together.

            3.  Think Eternity! ¹⁹ "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 

            Back in 1991, Tommy Oaks preached a sermon here called Think Eternity, and the handful of us here this morning that were in the audience could probably reconstruct it still today.  He said that if eternity is a line that goes on forever, our life here is just a tiny dash and the events and things we value so much are merely (what?) DOTS.  He talked about going to the dotiversity and saving up for dot-tirement and so on, and it was a memorable way of teaching what Jesus says here.  Truly valuable things are things that last forever.  Those things are your relationship with God; the eternal souls of your family and loved ones; and the ways God rewards in eternity those who serve him fully in this life.  In Matthew 6, Jesus goes on at some length about turning your back on the worldly ways of looking at money,  not worrying about money and things, but living for God every day. 

            How well do we follow him here?  We’re among the richest Christians who have ever lived.  Our homes are among the biggest in history and so is our leisure time (just because we have filled it with junk doesn’t mean we don’t have it).  And all of that is going to burn.  We may be living the dot, not the line.  We’re investing everything in a 70 or 80 year run that, compared to eternity, is like a weekend camping trip.

            Jesus says “Don’t store up treasure here.  Think eternity!” 

            4.  A few other things…that we covered recently (so I’ll just run over them quickly).

            Don’t judge others.  That is, don’t be so quick to condemn them because you think you know their motives and their heart.  On the other hand, be smart.  Watch out for false prophets, for manipulators and con-men and snakes.  But remember that they need Jesus too, and that such people were some of you…but you were washed, cleansed, justified, made right with God.

            Take time to pray because your Father desires it. ⁷ "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.  God isn’t reluctant to answer prayer.  He is often more willing to answer than I am to pray.   I just have to remember that the best answer, the greatest gift, isn’t often what I’m asking for, but God Himself – the relationship I gain with him.  I need to remember too that if I don’t pray, it reveals that I am too much of this world, that I am a functional atheist.

            Remember that you don’t find God by going with the flow. ¹³ "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.  This doesn’t mean that heaven is an exclusive club where most aren’t worth entry.  Jesus died for everyone!  It means that the easy path, the road thoughtlessly taken, leads you away from God and into the prison of self.

            Nowhere is this warning clearer than in 7:21-23, aimed primarily at false prophets, but a warning to us all:  ²¹ "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

            That bring us right back to where we started…good foundations.  

²⁴ "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. ²⁵ 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. ²⁶ 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. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

            Invitation           

Morrison Hill Christian Church - P.O. Box 59 - 1008 E. Race St.
Kingston, TN  37763   (865) 376-5205