Build Your House on the Rock
Download MP3Luke 646-forty 9. Why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do what I tell you? Everyone 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 his building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it.
Speaker 1:Because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Lord, no other foundation can be laid, than that which is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. That's the message that we hold on to, and the message that I ask that you would make clear tonight. Lord, we come hopeful and expectant to hear from you. If we don't hear from you, it'd be best if we're not even here.
Joel Brooks:There's other things we can be doing, but we come with that expectation. Lord, my words are death. Your words are life. Come breathe life here. Through the power of your spirit, crack open even the hardest of hearts.
Joel Brooks:Your your word says that your word goes forth like a hammer shattering a rock, and I pray that that would happen. So god, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and would blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, let your words remain, and may they hit their mark. And I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:I need to start this message, by saying that I fall short, way short of what I call others to. I fall short of the calling that I'm about to call you to and you need to know that. These words of Jesus have been devastating to me this week. It's a pretty easy message to understand. You know, at the end of his sermon on the plane or the plateau, Jesus, he doesn't mince words.
Joel Brooks:He gets very blunt. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you? I mean, it's it's not really a difficult statement. It's pretty easy to understand. Maybe the Greek, you know, can kind of help any confusion.
Joel Brooks:In the Greek, it means, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you? You can't wiggle out of it by using that. I I actually got multiple translations and thought maybe there's a window out of this, and well New Living Translation, so why do you call me Lord when you won't obey me? New Living Translation. So why do you call me Lord when you won't obey me?
Joel Brooks:NIV. Why do you call me Lord Lord and do not do what I say? There's really not any difficulty in understanding exactly the point Jesus is trying to get across here. And this has been true of his entire sermon on the plateau. He's very blunt.
Joel Brooks:It's not that we don't understand what he's saying, it's that we do. The reason that this text is so hard for me is because I have said, Lord, Lord, and I don't do what he asked me to do. And so I want you to know that I fall way short of the calling that I am calling you to tonight. I sat down to write this message early this morning, and, as I'm sitting down and I and I wrote, I got up and I decided that the office toilet needed to be cleaned instead. And so I got up and I just start cleaning the office toilet.
Joel Brooks:It was writing this was so painful, I would rather clean the office toilet than to write this. I was talking with Lauren this week as we were going through the message, and I was saying, you know what? Next week, I think we're gonna get out of Luke for just a little bit. We're just we're just gonna get out. It's it's been kind of painful.
Joel Brooks:The the Sermon on the Mount on the Plateau, it's it's been painful. I think we're gonna do something else. And so I think we are for the next couple of weeks. I actually thought about Jonah and God said, well, are you running away from my words? Is that what it is?
Joel Brooks:And that's why you want to teach it? And that might be the case. Jesus here is demanding absolute allegiance from his followers. If you want to follow Jesus, you're gonna follow him as king, and there are not any negotiables. There's no such thing as a half hearted allegiance to the Lord.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is called a lot of things in the Bible. He is called our Savior. He's called our friend. He's called our great high priest. He's called our brother.
Joel Brooks:And I think we often distort our image of Jesus by focusing on just maybe one of those things, like the because Jesus is also our lord. He's our king. And then I think of all the things that we like to ignore most about Jesus, it is his kingship. It is his lordship because we don't like people telling us what to do. We just don't.
Joel Brooks:I mean, if any one of you comes up to me and says, you've got to listen to this CD, or you've got to listen or read this book, the first thing I want to do is be like, no way. It's just who I am. I bow up against anybody telling me what to do, and all of us have that in us. Even when it's Jesus. But when a king speaks, it's law.
Joel Brooks:It's absolute law. You don't you don't tell a king, Well, you know what, I just just kind of tired and not feeling it today. So, you know, I just I I really don't think I'm gonna obey you today. Alright? Or you don't go to a king and say, actually, you know what?
Joel Brooks:I've got a better idea. I I don't think you really understand what's going on here, so my way is actually better. You don't say that to a king. What he says is the authoritative message. It is the law.
Joel Brooks:It's what it means to be king. And Jesus isn't just any king, He's the King of kings. He is the Lord of lords. And one day we are going to see him in all of his glory. I mean, a a a day is coming.
Joel Brooks:I don't know if you can picture, but a day is coming when when you're gonna see Jesus and all of his glory, and you're you're gonna be there, and there's gonna be a 1,000,000,000 people to your right. Billions to your right, and you're looking, there's gonna be billions and billions of people to your left, and you're all gonna be gathered together before one man. And when he comes before you, you're gonna realize all the words that have been used to describe them, they were just a shadow. When the reality is there, and when you see Jesus, and and phrases like from Colossians come to mind that he is the image of the invisible God. He is the firstborn of all creation.
Joel Brooks:For by Him all things were made. In heaven and on earth, whether visible or invisible, whether whether thrones or dominions or powers or rulers, all things were made through Him and for Him, and He is before all things. And in Him all things hold together, and you're gonna see that and you're gonna see it. Not just read it. Or in Ephesians 1, when it says Jesus is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and His name is above every name, both in this age and in the age to come.
Joel Brooks:You are going to be there, and in that moment when Jesus is there, in all of his glory, you're gonna look back at your life in absolute dismay. It's gonna be inconceivable to you, incomprehensible at the small part, at the little place that you allowed that King of glory to be a part of your life. It's gonna be incomprehensible for you as to how that happens. And you're you're all the the wonder, the wonder that you were thinking about in this life, I wonder why I'm not happy in my church. I wonder why my my marriage isn't all that I thought it would be.
Joel Brooks:I wonder why my friendships aren't as deep as as I hoped. All those disappointments, you're no longer gonna wonder why. In light of Jesus, it's gonna become crystal clear. It's because of your half hearted allegiance your entire life. Because of the small part that King of glory was allowed into your life.
Joel Brooks:It will become crystal clear. You called him Lord, Lord. You didn't do what he said. In Romans 14, we read this, If we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord.
Joel Brooks:So then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. And listen to this. For to this end, Christ died and lived again, that He might be both Lord of the dead and of the living. The reason that Christ died and rose again was to be your Lord. Paul says the same thing in 1st Corinthians 6 when he says, you are not your own for you have been bought with a price.
Joel Brooks:All of us have been bought. Our Lord owns us. He owns us. This means that there's not an area in your life that our Lord does not want to be involved in. He owns all of you.
Joel Brooks:He wants to be the center of every decision, every relationship. And looking back at my life, and I don't have to look very far, I I began realizing that I have a lot of other things that govern me. And I'm sure you do too. You know, if you get offered some job promotion, you know, pays better money, instantly you take it. Usually, you just take it.
Joel Brooks:You don't really seek the Lord about it because, hey, it's better money, and money's what governs you. Or if you can buy a house in a better neighborhood, and you could get in now, and you just want to go ahead and do it without really seeking the Lord. Because your social status, or a bigger home, or the things that govern you. But the Lord wants to be appealed to in every decision. He wants to be the center of everything.
Joel Brooks:It's only in Him that you'll know joy because you were created to worship Him as Lord. Now Jesus, he ends this sermon by giving a parable about 2 builders and 2 homes. This is his final point. He's wrapping up his sermon, and it's the summary and it's the conclusion of his entire sermon on Sermon on the Plateau. Says you can either be like the builder who built his home on sand, or you could be like the builder who built his home on the rock.
Joel Brooks:Lauren and I have 2 we view our home in 2 very different ways. We live in a 98 year old home. Lauren, when she looks at our home, she sees the color of the walls. She sees the drapes. She sees the beautiful hardwoods, the crown molding.
Joel Brooks:She sees all of these things. I look at our home, and God kind of gives me x-ray vision. And I see through the walls, and I see the termite damage, and I see the water damage. And when everybody's standing, I look under it. I mean, I can see through the floor, and I'm just thinking, the foundation.
Joel Brooks:Oh my gosh. I mean, I remember right when we moved into the house, at one point, we had, like, 50 plus people that were in our dining room. And Now it's calculating. Everybody else are having fun, and I'm just calculating 50 people times 150. That's like £75100.
Joel Brooks:That's a car parked right in the middle of of our room. It's going to collapse. And everybody's just going around like nothing's wrong, and it's gonna collapse. And that's how I think. And so instantly I go downstairs, the next day I shore up everything.
Joel Brooks:It's fine when you come over now. The point of this is I'm right and Lauren's wrong in the way that we view our home. No. Foundation is huge. Without the foundation, everything crumbles.
Joel Brooks:Now notice here, both men, they know they need to build a shelter. They both know they they need to build something. Every person knows that a storm is coming, you need shelter. One goes through this hard, hard route of digging deep down into the earth, to the rock, lays a good foundation. The other person just, you know, kind of comes up and sees this level, sandy area and is like, perfect, and starts building away.
Joel Brooks:And they both build these homes. And certainly the one who's just building on the sand, he would have built a lot faster. I'm sure it was hard for this guy who's digging into this foundation. It had to be really hard day after day. He's toiling.
Joel Brooks:And this guy, he's already got his house framed, he's already got the roof up, and he's just digging. It's a lot of work. But when both are finished, a storm comes, It causes a flood. And this flood, when it hits the rock the home that's on the rock, it doesn't do anything. But it hits the home that's on the sand and it's demolished.
Joel Brooks:Jesus says, if you hear my words, you obey them, you're like the man he built on a rock. If you don't obey them, you're like the man on the sand. Your home will be washed away, everything you have built. Now throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, He speaks to 2 different people. If you go through, read it in Matthew, read it in Luke, you're gonna see that He always divides the people into 2 different people with 2 different choices.
Joel Brooks:In Matthew's account, just before the conclusion of the sermon and just before this story, Jesus says this. He goes, enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way this way is hard that leads to life, and those that find it are few. Very similar story to the builders.
Joel Brooks:Now most people think when Jesus divides these two groups, most people think that he's talking about, you know, the religious people here, and he's talking about the irreligious people. He's talking about the good moral people over here, and he's talking about the people who aren't moral at all, or the people who believe God and the people who don't believe in God. Most people, when they read this, that is what they think the 2 groups are. But that is not what Jesus is talking about. Those are not the 2 groups.
Joel Brooks:The the first group is those that are very religious, very moral, the people who do believe in God. And those are fools. The second group is the people who realize that they're not moral. They've got nothing to offer, so they cry out to God. And they are wise.
Joel Brooks:Those are the fools, and those are the wise all throughout Jesus's stories. Those are the 2 different roads. And Jesus, he says, being moral and being religious being religious is easy. That is the easy road. That's the wide road.
Joel Brooks:Most people are on that road, but their end is destruction. I mean, look at this. When when Jesus says, why do you call me Lord, Lord? Lord, Lord? To say that name twice implies an intimacy.
Joel Brooks:He's saying, why why are you acting like we have this very intimate relationship when you don't obey me? Now the people who don't believe in God don't say, Lord, Lord. But the people who go to church say, Lord, Lord. The people who pray, say, Lord, Lord. The people who are moral, say, Lord, Lord.
Joel Brooks:That's who he's talking to, and he's calling them fools. They can be fools if they don't do what he says. And I tell you, this was sobering. Because I'm just thinking through all the times that, you know, I've lifted my hands in worship, and I've said, Lord, Lord, and yet there has been such disobedience in my life. It's a wide road.
Joel Brooks:The wise man is the one who enters by the narrow gate. Literally in Matthew, it's pinched. It's bottlenecked. There's this little teeny opening that people just kind of get stuck trying to go through. Pinched.
Joel Brooks:These are the people recognize their spiritual bankruptcy that they have nothing to offer. Very few people find this. Very few people dig down to the rock. Now, one of the first sermons I ever preached here at Redeemer, when we were still at our house, I think it was the 3rd Sunday, and it was just, you know, a few of us sitting in the living room. I preached about these 2 different paths that you can find in the Sermon on the Mount, Sermon on the Plain.
Joel Brooks:Because I see it as absolutely crucial to understand who we are as a body. Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon, The Nature of True Virtue, said that there are two forms of moral behavior. He said that there is a form called common virtue and a form that's called true virtue. That these are the 2 roads. These are the 2 paths: common virtue and true virtue.
Joel Brooks:And he says that common virtue, it's the wide road and it's governed by pride and it's governed by fear. Those are the 2 things that motivates a person. Pride and fear. That's their motivation, that's their fuel to make them moral people. For instance, he says that most people are honest, they don't lie, because of fear and pride.
Joel Brooks:You know, fear, they're afraid, what's going to happen if I lie? If I get caught in this lie, the business is going to go under. You know, if I get caught in this lie, I'm going to get fired. If I get caught in this lie, I'm going to go to jail, so I'm not going to lie. Fear is what makes them not lie.
Joel Brooks:Or perhaps it's pride that makes them not lie. You know, I'm I'm not I'm not like one of those liars. Not me. I'm better than that. I'm not like those sinners.
Joel Brooks:However, when you're moral out of common virtue, based out of fear and pride, you haven't actually done anything to deal with the issue of the heart, the radical self centeredness of your heart. It's left untouched. You see, you've restrained your heart. Fear and pride have restrained it, but it has not changed it. As a matter of fact, you're actually appealing to self centeredness in order to be moral.
Joel Brooks:You're appealing to your own sinful nature as as a way of becoming moral. Maybe it'll clear it up if I go through another one. Adultery. Fear. Alright.
Joel Brooks:Fear is gonna keep you from being an adulterer, because fear of what's gonna happen when word gets out. What's gonna happen if my wife finds out? There is no way I'm having an affair. Fear. Or pride.
Joel Brooks:I'm I'm not like those other pastors, you know, who've had affairs. I'm not like that. I'm better than that, so I'm not gonna do it. Pride. And those things govern me and they keep me from having an affair.
Joel Brooks:That's all great and good. And so fear and pride also become a reason for me to sin. And that's the danger of common virtue, because the very things that that keep you from sinning can later become the very things that make you sin. Let's look at lying. I gotta lie.
Joel Brooks:Because if my boss finds out that I didn't do this work, he's going to kill me, so I just got to tell him I did the work. So you lie. If the boss finds out we haven't made as much money as as we had hoped, he's going to close the business, so you lie. Or pride. You know, if I put this on my resume, I'm going to look really, really good.
Joel Brooks:I'll look really good. People think something of me. And so now fear and pride actually make you sin. And all the while, your heart is unchanged. Sometimes fear and pride restrain your heart, and other times it moves your heart to sin.
Joel Brooks:That's what common virtue does. I cannot tell you how many people I know who have gone to church, professed Jesus, have come to my office, confessed affairs, confessed drug addictions, and all these things, and said, That's that's that's not who I am, Joel. That's not who I am. I said, Well, actually, it is who you are, that's why you're this. Just as Jesus said, you know, you know a tree by its fruits.
Joel Brooks:Because you think you couldn't do it, that means you're definitely capable. And yes, your parents raised you up ripe for this. Because they appeal to your selfishness as a way to be a moral person. Do this and people will like you. Don't lie, you'll get caught, and your life's ruined.
Joel Brooks:But your heart was never changed. That's common virtue. True virtue is when you obey God for God's sake. True virtue comes from an understanding of the gospel. True virtue actually deals with the heart.
Joel Brooks:Because it takes fear, and it takes pride, and it destroys them. It takes fear and it destroys it because as you you have nothing to worry about. My affection for you will never ever end. It it levels pride because it says you're actually worse than you even know. Liar.
Joel Brooks:Of course, you're a liar. You've even deceived yourself. But you're absolutely secure. You have nothing to fear. My love for you is absolutely unending because of my son, Jesus.
Joel Brooks:And so the gospel, it kills fear and it kills pride and it enables you to actually obey. And I realize this is deep stuff here, but you've got to understand Jesus's thrust in this passage. You need to understand this. Let's apply this to this sermon. Jesus has just given a lot of commands.
Joel Brooks:Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Someone steals your cloak, give them your tunic. Don't judge people.
Joel Brooks:I mean, there's a whole lot of commands that Jesus just gives, and then He says, now if you're going to call me Lord, Lord, obey them. You gotta obey them. And at first, you think this is a common virtue. It's like, you better obey them if you're gonna call me lord because a flood is coming, let me tell you. And if you haven't obeyed it, you're gonna be wiped out, and you're thinking, fear.
Joel Brooks:I've got to try to obey. And if you walk out of here and you think, that's that's the point of this all, I gotta leave here. I gotta try to love my enemies better. I gotta really do this. You know what?
Joel Brooks:You're building on sand. It's gonna be easy for a week. You're gonna go in and have this glorious house, as you always remind yourself, and you know, I gotta love my enemies. I gotta do good to those who persecute me. But then when wave after wave of the storm hits, it will crumble.
Joel Brooks:That's not what Jesus is talking about here. When you hear all of these commands, and Jesus says, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you don't do what I say? You should respond, gosh, I don't know. It's because I'm a sinner. I can't do it.
Joel Brooks:And it drives you to the gospel. And once you hit the gospel, it can turn around and you can actually obey the command. But the command first drives you to your need for the gospel, before you can ever obey the command. And you see that here. You've got to dig down and find the gospel.
Joel Brooks:You know, most of the time, when I try to obey these words, most of the time, this is where I had to confess that I fall short of this, I build on sand because I've got a lot of self control, got a lot of discipline, and I can fool a lot of people. And so, you know, I can smile while I'm spewing venom inside. The gospel hasn't changed my heart in many ways. I'll try to love my enemy. I can think of a few years ago, I had an enemy.
Joel Brooks:I had a person who they spread lies about me. They accused me of some pretty serious things that absolutely had no foundation. This was my enemy, and and often, this person would confront me or or really say some deriding remarks to me. He would always make sure that there were people present. He always wanted to try to humiliate me in the presence of others, and my blood would boil as I'm smiling.
Joel Brooks:My blood would boil and I'd be thinking, love your enemies. Come on, you're better than that, Joel. Love your enemies and not smile. And God's saying, Joel, you're building on sand. You're building on sand.
Joel Brooks:And so I would have to stop and I would think, okay, alright. Why is it this person's words bother me so much? Why why do they bother me so much? Because he's a pig headed idiot. That's why they bother me.
Joel Brooks:And the guy's like, no, no, you're building on sand. Come on, dig. I think, alright. His words bother me so much because I guess, I value what other people say about me. I guess I value his words.
Joel Brooks:I guess, to some degree, I see my worth based on what others view me as. And I hear Jesus say, alright. You just picked up a shovel. Now start digging. And so I think, okay.
Joel Brooks:I guess I want others to, you know, think highly of me because I I feel the need for their approval. But but I know I don't need their approval. It doesn't matter what they say about me, what what matters is what I think about myself, and I know my worth, and God's like, you just threw away your shovel. You're back on sand again. Like, okay.
Joel Brooks:Alright. Or no, okay. It doesn't matter what they think about me. And it doesn't matter what I think about me. What matters God is what you think about me.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus says, alright, you're digging. You're digging. Now now keep digging now. Come on dig. And then I start thinking about the cross.
Joel Brooks:And I remind myself that Jesus died for me, and that Jesus held me of such value that he gave his life for me. Because he loved me. He endured far more ridicule, far more persecution than I will ever know. He went to hell for me. Jesus is like, you're starting to scratch the rock.
Joel Brooks:You're starting to scratch. Now, keep going. And I think in light of all of that when I when I see that, and I find my value and my worth and what you've done for me on the cross, What does it matter what this person says to me? You have shown me my value. You have shown me your love for me.
Joel Brooks:My identity is built on you. Loving this guy is easy. And God says, you built on the rock. Now you can love your enemy. And it becomes easy, it becomes an overflow of the gospel.
Joel Brooks:It's hard work. You've got to keep digging. Because some of you are gonna go out here, you're just gonna try to obey, you're just gonna try to give more to the poor, you're just gonna try to pray for those who persecute, you're just gonna try to love your enemies, give away your cloak when people take your tunic and all that. Man, and the building's gonna go up fast and it's gonna come crashing down because it hasn't built built on the rock of the gospel. Keep digging.
Joel Brooks:The gospel is not just the message in which you're saved by. It is the gospel in which you live by. You are not saved by works here, but you are saved unto works. That is what the gospel releases in you. That's how we build on the rock.
Joel Brooks:That's how we're able to call Jesus, Lord, Lord, and do what he says. Pray with me. Lord, bring clarity to your word and conviction. Lord, you say most of us are on the wide road. Most of us.
Joel Brooks:That's why it's wide. It's easy. I pray that not a single person here would assume that they're building on a rock, that they're on the straight and narrow. God revealed to us all the times we say, Lord, Lord, and do not obey. May that drive us to the cross.
Joel Brooks:I pray in the moments ahead, in just a time of reflective prayer, Lord, that you would help us dig deep into your gospel, to take the time and dig so we could get at the root issue, the heart issue as to why we have such a hard time obeying you. And then may you change us. Pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
