Mountainview International Church

As many of you know we have just been at the beach for a family vacation. One of the things that the Wallace family love to do is build sandcastles. If we’re not swimming or sipping Bacardi’s and cokes in the shade we’re building sandcastles. It’s amazing how easily and quickly the incoming tide eats away at the sandcastle. No matter how strong and big you build them or how hard you work to keep them going they eventually dissolve into the sea. We’re even smart as a family and we like to put sticks and stones and seaweed and jellyfish into our sandcastles to make them stronger…but still, the sea eats them away.

We have come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus closes his teaching with among his most vivid and profound images…the wise man who built his house on the rock and the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. We even sung about it this morning!

Matt 7: 24-29 - The Wise and Foolish Builders

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

Mateo 7: 24-29 - El prudente y el insensato

Por tanto, todo el que me oye estas palabras y las pone en práctica es como un hombre prudente que construyó su casa sobre la roca. Cayeron las lluvias, crecieron los ríos, y soplaron los vientos y azotaron aquella casa; con todo, la casa no se derrumbó porque estaba cimentada sobre la roca. Pero todo el que me oye estas palabras y no las pone en práctica es como un hombre insensato que construyó su casa sobre la arena. Cayeron las lluvias, crecieron los ríos, y soplaron los vientos y azotaron aquella casa, y ésta se derrumbó, y grande fue su ruina.

Cuando Jesús terminó de decir estas cosas, las multitudes se asombraron de su enseñanza, porque les enseñaba como quien tenía autoridad, y no como los maestros de la ley.

The House – A Metaphor Covering the Breadth of Life

Gerard Kelly in his book Humanifesto about the Sermon on the Mount makes an important point. To Jesus listeners this closing story was truly a metaphor covering the whole breadth of life. In our modern world we tend to compartmentalize our lives… we have our work life and our home life and our leisure life and we have our church life. To the Jews who were listening life was pretty much centered on their home. Most work took place in the home. People rarely traveled far from their home. The home played a central part in their lives. They would have immediately understood that Jesus was calling them to build every part of their lives on his teaching.

Gerard writes

The household is the heart of all life to the Jewish mind. The relationships formed within it, the activities centered on it, the hours that pass beneath its roof – these are the stuff and substance of our lives.

Young people, this is a fancy way of saying that Jesus is telling us that when we are at school we should build our lives on Jesus! When we are at home we should build our lives on Jesus! When we are playing we should build our lives on Jesus! When we are in the pool over the summer we should build our life on Jesus. When we are at the beach we should build our lives on Jesus! The WHOLE of life needs to be built on Jesus!

Building a home played a very important part in the Jewish community. A Jewish man would build a house as a sign that he was ready to marry, raise children and take up his responsibilities in the community. A Jewish man would rarely build his house alone. When his house was finished he would bring his bride home and his house would become a place of safety and security for his family; his wife and children.

In our individualistic world we have boiled it down my own little building project with Jesus. However, Jesus is calling us to build together. We do not build alone, but in community.

On top of this as the house on the sand crashed down the listeners, in shock, would have felt sad for the man’s family who’d suffered because of the father’s foolishness. Men, in particular, I want to challenge us that we are not just building on Jesus for the sake of ourselves, but also for those around us that we love like our families Jesus is calling us to build on a firm foundation so that we might offer those we love a place of peace and shelter.

Before we close with 3 important points I am going to hand out an A4 paper to everyone. Please hang onto it!

I want to close with 3 short points that I hope you will remember.

Jesus said:

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.

Por tanto, todo el que me oye estas palabras y las pone en práctica es como un hombre prudente que construyó su casa sobre la roca.

LISTEN:

The first thing is that we need to listen to Jesus. Research has shown that in a conversation most people have stopped really listening and are focusing on what they are going to say next within 17 seconds. Somebody once told me that most people remember less than 10% of a sermon. His suggestion was that we make our 45 minute sermons 4.5 minutes long and give everyone just the essential 10% of what they need to take home. Good idea.

It has been said that the greatest gift that we can give another person is the gift of listening. Remember the picture! What do we notice about this picture of Jesus teaching on the mountainside? Everyone is listening. Jesus wants us to focus in and hear what he is saying. I think the second greatest gift that we can give Jesus is to listen! What do you think the greatest gift is? I’m going to tell you the greatest gift that we can give Jesus.

OBEY:

The greatest gift that we can give Jesus is to lovingly build our lives on Jesus and his teaching!

It is one thing to listen to Jesus it’s another thing to start practicing it. Jesus wants us to start applying his teaching to the whole of life. Do you know what the hardest thing about the bible is? No, silly, not its cover, but putting it into practice. The people had been listening to Jesus sermon on the hillside, but the challenge was this. Would they go back to their pueblos and start to build the house of their lives on Jesus teaching? The challenge for us, every week of this series, is will we take this crazy hard teaching and put it into practice? It’s not easy!

Here is a good reason why Jesus wants us to put his teaching into practice… He longs that we…

BE BLESSED:

This has kind of been an underlying theme of the whole Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’ teachings are not given to try and stop us having fun, but to bless our lives and our families and our communities. Who ended up happy? The man with the house on the sand that fell down or the man with the house on the rock made it safely and snugly through the storm? The one whose house made it through the storm of course! We must understand that Jesus’ teaching is not designed to make our lives boring or dull. His teaching comes with a promise of blessing after blessing for this life and in the life to come.

If we look carefully you will notice that the point that Jesus is making spells the word LOB

Listen
Obey
Be Blessed

Does anyone know what LOB means? It means to throw! Remember those pieces of white paper that I gave you. To help you remember more than just 10% of the talk this morning I would like you to roll them into a ball and when I give the word lob them at me. It’s not often that you get to throw things at the pastor of church. As we throw our papers lets remember that Jesus wants us to LISTEN to him. Jesus wants us to OBEY what he says! And Jesus wants us to BE BLESSED.

All together now…

Jesus wants us to LISTEN
Jesus wants us to OBEY
Jesus wants us to BE BLESSED

Now LOB them at me!

Memory Verse Video – Bob and Thomas

Memory Verse

Everyone who hears my words and puts them into
practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock (Matthew 7:24)

Por tanto, todo el que me oye estas palabras y las pone en práctica es como un hombre prudente que construyó su casa sobre la roca. (Mateo 7:24)