The Secret of an Unsinkable Life, Part 1

None of us escapes the inevitable storms of life. Sometimes it's our health, or a broken relationship, maybe a financial crisis.

At Insight for Living, we can't possibly know what gales are beating against your heart right now. But no matter your situation, there's hope and help ahead. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll continues our study of Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount. In this section of his message, recorded in Matthew 7, Jesus described his divine plan of protection for you.

Chuck titled today's message, The Secret of an Unsinkable Life. If you have brought a copy of the scriptures with you today, please turn to the first book of the New Testament, Matthew, and locate chapter 7. We're looking at the latter part of that chapter, verses 24 through 29. This is a wrap-up of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, which he delivered in the very early part of his ministry. He had three years before him where he would minister, ultimately be arrested and crucified, and ultimately be raised from the dead.

Those who listened to him this day knew nothing of the future as far as particulars or specifics are concerned. Unlike all of us who, when we were born, look forward to living, Jesus, when he was born, realized he came to die. His final words are in 24 through 29, Matthew 7, 24. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and slammed against that house, and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and slammed against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teachings, for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as their scribes. You're listening to Insight for Living. To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures Studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck titled The Secret of an Unsinkable Life. Few things are more meaningful or memorable than a great story. It's amazing how we can remember stories even though we may forget the sermons in which those stories appeared. People often say to me, I remember your sermon from, and they'll name the Sunday, even the date. They don't remember the sermon, they remember a story that I told in the sermon. That's the way it is, because stories live on. They are, to begin with, pictures that become mirrors and ultimately windows. The picture we form in our minds, we can identify with it because then as they become mirrors, we see ourselves.

And once the mirror has cleared up, we are able to look through and realize it's really a window that helps us see the work of God in some area of our lives. Great stories stay with us forever. There's a number of years ago I was visiting with then the head coach of the Washington Redskins, Joe Gibbs. I'd been invited to one of the Super Bowls to speak at one of the one of the chapel services, and Joe was one of the coaches, and it was a privilege to see him and meet his wife and be a part of their lives for a little bit of time. And a little later when we were talking over something else, he told me a great story about something that happened in his neighborhood.

I've never forgotten. He had a neighbor who, we'll call him Frank, not his real name, but he had a dog. It was a big Labrador retriever, and Frank went to the front of his house one morning and was shot looking through the glass to see his dog standing right in front of the door or sitting on his haunches. And he noticed something hanging out of the dog's mouth.

He looked through the window closer and thought, I've got to see what this is. So he opened the front door and the dog wagged his tail, and in the dog's mouth is the neighbor's pet rabbit dead. And Frank, of course, is shocked and embarrassed, and his mind races wondering what he could maybe do. And so he very gingerly takes the dead rabbit out of the dog's jaws, and he runs to the kitchen and he begins to wash off all the blood and gunk and debris and gets it all cleaned up. Then he races to the bathroom and he gets a hairdryer and he blow dries, turns the dead rabbit over and gets it all fluffy and soft. And he waits till that night. All the lights are out, everybody's asleep, and he slithers over to the backyard, opens the hutch and lays the rabbit in the hutch and snaps the hutch door closed. He goes back home and he goes... Next morning, here's a strong knock at his door and Frank opens the door and his neighbor is steaming. He's got the dead rabbit in his hands. He said, Frank, we got a real sickie in the neighborhood. Really? Why? Hey, man, what you don't realize is my rabbit died three days ago when I buried it. Somebody just dug it up and cleaned it off nice and neat and stuck it back in a hutch.

We got a real sickie in the neighborhood, Frank. If you've ever done what you thought would help and had it blow up on you, you don't have any problem identifying with the story. You were there. The circumstances were different. But that kind of story tells you life happens like that.

Regardless of your best intentions, at times things backfire on you. I was sitting in my study earlier this week, this past week, and I just began to think through the stories that are in the Bible. You know what I realized? There's hardly a book of the 66 books of the Bible that doesn't have a story, usually several. And they are so memorable. I counted by just going over and naming them David and Goliath, Samson and Delilah, Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac, and going on. I came up with 30, 35 stories, and I never got out of the Old Testament. Then you get in the New Testament, which is a great story of the life of Jesus. And in that life, there's one story after another of incredible power, remarkable, even miraculous events, dead raised to life, the lamer healed, the brokenhearted are comforted, the sea is calm, the skies are made clear, storms are removed, sometimes he even promises mountains to be moved, and on and on the stories go. Nothing like a story to remain memorable and meaningful. Some of them are tragic, and they, to this day, when you enter into them, bring you to tears. Some of them are absolutely hilarious, others remarkable.

No words to describe how that kind of thing could have happened. As I think about stories, I believe that the great ones have at least three essential elements. These are the reasons we stay riveted to a story. First, there are people and personalities. Virtually every story that we remember includes people with personality. That adds to the compelling interest of the story, the people, the personalities. Second, there are life situations that we can identify with. We've either been through it or something like it, or we are going through it, or someone we know has been through something like that. So we have an understanding as we hear the story, a life situation. And third, there are lasting lessons from which we can draw truth for life.

That's that window we look through and realize there's a message here that I don't want to miss. Jesus' stories are sometimes called parables. We don't use the word today, but it is a word used frequently in the New Testament. Parable is from two Greek words. Ballo means to throw or to cast as you throw a ball. Para is a word that means alongside.

You put them together, it's to cast or to throw something alongside something else. What does that have to do with stories? Well, in a parable or a story, Jesus or someone will give you something familiar and then place it alongside something not that familiar so you'll understand the unfamiliar better. And Jesus is the master storyteller.

You're never bored with his stories. Remarkably, even though he's the Son of God, he could choose the most practical stories that everyone could identify with. The difficulty of describing, for example, the kind of hearts people have. Some hearts are hard, stony, others are thorny, filled with prickly thistles, and some are soft and malleable. And so he says a farmer went out to sow seed and he sowed some on hard soil, he sowed some on thorny soil, and he goes on to describe four different kinds of soil.

He's not talking about soil on the earth, he's talking about the condition of one's heart. And when you place that simple story that you understand in the days of agriculture you could identify with, alongside something as profound as the condition of one's heart, you see it more clearly. I think it's worth noting that, and certainly we shouldn't be surprised, that when he comes to the end of the most famous sermon he ever preached, he ends with a story. He ends with a story. Now because we are somewhat familiar with our Bibles, many of us, we get to this and we tend to sort of race through it and get on to chapter eight, unfortunately, because there's much here we've never uncovered. Jesus stories are like that. Not only are there people involved, there are those elements of life situations as well as lessons to be learned. We want to pull all of that from this story.

By the way, did it work? Jump to the end after the sermon ends, that's at verse 28. When Jesus had finished, when he had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching. You know, I don't think anybody jumped up and ran to their horse to ride off in another direction or got up and got on their cart to go elsewhere. I think they sat stunned as they listened and began to piece together the truth he had driven home in the story.

In fact, he was teaching them as one having authority and not as the scribe. Another vote for great stories. By the way, they realized, as you will when it's over, that he's talking not about two houses, he's talking about two lives and how one sinks into total collapse and the other is unsinkable. Your one life or the other, that's what this is about.

Now let's notice. Go back to verse 24 and let's unravel this story of lasting value, okay? First, there are some identical elements in the story. Verse 24, we have an individual who is building his house. See, toward the end of verse 24, who built his house.

Look at the end of verse 26. Here's another man who built his house. Two houses.

We don't know if they were near each other. We don't know who's doing the building. We just know that they are two houses. From a distance, they may have looked similar and we may have thought, had we been walking by and observed both builders in the process, that they're building similar homes and maybe identical homes, but they're far from identical. Matter of fact, this isn't about houses at all. He uses houses alongside the truth about a life. Are you listening? Jesus often paused in the middle of his teaching and says, let him who has ears to hear pay attention.

Don't miss this. There's truth to prepare you for the life beyond in this simple little story of two houses. Interesting, the men had a choice. Someone once said life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you want to, but you can only spend it once. You don't have a second occasion to build your life house. You're building it now. When it's over, there's no returning to the project. You will experience the result of how you built your house.

Look at the identical life situations. I have this marked bold yellow color in my Bible. Verse 25, the rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew, slammed against that house. You've seen situations like that. Floods came, winds blew, slammed against the house, but the result will leave for a moment.

Look at verse 27, identical words. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew, and slammed against that house. Life situations, the inevitable happens, the inescapable occurs. It's not only a storm, it's a severe storm. It's like a tornado that moves through a mobile home park. It leaves its path and it looks like splinters, shards of glass, pieces of what was once a house, scattered all over.

Storms happen. The point is life is difficult. It's impossible, impossible to live a full life without times getting hard. I hope you're training your child to know that. I'll say more about that in a moment.

The tests come with extreme velocity. Someone we love dies younger than we expected. Someone we love leaves our family without notice.

A child doesn't live the full life and we survive our child. Some heartache, some diagnosis, some painful situation. One woman wrote, pain knocked upon my door and said that she had come to stay. Though I wouldn't welcome her, but bade her go away, she entered in.

Like my own shade, she followed after me and from her stabbing, stinging sword, not a moment was I free. That's life. Job says it well in 14.1. I've always appreciated the living Bible rendering of Job 14.1. How frail is man?

How few his days? How full of trouble? One man put it in these words, we must prepare the houses we're building for wind, rain, and floods. We must prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child. That is a profound statement. Everything within the heart of a parent is to prepare the road for the child.

You can't. We must prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child. There is a testing of all the houses we are building and that testing is built into the whole plan. No favorites are excused from the inevitable testing of the value systems and philosophies of life and dreams into which we invest our lives.

You're looking at Mr. Fix-It. I don't want any of my children to hurt. You know what I found? I am an absolute failure at keeping them from hurting because life hurts. Storms come, winds blow, floods rise, kids hurt. Suddenly we're in the story.

It isn't some fantasy that he's come up with. This is about life. Those who heard Jesus in that day literally, at least mentally, were staring just like you are and thinking, realizing storms are yet to come, rains are yet to fall, and we cannot predict them. My wife looked out the front window at our home yesterday and saw emergency vehicles only two doors down and she ran to me and she said there are emergency vehicles out front on our street and we walked out there and not go into the story any further but out of the blue emergency vehicles showed up at a home where everybody was laughing having fun enjoying lunch and suddenly everything screeched to a halt. Storms come, winds blow, floods rise.

There are different results to the homes being built. Look closely. I have my bible marked builder number one builds a house according to the end of verse 25 that in spite of the storm did not fall. Mark that. It did not fall.

Look down at verse 27. Builder number two working on a house maybe looked just like the other one from a distance but I notice here it fell and great was the fall. Megallon is the Greek word.

We get our word mega from it. It was a mega collapse. Everything fell. None of it held together even though there was sincerity among the builder and the crew working on that house. It couldn't withstand the storm and there's a reason.

That's the reason. Obviously the end of verse 25 one is founded on the rock. That's the word Petra that has in mind an expanse, a large expanse of bedrock, a giant deposit of rock. He built that house where there was already rock before there was cement to build on. He found a place where he could start at blue rock or bedrock. So his house didn't fall but the other house because it was built on sand last word in verse 26 it fell.

Totally collapsed. Not long ago I was walking along the Insight for Living Ministries new site over here near our church and we were with our board of directors and the man next to me had his degree in engineering and most of his years in his career had been in construction engineering. He was looking a great interest at the process of building the building and so we talked about all the rock that had been dug up to prepare for the basement and the first floor of the building. So my friends said to me fellow board members said you may not know it Chuck but the the shelf of rock that is he spoke like a geologist he said it starts up in Oklahoma and it runs down through north Texas and central Texas and then it kind of winds down and stops as it gets closer to the gulf and by the time you get to Houston it's a little more like mush but you go down there he said you have to build a floating foundation not literally but that's what it's called because they're building in a place where there isn't solidity below the surface below the surface of the soil.

He said it's a great thing to have this this kind of rock beneath where we're building. Today and again tomorrow Chuck Swindoll is helping us understand the secret of an unsinkable life. It's designed to fortify our spiritual resolve long before the storm rolls in and takes us by surprise. This is Insight for Living to learn more about this ministry please visit us online at insightworld.org. If Chuck's study in Matthew has ignited your curiosity and you're ready to learn more about Jesus' Sermon on the Mount then I'll encourage you to purchase Chuck's book called Simple Faith. This is one of the most highly requested books in his collection because it so clearly describes the timeless wisdom of Jesus on relevant issues such as forgiveness, prayer, confrontation, and dealing with hypocrisy. To purchase Chuck's book again called Simple Faith call us if you're listening in the United States dial 1-800-772-8888 or go directly to insight.org slash offer. When you give a donation above and beyond the cost of books and resources your gift is channeled directly into supplying this daily program so people here at home and around the world will know the relevance of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount too and we have ample evidence through thousands of phone calls and email comments that your gifts are truly making a difference. In fact here's an example someone left a message on our website that said in the mid-80s I started listening to Chuck Swindoll's radio program and instantly found the father figure that I'd always needed. I was headed in the wrong direction arrested twice and participating in all of the vices but thanks to servants like Dr. Swindoll I changed my family tree for at least this generation and the next. Thank you for all you've done for millions around the world. Well you can see your gifts are truly making a difference and to help us continue providing these daily programs you can call us if you're listening in the U.S. dial 1-800-772-8888 or give online at insight.org. Tomorrow Chuck Swindoll continues to reveal the secret of an unsinkable life right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message the secret of an unsinkable life was copyrighted in 2015 and 2021 and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R Swindoll Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.