Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our first guest is a man who built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house. And it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house.
And it fell, and great was the fall of it. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine. For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Isn't it interesting that the Bible says every time that Jesus had authority, it says and not as the scribes. Can I tell you what that saying without saying it?
The scribes had no authority whatsoever. But Jesus did. And you can always tell the difference. And y'all know the song, a wise man built his house upon the rock. You thought that's what I was gonna sing, didn't you?
And I know what you're thinking. Why did he sing that at a wedding? I don't understand. And let's go ahead and pray this morning, and then I want our trio to sing that, and I'll be right back up here with that. Let's ask God to bless. Let's ask God to uniquely watch houses fall down. To watch the walls come tumbling down.
It's not that they didn't work hard, and it's not that they hadn't tried, and it's not that they didn't have a lot of possibility and potential. It's just sad to see. And Lord I believe as we get closer to the second coming, Lord I believe that more and more homes are falling apart. And Lord I think that we're focusing on the things that aren't important, and we're overlooking the things that are. Lord I pray you'd bless our time today.
We want it to be memorable for our people. And Lord we believe that you can restore our houses. You can fix them up. And Lord I believe that we ever get to the point that we don't think our houses do. That's when we're in trouble. So Lord give us a humble heart today. Give us open hearts and open minds.
To maybe be willing to look down and say maybe there's some things that I need to change in my house. Lord we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
I'll come up and sing that if you would. We will be a family, in a house that will be a home. And with faith we'll build it strong. We'll build a household of faith, that together we can make.
And when the strong winds blow, it won't fall down. As one in Him will grow, and the whole world will know. We are a household of faith. Now to be a family, we've got to love each other at any cost unselfishly. And our home must be a place that fully abounds with grace.
A reflection of His face. We'll build a household of faith, that together we can make. When the strong winds blow, it won't fall down. As one in Him will grow, and the whole world will know. We are a household of faith. We'll build a household of faith, that together we can make.
When the strong winds blow, it won't fall down. As one in Him will grow, and the whole world will know. We are a household of faith.
We are a household of faith. Isn't that good? How many of you, it's been a good while since you've heard that song? How many of you, how many of you have never heard that song? Oh my goodness. You've never been to any weddings that I sang at then apparently.
You wouldn't have wanted to have been at some. Matthew chapter 7. We have here an interesting concept as we kind of, we've been preaching on the family and the home and marriage and children and all kinds of things these past weeks. And this is one of our favorite passages and we are all familiar with this even as kids. The wise man built his house upon the rock and the foolish man built his house upon the sand and the rains came a tumblin' down.
You all know the song? So we've learned this principle since we were kids. Something interesting in the Bible in many passages, God uses contrast and comparisons to teach a lesson. Jesus used the same thing in His teaching and in His ministry. So the Bible teaches that way and even Jesus taught that way. It's always the contrast of God's way and man's way.
All through Scripture. It's God's way or it's man's way. And all through Scripture it's always the contrast of the result of doing things God's way and the results of doing things Satan's way. That's the theme through God's word. Everything that is taught, it's either my way or God's way.
And it's the results from doing it God's way and the results from doing it our way. So here we have no different in this passage, some comparisons. So first I want to give you the four things, the four comparisons that I see in this passage.
And if you're like me I like passages that I'm familiar with and maybe to learn some new truths out of. Notice the first comparison here is between the wise man and the what? The foolish man. So immediately he sets up the story that there are two main characters here and the way he terms them is this one individual was wise and the other individual was foolish. There's the contrast between a wise man and a foolish man. Notice the second contrast is the man who built his house on the rock and the man who built his house on the sand. Those are the other two comparisons. Notice thirdly he gives the comparison there's the house that stood and the house that fell.
Are you thinking yet? As God's kind of laying out this story in the fourth comparison he makes is this. Those who hear and do and those who hear and do not. Look at verse 24. He says, therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them.
But look at verse 26. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not. So we have a wise man and a foolish man. We have literally a man that built his house on a rock and a man that built his house on the sand. We have a house that stood and a house that fell and God breaks it all down and it really what makes a difference. Either you're gonna hear what I say and do it or you're gonna hear what I say and not do it. Thus is the whole story. I want you to notice as I pointed out in verse 24 and 26 that this last comparison he says is those who hear and do and those who hear and do not.
Can I challenge you as we kind of look at our homes this morning. Can you see here that it is not enough to just hear the sayings of God? Are we all on the same page this morning?
Let me go further. It is not enough just to hear them and it is not even enough to understand them. You see we live in a day where everybody wants to get deeper in God's word and they want to understand more and that's absolutely wonderful.
The problem with our day is that it stops there. Everybody's listening, reading, debating and nobody's doing. God says whosoever hears my sayings and does them. Notice the Bible does not say whosoever hears my sayings and understands them. He didn't say whosoever hears my sayings and remembers them. He didn't even say whosoever hears my sayings and talks about them or repeats them or disputes for them. He didn't say any of those things. God said most important is for you to hear what I say and to physically do it.
Interesting. Psalm 119, 105 says this, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Do you see it? He does not say thy word is a lamp unto my brain. He didn't say it's a light unto my thought process. I'm doing this a lot today.
You know why? Because I keep having to. You know what God's word is? It's a light unto my... God's word is there so that I obey it.
I do it. There are some who hear the word of God and do them not. Their religion literally stops at hearing and it goes no further. Isn't it a shame so many churches, it's not that people argue with God's word and it's not that they don't believe it or even agree with it. The problem is they just walk out of church and they never do it. A lot of times in church we hear God's word as if we're going to and we talk as if we will but we never actually do it. The seed is sown but it never comes up.
You know an individual that hears what God says and doesn't do it, they're cheating themselves of the full blessing of obedience to God. Can I challenge you something today as we dig into this story briefly? I know my time is a little bit past what it normally is today with everything we have going on. It was funny because we were in the back praying with the deacons and we were getting out before service and we got done and got right to the door and the handbell started. So he's like oh we can't walk out around the handbells that would be distracting so I said we'll just wait till the song's over.
It was like 13 minutes long so it was very awkward in the office. We're like hey how you doing? How you doing?
How you doing? Wasn't that great? I love Easter and Christmas because I know we're going to get handbells.
I just love them. This morning as we look into it, can I challenge you? If God's ever going to fix up our homes, it's not because we're going to read and see what God says. It's not because we're going to understand what God says. It's not because we're going to argue for what God says. It's not because we're going to take it and we're going to put it on a sign in our house.
Although I got a bunch of them. God's going to fix up our houses when we actually do it. When we actually obey it. So God gives us this story that we're well familiar with. Here's a wise man and a foolish man and this wise man decided that he was going to be like an individual that hears God's word and he doesn't. So this wise man decides to build his house, his foundation upon a rock. And the Bible says that when the storms came and the winds blew and the rains began to pound upon it and the wind beat against that house. The Bible says that that house stood firm. It stayed.
It didn't go anywhere. But the Bible says then here's this foolish man over here that literally he decided he was going to build his house on the sand. And there's a lot of reasons for that.
We're going to get into it. And so he built his house on a foundation that wasn't as firm. And when the storm came and the rains came and the wind blew, the Bible says that that house fell. And not only that, the Bible says that the fall was great.
It did a lot of damage. God basically equates that story to that wise man in the story is a person that hears God's word and does it. But the foolish man is a person that hears God's word and doesn't do it.
The only thing similar to these men is the fact that they both heard the same thing. But one chose not to do it. So let's look at this as I give you just a couple lessons and I'll let you go this morning. Give you your free gift. Picked your interest, didn't you?
It's not a new car for everybody. I'm sorry about that. Notice number one in this story as I look at this are some things I see and I want you to write these down, think about it. Let's reason together this morning because our homes are Satan's battlefield.
Number one is this. I want you to see this. Everyone is building their house. You know what's interesting in this story? Both men were building a house. Can I tell you something this morning? You are building your house. It's not like you just say, well, you know what? I'm just not going to build.
That's impossible. Right now, you are building your house. Everyone here, you say, preacher, what do you mean? And both these men, it wasn't like one decided to build and the other one didn't. They were both building their house. And you say, well, I'm not doing anything about it, but you're building.
You just don't realize it. It means this, whether you want to or not, you're building your house. Whether you're trying to or not, you are building a house. Whether you are prepared for it or not, you are building your house. This morning, if you're a teenager, I want you to understand, you might not understand this right now, but you are already building your house. You are creating habits in your life. You are becoming the individual you're going to be. You're establishing right now the kind of husband you're going to be, the kind of father you're going to be, and more importantly, the kind of Christian you're going to be. And so many times, by the time that the house begins to take physical form, they had already started building it a long time ago in their heart. I want everybody in this building to understand today, whether you're married, whether you're single, whether you have kids, whether you don't have kids, it doesn't matter. You are building your house.
You can't avoid it. You are building something. Notice the second thing, and let me say this before I move on. Moms and dads here today, parents here this morning, I want you to understand, our job is to give our children the tools to build their house on the rock. But we cannot build it for them. Our job is to tell our children, let me tell you, you need to put your house on that rock. You need to build everything you're going to build on the Word of God. You need to follow God, obey God, hear what God says. That's why we have you in church.
That's why we have you at functions. We want you to hear it. And our desire as moms and dads is that you'll end up doing it, and if you do it, you're going to have a house that's built on a rock. We want you to do that, and that's moms and dads. Our job is to do everything we can do to try to encourage them to build their houses that way. But we can't build it for them. And may I say today, nobody's going to build your house for you. Don't think mom and dad are somehow magically going to make your life great.
You have to build your own house. Principle number two is this, storms hit every house. You know what I find in this passage? Is that the storms came to the wise man's house, and the storm came to the foolish man's house. I want you to know today, storms are coming. Notice, interestingly, as the storms came, this is what the Bible says first. It says that the rains came during this storm. You know what rain is? Rain is basically when little things start falling on you. That's where most storms start. Just a little bit of rain.
Just enough to get your attention. Anybody know where I'm going with this this morning? And the rains just kept falling and falling and falling, and you're going to find as you build your house, and as you get further into this, that you're going to find out if your foundation is right or not, because little things are going to constantly attack your life. Little things are going to attack your kids.
Little things are going to attack your marriage. Little things are going to fall all around you. The second thing the Bible says is that the floods came. What are floods? Floods are an accumulation of rain.
So here's a gradual thing. Let me tell you, it's not just we just put up a house in the sun, and boy, that looks really good. Yeah, everything looks good in good weather. But as those little things begin to hit your house, and then they begin to accumulate, and all of a sudden things begin to rise and pressure begins to build, that's what this storm brought to these two houses. And third, the Bible says that the winds blew. Can I tell you something interesting about wind is, normally wind is something you cannot see.
You can only see the damage. Wind is something you feel. Wind is something you cannot stop, no matter how hard you try. May I say that there's a lot of things that are going to happen in your life that you never saw coming. And it's too late then to decide, well, I better go down and dig underneath and start putting a good foundation down. Storms hit every house. May I show you in verse 25 and 27, the Bible says it this way. It says that it beat upon the house.
That was relentless. Those of you that are married and have kids and growing a family and all that stuff and bills begin to mount and things and things and things and everything begins to happen and happen and happen, you're going to find out that I'm going to tell you something. You feel sometimes like your house has been beat to death.
Let me give you principle number three. The impressiveness of the house did not matter. What I find in this passage is it never says how expensive either house was.
Did you hear me? It never says which house was bigger. It never says which house was more expensive.
It never says the expense or the luxury of either house had any bearing on whether it stood or fell. I just on the news saw, as you saw, there are a lot of impressive houses in California that slid right off that mountain. Impressive houses. I was watching in Alaska as that earthquake, it took down a lot of impressive looking houses.
Which brings me to point number four. A house is only as good as the foundation. We have a generation that are doing everything they can do to look impressive. They're doing everything they can do to put all the fluff on their homes and get all the stuff and get all the things and get what nobody else has and get all the things that are there. The problem is the foundation.
None of those things are going to matter when the storm hits. A house is only as good as the foundation. Look at me today. It's important for you and I to understand that there is a rock that has been provided for us to build on. I want you to look at this verse, 1 Timothy 6.17. Please look at this. Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, that they do good, that they may be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate. Notice this.
Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. We have a whole bunch of homes going up nowadays. Their foundation isn't worth a flop. But, boy, they got all the stuff. They got all the bells and whistles. I mean, you walk by and you just think, boy, look at that family.
They got everything. And yet if you could dig underneath that ground and look underneath that house, you'd see that there's a problem with the foundation. And every time a storm hits, it falls. Principle number five. Building on a rock is harder than building on the sand.
May I say this? If you're going to build on a rock, a rock is harder to penetrate. A rock is harder to fasten to.
A rock doesn't give. Sand moves and sand keeps changing with the smallest pressure. Water can move sand.
Wind can move sand. But rocks stay firm. And Christ is the rock. And that means anything else but Christ is sand. The Bible does not say that Christ was the chief corner sand. The Bible says that Christ is the chief cornerstone.
Principle number six. When the house falls, everyone in it is affected. When the house falls, everything in it is affected. You know, the Bible puts it this way in this passage.
Great was the fall of it. Why was it such a tragedy? Because there were people in those houses.
You say, preacher, how do you know? Where do you go in a storm? You go inside. You go to where you're going to feel protected. So the wise man and his family went right to where they felt protected. And the foolish man and his family went right back into where they felt protected. And home should be protection. I mean, your children should be able to trust home. They should trust mom and trust dad and realize that they might not agree with everything.
But mom and dad have founded things upon God's word. That means I don't have to like it and I might not agree with it, but stones don't change. It doesn't matter if everything else around it changes. It doesn't matter if culture changes. It doesn't matter if the scene changes. It doesn't matter if opinions change.
It doesn't even matter if churches change. Rocks stay the same. So they both went into their houses.
They put everybody in that foolish man's house because it was easier. I mean, I can put stuff down in sand. I don't have to chisel through rock. I mean, everything moves easy. I can just put everything exactly like I. The problem is when you pick the easy route, it doesn't take much to move it.
I know some of you have tried to put your house in the rock and it feels like everything and everybody in it is fighting against it. Now I encourage you, don't you change route right now. Don't you decide, well, let's just go do this.
Everybody else is doing it. Well, the kids will enjoy this more. The kids will like this more. Maybe they'll quit arguing with us if we just go ahead and do that.
The problem with that is your foundation will crumble and you're not going to know it until the storm hits. And the walls came tumbling down. I had these made. These are actually, believe it or not, stress toys. When you're stressed, you squeeze them.
I am telling you the truth. Can you believe I found hammers? This is when you're stressed, you get this, you hit your wife, bang, bang, bang, bang, like that. On it, I had printed up, build your house on the Lord. Every one of you are getting one of these as you leave today. Here's the reason.
We've been preaching on the family and the home for a while. But I'm going to tell you, storms are coming and you're going to get stressed. I'd leave this somewhere at your office, at home, in the car, wherever. You get stressed. You better grab onto it to remind you.
You know what? It seems like everything's happening. The storms just keep hitting my house. Dear friend, it sure is nice riding out a storm in a stable house. Does that mean that the storm isn't doing some damage outside? But it doesn't have to do the damage inside. God bless you.
