Feet on the Rock

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. It is God's mercy. It feels like his anger, but it is always his mercy that shakes our foundations now because you understand that at death we're all going to find out that there's only one foundation that lasts forever. Only one foundation worth building a life on, and that is Christ and Christ alone.

Happy New Year. It is 2022 and hope springs eternal. But we can't deny the fact that we've been on a hard journey. You know, in these times of uncertainty, as our very lives seem shaken, it's actually a perfect time to make sure that we are building on a foundation that will endure. That's our subject today on Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer, and I'm your host Molly Vidovich. Pastor J.D. will be diving into one of Jesus's most recognized parables. It's a story about two men who built identical houses with tragically different results. The only difference?

Their foundation. We're beginning a brand new, highly relevant series to start off this new year titled In Step, and Pastor J.D. is opening the Gospel of Luke to remind us that as we step out in faith, we commit to do whatever God calls us to do and to go wherever He calls us to go. God doesn't tell us what the entire journey will look like. He simply calls us to take a step of faith and then another and then another, and we're going to learn how to walk in step with Him. Now, as always, grab your Bible and join Pastor J.D. with today's message titled Feet on the Rock. All right, well if you have come to one of our all church outdoor gatherings, you've probably heard me tell a story that I thought explained what God might be doing with some of us during this season.

Let me repeat it just for those of you who either were not at one of our outdoor gatherings or you weren't paying attention because I really feel like it sets up the passage we're going to look at this weekend as well as the whole series that we're about to get into. It's a very simple story that I told about a lumberjack who had gone out into the woods to cut down some trees. He had his chainsaw and he was about to take down the first tree when he noticed that there was a bird that was building a nest in the top of one of the trees that he was about to cut down. Well, not wanting to destroy that bird's habitat, he pulled out a sledgehammer and he began to smack with the sledgehammer the base of the tree. Of course, the bird got very annoyed and the bird flew off and he noticed that the bird began to build the nest in the next tree that was right next to that one and so he repeated the process with the sledgehammer and the bird moved again to another tree. This whole dance went on 10 or 12 different times as the bird began to build a nest in one place and the lumberjack would attack the tree and annoy the bird to get him to move until eventually the bird fled the forest altogether and began to construct the nest in the side of a rock face. I told you, I said, imagine how annoyed the bird was at the lumberjack wondering what in the world the lumberjack had against the bird. Why is he continuing to attack wherever I'm building my nest? But from our vantage point we can see that it was compassion not cruelty that was making him do this because he knew that if he built his nest, the bird built its nest in the tree, then it was going to be cut down and so it's compassion that caused him to attack those trees before they were cut down.

And I explained to you that I feel like what's happened over the last several months is that for many of us. When it comes to lockdown, when it comes to COVID, when it even comes to financial pressure some of us are under, when it comes to health scare, when it even comes to this election, there are moments where God seems to be attacking our foundation but we see that it is not cruelty on his behalf, it is mercy. It is mercy because God is trying to show us that all these places that we built our foundation are not really going to endure the chainsaws of judgment and it is his mercy that shakes us and wakes us up and asks us what are you trusting in. My question is has he been doing that with you?

Has he been asking you over the last several months is what you are building your life on going to last? Listen, I want to say this, it is God's mercy. It feels like his anger but it is always his mercy that shakes our foundations now because you understand that at death we're all going to find out that there's only one foundation that lasts forever.

Only one foundation worth building a life on and that is Christ and Christ alone. Whereas I often love to repeat here only one life to live will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last. You realize this vaccine or not we are all going to die eventually. Rich or poor we're all going to die, Republican or Democrat, this whole generation of Americans is going to die.

By the way if this election season drags on any longer we're probably going to wish that was sooner rather than later, amen. But eventually we're all going to die and we all need Jesus. Luke chapter 6 if you got your Bible with you this weekend and you're home run grab it.

You can press pause on me if you're at home and run grab your Bible. Pull out your Bible, your phone, turn to Luke chapter 6. We're going to look at one of Jesus's most recognized parables. This parable is about two men who built nearly identical houses geographically close to each other but on two different kinds of foundations. One man whom Jesus calls foolish builds his house right up on the sandy shore.

He had a great view of the water and he was excited about it but right up there in the sand. The other whom Jesus calls a wise man pulls back his house a few dozen yards we guess and did that so we could build his house on a rock. I want us to look at this story in context because in context Jesus is telling it both as a warning and a promise.

A warning and a promise. Luke 6 43 a good tree this is the context of that story. A good tree doesn't produce bad fruit on the other hand a bad tree doesn't produce good fruit. Each tree is known by its own fruit.

Figs aren't gathered from thorn bushes or grapes picked from a bramble bush. Of course not the kind of fruit that you pick off the tree is consistent with the root of that tree and if you want to know what kind of tree it is right you pick one of the fruits and if it's an apple then it's an apple tree and if it's a to use Jesus's analogy it's a if it's a great you're going to know that it is a great vine. A good person in the same way verse 45 a good person a righteous person a godly person with a godly heart produces good out of the good that is stored up in his heart. An evil person on the other hand produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart for his mouth speaks from the overflow of his heart.

Just like the tree produced the kind of fruit so a person produces a verbal fruit and a and an action fruit. Verse 46 Jesus continues why is it that you call me lord lord and don't do the things that I say that doesn't make any sense. Verse 47 I'll show you what somebody is like who comes to me and hears my words and acts on them. This is in contrast to the person who says lord lord but doesn't actually do what Jesus says. Verse 48 he's like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock and when the flood came the river crashed against that house and couldn't shake it because it was well built. But the one who hears and does not act well he's like a man who built his house on the sand without a foundation.

The river crashed against it and immediately it collapsed and the destruction of that house was great. When interpreting the bible context is always king. The story of the wise man and the foolish man is in a section of scripture where Jesus is warning us about something.

The question you should ask is what is he warning us about? Well if you read backwards in the chapter you'll see that he is talking to a bunch of religious people and he is warning them that a lot of people a lot of religious people think they're right with God but they're actually wrong. I think it's important for you to note that this passage in this passage Jesus is not talking about those people who are flagrantly hypocritical, who live a double life, who fake church on the weekend while sleeping around they're doing drugs or cheating on their taxes. No Jesus's main audience here is look earlier in the chapter Pharisees and a bunch of religious Jews he's talking about sincere religious people active people people who in our context go to church and are real involved but are self-deceived. So you should ask what are the qualities that Jesus identifies of the self-deceived religious person? I will give you three of them the first one's in verse 43. Verse 43 they do not bear spiritual fruit.

Well they say all the right things and they hang out in all the right places and their house sure looks like it's a good house it has religious decor all over it and it looks great. The tree is in the right garden it's right there among all the other trees and man it looks great but when you look closely at their lives Jesus says you will see that the evidence of an encounter with God is not there. Now what am I talking about when I say the evidence of an encounter with God? Well I've been talking about the evidence of the new birth a growing love for Jesus a desire to be with Jesus a love for Jesus's people a growing dislike of sin and an attraction to Christ's likeness. These things don't all appear in you at once but somebody who is really right with God and filled with God will see evidences of the growth of those things within them even if that growth is gradual. Just like if you were wondering whether somebody that was unconscious was alive you would check their pulse and their breath to see if they were actually alive. These things show you these kinds of spiritual breath and spiritual pulse show you if there's spiritual life at work within you. One of my favorite analogies that I've used for this over the years with you is well the wind was really boisterous earlier am I right? And a lot of things my house was without power for several hours. Say that I was able to locate the place where the power line had been cut and I noticed that a tree had cut it you know gut it down split the wire and I just you know turn to you and I say I wonder if if there's still electricity coming out of that wire and it's a big one it's like one of the ones that comes right out of the transformer so I grab that thing I'm like what do you think and I plop it right in my mouth and I'm like oh yeah I feel it I feel the current you know you know and I said I can definitely tell there's electricity still coming through that right you would look back at me and say you are a liar because if that wire was actually live if that amount of electricity had just entered your body you'd be different right as of right now you you you would you would look different you would walk different you would talk different you would smell different everything about you would be different and that would be obvious truth well in the same way if the power of God has come into your life Jesus says then you're definitely going to look different walk different talk different everything about you is going to be different so the question Jesus is asking you is does your life show the evidence of God's work inside of you are you growing in your love for Jesus are you zealous to see other people come to know him it is impossible to actually believe the gospel and not yearn to see others that you love come to know him either your belief in the gospel is not there or your compassion for others if not there if you are not actively telling them about Jesus how about this are you finding the commands of Christ burdensome or are you drawn toward those even when they're difficult are you one of those people who are like oh you know there is all this stuff I want to do out there in the world and I always want to be doing what my other friends are doing and I really want to be out there but I'm a Christian so I got to stay in here and I don't want to break the rules and I know that that's breaking the rules but I really my heart desires to be out there you're here at church but but are you here for the right reason that's a way to think about it are you here because you love the people of God and because you love the word of God or are you here because you think it'll make your mom happy or are you here because I heard that I'm here because mom maybe be here okay so yeah that's pretty good you're about 12 years old then it's got to change after that but are you here because you think you think it will make God love you more is that the motivation that you have for coming right does your heart show evidence of spiritual life you see the question listen to this the question is not whether or not you want to go to heaven or hell everybody wants to go to heaven the question is whether or not God has worked in your heart so that you want God everybody I know wants to go to heaven the question is whether or not you desire to meet God once you get there it's a desire for God not a desire for heaven that is the evidence of God's work in you the question to focus on is not whether you've prayed a prayer the question to focus on is whether God has changed your heart I've heard it said like this if you were to set a field on fire every venomous snake in that field would slither out of that fire but the snakes are still venomous even after they fled the field right so if you get scared enough that that you don't want to go to hell or you don't want the the scorn of other people then you'll go through the ritual to make sure that you're going to go to heaven but that doesn't mean your heart's changed and if your hearts really changed it means that people can see it if I ask you whether or not you are a Christian don't tell me about a prayer that you prayed to escape hell tell me about the evidence of God at work in your life and that's going to show itself in spiritual fruit fruit the people closest to you can see not fruit you put on when you come to church I often say it this way if your friends who know you away from church cannot see plainly that you're born again if they would not say oh yeah she's different well then you're probably not born again if your mom cannot give us clear evidence that you're born again it's probably because you haven't been so the first characteristic is these people don't show spiritual fruit the second characteristic verse 46 they don't do what Jesus says this one's a little bit more straightforward but these religious people have turned to Jesus as a fire escape or a helper a miracle worker a religious model a cultural icon but they're not fully surrendered to do what he says he said why would you call me lord lord and not do what I said you know what lord means here's the areas I see this happen most often in our church happens in regards to somebody's finances and they'll worship Jesus all day long but they will not obey him there or as it pertains to the surrender of their career or their dreams you want to be a good moral person you want to be a religious person but you want to have ultimate control the trajectory of your life have you ever come to a point where you said Jesus all that I am all that I have all that I ever hope to be I right now and forever surrender to you and just put down your life like a blank check before Jesus if not I don't care how much bible you know how many songs you know he's not your lord or maybe it's in regards to some relationship that you won't surrender you want Jesus you don't want to be apart from Jesus but you don't want to give up that relationship or maybe it's regarding some other command that you just don't want to obey offering forgiveness to somebody or owning up to the truth Jesus says Luke 6 46 why would you call me lord lord and not do the things that I'm saying think of it like this these two words on this little card these two words never go together no lord they just they don't make any sense together if you were going to right say no it means he's not really your lord so if there's any area of your life right now that you're saying no in he's not actually your lord and if there's any area of your life or when you do say um no to him or if he is lord excuse me then that means you've taken no off the table the way my dad used to say it when I was a kid is if he's not lord of all he's not lord at all in every heart there's a throne and a cross in your heart there's a throne and a cross if you are on the throne well you got to put Jesus on the cross but if Jesus is on the throne well that means that you got to be on the cross so right now he's either lord or he's not and if there's a no in your life it means he's not really lord first characteristic they don't bear spiritual fruit second characteristic they don't they don't do what Jesus says third characteristic verse 49 their faith falls apart in the storm this is where the story really ties into the other two points and people miss it Jesus's point again is that the third two houses look alike from a distance you would assume they're exactly the same it was what was below the surface that was different one was built on the rock and the other was built on the sand and the storm revealed that the point is that there are people whose lives look alike you understand that right they go to the same church you understand that right they go to the same church they're in the same small group they might be in the same family they believe all the same things they live by the same morals but one's faith is real one is not and what reveals that third their little test Jesus gives you is a storm there are people whose walk with Jesus is fine until it gets hard right until God doesn't answer some prayer the way they want it answered or until it gets really unpopular with their friends to do what Jesus wants or until obedience to Jesus means walking away from something that you really want I mean you understand that we love to talk about Jesus coming to Jesus as fulfillment and peace and healing and salvation and it's it's great for your marriage and it is all of those things but you understand that at some point obedience to Jesus is going to take you 180 degrees opposite of the direction that you think you want to go and in that moment it will be revealed in that moment whether Jesus is actually your Lord or not not in here in this moment here but his house looks the same whether or not your hope is in him or whether it is in what you think he will do for you as long as he keeps up his end of the contract for many people religious people I've learned that their hope is not really in God their hope is is in what he will do for them and the difference in those two gets revealed by the storm when God doesn't do or it's not easy or it's it's difficult you fall away from God because your hope was never in God it was always in God's ability to keep you in sunny weather all the time again the difference in these two lives is not what they believe the houses look the same the difference in these two is how much their lives are actually built on what they believe it is the one with the solid foundation who is the one verse 47 the one the solid foundation is the one who hears my words and acts on them according to Jesus your destiny is not determined by what you say you believe your destiny is determined by what your life demonstrates that you believe friend I hope you will pay attention to this because this is a major theme in Jesus's teaching not everybody who calls him Lord is going to go to heaven the gospel writer Matthew and his parallel account of the same teaching where he records Jesus telling the story of the wise man the foolish man and the two different kinds of trees Jesus adds one other little story let me read it for you stay there in Luke I'll take you to Matthew real quick Matthew 7 21 not everybody who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven it's the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven on that day the final day many will say to me Lord Lord did we profit did we not prophesy in your name cast out demons in your name do many mighty works in your name by the way if you underline stuff in your bible underline the word says and does what do they say Lord Lord hey you know what that means they got the right theology they know when to say amen they know when to put their hands up in worship they know when to make that spiritual grunt sound that Christians make when they're talking to each other one of them says something spiritual they even say Lord Lord twice which is a Hebrew way of saying I really mean it Lord Lord I mean it watch this not only do they have zeal in their worship and and and orthodoxy in their theology they've got zeal in ministry they prophesy which means preached in Jesus name they cast out demons in Jesus name and did miracles in Jesus name translation these are not sidelined people I don't know what kind of church you grew up in but in my church if you got picked to be on the demon exorcism squad you were varsity you didn't choose a sideline people that showed up you know 10 minutes um you showed up 10 minutes late and left 10 minutes early right he's talking about pastors elders deacons ministers small group leaders missionaries that's who's in this who he's talking about here people very involved in ministry what does your life say about what you believe are you a spiritual imposter or will you do whatever God calls you to do and go wherever he calls you to go you're listening to summit life with jd greer today's message is titled feet on the rock and we'll pick up where we left off tomorrow if you tuned in late or if you'd like to hear this message again visit our website and browse through our archives just go to jdgreer.com last month we asked our listeners to really take a step of faith and get involved in supporting this ministry financially and jd why don't you share a little bit about what they're giving accomplished yeah molly like we said in december the end of the year is a critical time financially for ministries like summit life we are so grateful for everybody who stepped up and joined with us so that we could close out our year in a solid position that allowed us to take advantage of some ministry opportunities that God is giving us and listen to this thanks to your generosity we were able to give some crucial support to a ministry that is taking place with some afghan people displaced people we've been able to expand our reach here at summit life so that more people in more places can listen and we've been busy creating more content that hopefully is a blessing not just to you but but but that you can share with others again we just really want to say thank you thank you to everybody who supported us in 2021 it is not an exaggeration to say we could not have done it without you without your love your support your faith and your generosity and it makes us excited for everything that we know God is going to do through this ministry in the new year as we continue to seek just to impact people with the gospel to build them up in jesus and make them multiplying disciple making disciples let me just echo jd one more time by saying it again to everyone who supported us in the month of december thank you for your partnership we would not be here without you and you know it's never too late to join us in our mission to bring gospel-centered bible teaching to the radio tv and web you can start off the year by becoming a monthly gospel partner or by giving a single gift of 35 dollars or more when you do we'll say thanks by sending you an exclusive resource the 2022 summit life planner it's got plenty of room to keep track of your schedule and we've also included bible verses and a bible reading plan grab this resource today so that you can start the year off right with God at the center ask for the summit life planner when you give today by calling 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or you can give and request the planner online at jdgrier.com if it's easier you can mail your donation to jdgrier ministries p.o box 122 93 durham north carolina 27709 i'm molly vidovich and i'm so glad to have you guys with us as we kick off the new year so be sure to join us tomorrow when we continue the message titled feet on the rock pastor jd shows us how we can make sure the foundation of our life is secure it's part of our brand new teaching series called instep join us tuesday on summit life with jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries