SPEAKER_00 0:32

Well, good morning, church. It is good to see y'all this morning. If you're visiting with us again, we're so glad that you're here and that you've chosen to worship with us here at Central this morning. If you did get a bulletin today, you'll notice uh on the front of the bulletin that our summer series is coming up very, very soon. In fact, we're gonna start on June the 3rd, and you may have noticed that summer series is gonna go, well, for the summer. It's gonna go longer than it has in the last few years. And uh we've got a pretty good lineup of folks coming in to share biblical answers to the most searched spiritual questions. And if you take any one of those questions and you go on your search engine, Google or whatever, you'll find that those questions are pretty much the most searched spiritual questions out there. Millions of people search for answers to these questions. And so what we're hoping, what I'm hoping, is that by doing this series here that will not only be a benefit to the family here at Central and uh our sister congregations in this area, but this will be an outreach opportunity uh for people who are seeking God, who are seeking answers to these questions. So I hope that that you will mark this on your calendars, that you'll plan to be a part of this. Uh this is going to be a series that I believe will will touch uh and and really answer some questions uh for for people of all ages. And so I hope that you'll plan uh to be a part of that. Speaking of summer, uh we're going to be starting a new sermon series uh next Sunday morning, uh Summer in the Psalms. And we're gonna take a look at some different psalms uh that I've selected, some you may be familiar with. Um I'm gonna dare say some that you're probably not familiar with. And we're gonna break those down and take a look at uh what those psalms are all about, get a deeper meaning. It might actually come across as more of a class than a sermon, and and that's okay too. Uh so I hope that you'll plan to be with us as you're in and out of of Athens and this area during the summer and your travels, that you'll join us uh for summer in the Psalms. Today we're gonna wrap up the Sermon on the Mount. Kind of hard to believe. I mean, we started 29 lessons ago back in September. It's it's gone fast. At least for me it has. It may have may have drug on for you. I really don't know. But uh I have thoroughly enjoyed this this sermon series. I hope that you have as well. The the Sermon on the Mount is so deep and so rich uh that uh to some degree I felt like we've we've just we've just barely scratched the surface. Uh, but I hope that it has been a blessing uh to you. And and this morning, as we look at at the scripture that Keith read just a moment ago and we dig a little deeper in it, um we we see that Jesus brings the sermon to a close. And if you remember back in Matthew chapter 5, he talked about uh being blessed. Uh blessed uh are the poor in spirit, and you see that word blessed over and over and over again when what we call the Beatitudes, and that that blessed, that word that's translated as blessed, if you remember, comes from a Greek word makarios. And it means to be tremendously blessed, it means joyfully happy. And as Christians, we have the opportunity to experience that. And then Jesus moves on from the Beatitudes and gets into some very practical everyday teaching that we need as Christians, as followers of Christ. And then he wraps it up today by saying, look, you have a choice. You can build your house of your life on the shifting sands of the world, or you can build the house of your soul and the house of your life on the solid rock of Christ. And so we're gonna continue and conclude this series this morning by taking a look at the scripture that was read earlier. But before we do so, let's let's go to God and prayer together. Our Lord and our God, we thank you so much for this beautiful morning. We thank you for the rain. We we are so thankful for your providence and how you you nurture and take care of not only this earth, but you take care of our soul as well. We thank you for the word. We thank you for the teaching of Jesus and how it applies to our life, how it makes our life richer, and how we can be better people in this world because of it. We thank you for this message. We thank you for the Sermon on the Mount and all the teaching that we as believers receive in these incredible words of wisdom from Jesus. Spirit, I pray that the message this morning is yours, that you will speak in a very powerful way to our hearts and our minds this morning, that you will use me as your vessel this morning to communicate that message, because I in and of myself am unequal to the task. Lord, we we love you and we thank you and we praise you for all that you are and all that you do. We love you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. As most of you know, we finally sold our house in Texas. Yes, thank you. We finally sold our house in Texas, but we've also purchased a home here in Alabama, and uh that's going pretty well uh at this point. But here's the thing that I've discovered in this process. It's been about 10 years since I last bought a home. Some of you are like, wow, 10 years. I haven't bought a house in 40 years or 50 years. I can tell you right now, there's much, much more paperwork involved than there was 40 years ago. Uh but the thing is, you get into all of this, all this paperwork, and there's all kinds of procedures to perform and checklists to check and forms to fill out and signature blocks to sign. I'm telling you right now, I was having flashbacks to the day I enlisted in the Air Force. I've never signed my name so many times in my life. Part of the process, though, is bringing in a home inspector to make sure that there are no major issues before you move in. And one of those issues is foundation issues. You see, our house in Texas was built on a concrete slab, as most of the houses there, newer homes are. It's built on a concrete slab, but it was built in an area where the soil is, I'm just gonna tell you, it's more like black oil-looking clay chowder uh than anything else. And in it, and that's that that stuff that they call soil or whatever there, it it expands when it gets wet and it contracts when it gets dry. When that happens, it it creates a lot of tension on the foundation, on the slab that your home is built on. And so, what you have to do, what I had to do, is I, you know, with sprinkler system, uh, you had to put in a soaker hose like all the way around your house, and you had to make sure that that foundation was adequately saturated at all times, or else you were going to have foundation issues. It really wasn't a question of if, it was, it was a reality of when it was going to happen. Family, in our text this morning, as we bring the Sermon on the Mount to a close, Jesus utilizes a parallel. He utilizes a parallel between how houses are built and how lives are built. He reminds us that whether we are examining a house or a life, you have to look below the surface. Because the real problems and core issues lie below the surface. And they're only found during a careful and honest inspection. Jesus says again in our text, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like 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. And 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. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and slammed against that house, and it fell, and its collapse was great. When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, not as their scribes. In this text, family, Jesus describes two houses. Two houses that are identical in every way but one. The foundation on which the house is built. One's constructed upon the rock. The other is built upon the sand. Now, this is something that nearly every person that is standing around Jesus as he's teaching this, nearly every person understood exactly what he was talking about when he said that. Because in that area, most of the houses were built on sandy areas. During drought conditions, family, what would happen? The sand would bake and become practically hard as a rock, at least by all appearances. And during this time, many people trusted in what they saw and what they felt, and they built their homes on seemingly rock solid sand. But when the rainy season came, the baked sand would soften, and the structures that they had built them upon would shift. You see, if the winds of the storm blew hard enough, sometimes the home and in human cases, lives begin to collapse. Family, there's no doubt it was faster, it was easier, uh, it was more cost effective on the front end to build your structure upon the sand rather than digging five to ten feet down until you hit solid rock. But if you were committed enough to make the effort, when you hit bedrock, you could build a structure or you could build a life that would withstand the storm. Church, Jesus' analogy shows us that things aren't always as they appear. If we take the easy way and we say, well, the baked sand is hard enough, the baked sand is good enough, then we might avoid catastrophe. Or we might not. These two houses look the same from the outside. Jesus Illustration Church is a spiritual heads up. It's a wake-up call for the people in the crowd standing on that mountainside. And today it's a wake-up call for you. And it's a wake-up call for me seated here and joining us online this morning. It's a wake-up call to challenge us, to challenge us to take a closer look at our life and to recognize what our life is really and truly built upon. Is it built upon a solid foundation? Is it built upon the solid foundation of Jesus, or is it a facade that looks real, that appears solid, but eventually is going to crumble when the storms come? What is your life built upon this morning? So, family, how can we be confident? And how can you and I be comforted that our house, the house of our life, is built to last? How can we know? We do that by laying down our life beside the Word of God. That's how you do it. Jesus says that the person who is building the house of their life upon the rock not only hears the word, but puts the word into practice in their life. Again, look at what he says from our text in verse 24. He says, Everyone who hears these words of mind and acts on them will be like the wise man who built his house on the rock. You see, what we see here is Jesus' advice to us regarding the house of our life. But for some reason, some people, too many people, either ignore or circumvent that advice from Jesus. And so they choose to trust in their own wisdom or they choose to trust in the wisdom of others. Think about it for just a second. Let's just make it practical. Okay, let's make it every day. How many of us would consult a physician regarding our health and not be prepared to enact their advice? Anybody? Or in this scenario, there's no point in going to a counselor unless we're committed to putting their advice into practice. Think about that for just a second. If I'm going to ignore their advice, then it's a waste of time to go to them. It's a waste of time to get their opinion, to get their professional opinion. I'm wasting my time, I'm wasting their time. James, the brother of Jesus, comes to a similar conclusion in chapter 1, verse 22. Listen to what he says. He says, Prove yourselves doers of the word and not just hearers of the word who deceive themselves. Church, in light of what James says right there on the screen, and what Jesus says in our text, we have to ask ourselves a question. Are we just listening to God's word? Or are we actually doing it? And this applies to all of us. Applies to me just as much as anybody else. From my own personal experience, church, I I heard at least a hundred gospel sermons before I made the decision to finally obey the gospel. I heard the plan of salvation, and let me tell you something, I knew that it applied to me. And I did nothing about it. Or better yet, just keep my mouth shut. And I did nothing about it. Family, I could go on and on about things that I knew were not right because the word of God told me that they were not right. And I did nothing about it. I knew what the foundation looked like. I knew where the house of my life needed to go. And what the house of my life needed to be built upon, but I didn't build it there for the longest time. For so many outside of the church and a surprising number of people within the church, the question isn't what to build our life upon. Family, it's making the decision to start. So where do we start? Where do we start building the house of our life, the spiritual house of our life? Where do we start? In Matthew chapter 16, we read about Jesus and the 12 having a conversation in Caesarea Philippi. And Matthew records in verses 13 to 18 part of this conversation. Listen to what he says. Says, now when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he was asking his disciples, who do people say the Son of Man is? In other words, hey fellas, what are you hearing out there about me? Who do people say the Son of Man is? And they said, Well, some say you're John the Baptist, and others, well, Elijah, still others, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. Then he narrows it down. He said to them, But who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered, said, You're the Christ, you're the Son of the living God. And Jesus said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjonh, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also say that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. Church, the house of our life, of your life and mine, must be built first and foremost on the rock of confession of Jesus Christ as the Son of the living God. That's where it starts. Later in Matthew chapter 21, verse 42, Jesus quotes Psalm 18, or 118, verse 22, in reference to himself. He says, Did you never read the scriptures? A stone which the builders rejected, this has become the chief cornerstone. This came about from the Lord, and it's marvelous in our eyes. Family, the chief cornerstone of a building is the first stone placed in the structure that all the other stones are aligned with. And if the cornerstone isn't set properly, the entire structure that it's built upon is compromised. If the cornerstone, if what the building is built upon fails, then a domino effect will ensue. Church, if Jesus is not the cornerstone of the house of our life. Then at some point in time, the house of our life will fall. So, how do we reinforce the cornerstone of the house of our life? What within our life must be connected to the cornerstone to maintain structural integrity within our spiritual house. And a physical structure, a cornerstone, is reinforced with the framing of walls. That provides stability, that provides definition to the structure itself. The framing makes the structure more than just a facade. It provides the strength within the structure to withstand the storms that are going to come. In the house of our life family, time shared in God's Word and time shared with God in prayer serves that purpose for us. Time in the Word and time in prayer reinforces and refreshes us when we need it the most. But not only when we need it. That's the beauty of it. It's not only when we need it, family. It's also the wisdom of God's word and the outlet of prayer shared with Him that sustains us and maintains us spiritually. Every house needs regular maintenance. Or the house is going to deteriorate and eventually collapse. Family, God's word and prayer is that regular, daily maintenance of the house of our life that helps us to stand up to the spiritual storms that come and that challenges. Framing in a house and framing in our life is important. Because without the substance that the walls provide, a house can be undefined. And without insulation within those walls, a house can be cold and unwelcoming. Some of you grew up in a house with slat-framed walls. Anybody grow up in a house with slat-framed walls? You know the walls where you had the framing and then you just had the slats, and there was there weren't any insulation in there? Okay, now you know what I'm talking about. Some of us have never known that before. Some of us grew up with that. Those slat-framed walls. And what you had to do is uh you had to uh you had to insulate it with something. And so, what'd you usually insulate those walls with? Newspaper, I heard it. Newspaper. And the thing about newspaper is is that it it was for the most part it was free. Wherever you could get it, you'd get that newspaper, you'd stuff it down in there, and and between the the walls and the slats there, they cover those the gaps of those slats up. And the thing about it is, if you didn't have that, when the wind blew in the wintertime, it'd go right through those cracks and you'd feel like you were in an air-conditioned house. That newspaper made a big difference. In a similar way, we all have family. We all have faithful friends and brothers and sisters in Christ that provide that warmth and provide that protection from the elements of the world to the house of our life. We need that. And it begins with Jesus. Jesus is the cornerstone. The house of our life must be built upon him. Not the sand of career, not the sand of wealth, popularity, or anything else of this world. In verses 28 and 29, Matthew closes his account of the Sermon on the Mount to the Jewish audience that he was primarily speaking to. He closes by saying this. He says, When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching. For he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. Church, there's two words that stand out in what's on the screen there. Amazed and authority. The word for amazed there comes from the Greek ek plaso. And it's a compound word that combines the preposition ek, which means from or out of, with the verb plesso, which means to pound or to flatten. The word for authority comes from the Greek exercise, and it means ability, it means competency, it means mastery. It actually means superhuman and authoritative, among other things. And so when you put it all together, what the crowd experienced, what Matthew is saying to his audience then and saying to you and I today, when you put it all together, what Matthew says is that the teaching coming from Jesus was so powerful, was so striking that it flattened those who heard it. They were flattened, they were floored by it. It was amazing. And unlike anything they had ever heard before. It was the polar opposite of the teaching they had heard from their scribes. And it resonated with the crowd then. Family, it resonates with people today. If you didn't notice, the interesting thing to me is what Matthew doesn't record. He doesn't say anything about what the crowd did with the message. Jesus has been delivering this sermon on the mount. He wraps up in our scripture reading today, and he doesn't record a single word about what the crowd did after they heard all of this. What about us? I mean, we're all amazed at the power of the teaching of Jesus, aren't we? But what will we do with it? That's a question that only we can answer. You know, it's often said that when the Christian needs to recenter themselves as to how blessed they are, as to who they are and what they should be all about, they should go back to the Sermon on the Mount. Family, the Sermon on the Mount causes us to examine our life and see what the teachings of Jesus reveal in us. Does it reveal someone in you and in me who's pursuing the things of the world? Or does it reveal in us someone who's pursuing the heart of God? Does it communicate to us that we're living with a heart that's divided? Does a sermon on the mount for you and me answer the question of what kind of foundation the house of our life is built upon? What's your foundation going to be like, and how well is it going to hold when the storms come? And life shakes us to the core. Do we have a solid framework in the house of our life, of time shared in the word and shared in prayer with our God? Do we have the warmth and the protection that the insulation of family and friends and brothers and sisters in Christ provide? Family is the spiritual house of your life structurally sound. Is the house of your life built upon the rock of Christ? Or have you discovered that the things that you've put your faith in, the things that you've put your trust and your time and your investment in in your life are shifting because you've built too much of what matters on the sand of the world that looks reliable rather than the rock of Jesus? Does the house of your life this morning stand on the solid rock of Christ? Or will you continue sinking in the sand? I don't know where you are this morning spiritually. You know why? Because on the outside, we're just like those houses. Man, we look good, don't we? Got lots of compliments on my tie, by the way. On the outside, we look like everything's fine. I mean, things got to be really bad. Really bad for someone to say, hey, you don't look like you're doing well. Are you okay? It's fairly rare. Most of the time we walk around and we're sinking, we're barely keeping our head above water, keeping our head above the sand. We're so scared we're gonna get sucked under by all the problems and all the things that we've put our faith and our trust and built our life upon. We're so afraid of that. And it's all we can do to keep our head above. I don't know about you, but I got tired, very tired of living like that. Are you ready to build your life on Jesus? I mean, really build your life on Jesus. It's your choice. Everything is ready for you if you're ready for Him. If you're here this morning and you need us to pray with you about the things that you're so worried about, about the things that you feel like are overtaking you and suffocating you, we want to pray with you and we want to pray for you. If you're ready to finally make the decision to really build your life upon Christ and confess Him as the Lord of your life and begin that life today of building that spiritual house upon the cornerstone of Jesus, it's your choice. Whatever your need is this morning, don't ignore the Spirit while we stand and sing.