6th December 2024

6th December 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Matthew 7:15-8:1 focus v24-8:1)


Message (Alan Burke)


I’ve always dreamt of building my own house in the back of the end of nowhere or getting an old meetinghouse and converting it. Somewhere where the neighbours are so far away you can’t see the house and you can play the music as loud as you like when no one is about. Most of us even if we have never thought about building a house or converting a meetinghouse and having the music so loud that it hurts, even if we have no experience in the building trade we know the foundations of a house are kinda important. 


Jesus here gives an analogy, a word picture of a wise man and a foolish man. On one hand when they have both built their houses, there might look equally impressive, it wasn’t that one was a palace and the other a shack. The only real difference on the face of it is that for the foolish man his house was built in a considerably shorter amount of time, and today he would have saved a fortune on the ground works, the foolish man might have seemed wise to those who looked on, he had his feet up and was enjoying his life while the wise man was still labouring away on his house. But in the end when the rain comes, the stream rose, and the wind blew the wise mans house remained and the foolish mans house fell. 


What Jesus is teaching here is not about the storms of life that we face, Jesus is teaching us about the coming judgement that awaits us all. Why we can conclude that is that the Old Testament uses storms to depict divine wrath (Jer 23:19-20, Is 28:17-22, Ez 13:10-16). The house, well the house is a metaphor that is speaking of our lives. For all those who hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice is a like a wise man, because he had a foundation on the rock, the rock being Jesus. Whereas those who do hear the words of Jesus and does not put them into practice is like a fool who has built his house on the sand. 


We must build our lives on the foundations of the Lord Jesus, that is the only sold foundation that we can have. If we don’t our lives are like the house that is built on the sand that when the time comes, when we face judgement. Those who are wise prepare themselves knowing that there is judgment that is coming, they will endure as Proverbs 10  reminds us; 25 When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous is established forever. (Pr 10:25).


What we must do is respond by hearing and doing the word of God, if we don't, we are a fool if faces the judgement that is coming one in which we will not stand on unless we have the foundation of Christ Jesus, we must submit to his Lordship, repenting of our sin leading a life that is left in accordance with the word of God. For those who built their life on the rock, who have journeyed on the narrow path through the narrow gate, who carefully examine themselves, knowing that false prophets will devour us otherwise, that false assurance will lead us to tell, then we will be like the house built on the foundation of the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q54. What is required in the third commandment?
A. The third commandment requireth the holy and reverent use of God’s names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works.
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