A right relationship with God is revealed by a life that is marked by a growing obedience to God...

At the church where I serve we have been spending our time together looking at perhaps the most famous sermon that Jesus ever preached, which is referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. During this series, we have seen Jesus reveal to the crowds listening to His sermon, and to us here today, the true nature of what God demands of humanity in order to experience a right relationship with Him and what it truly means to obey the message and teachings of the letters that make up the Bible.

Today, I would like for us to look at the conclusion of this famous sermon, which we know today as the Sermon on the Mount. Now the conclusion of this sermon contains one of the most famous sayings of Jesus. And it is in this famous conclusion that contains this famous saying that we will discover another timeless truth from Jesus uncut. We find the conclusion of this famous sermon in a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible, called the gospel of Matthew, beginning in 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. 25 "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.

As Matthew continues to give us a front row seat to this famous sermon, we see Jesus begin to conclude His sermon by telling a parable. Now a parable is an earthly story designed to reveal a deeper spiritual truth. To fully understand this parable, however, we first need to understand a few things. The first thing we need to understand is what Jesus means when He uses the phase "these words of mine".

These words of mine refer to everything that Jesus has said in this sermon. So, let's take a moment to review what we have discovered during this sermon. We have discovered that we are guilty of murder when what comes from our heart damages another's heart. We have discovered that we are guilty of adultery when we desire sexually what we are not committed to relationally. We have discovered that we misrepresent God's promises when we fail to keep our promises.

We have discovered that a right relationship with God requires a right response when wronged. We have discovered that a right relationship with God requires that we live out our faith with the right motives and rewards in mind. We have discovered that a right relationship with God requires that we handle our treasure in a way that demonstrates that we treasure Jesus as our ultimate treasure. We have discovered that a right relationship with God requires the pursuit of God as the highest priority of life. We have discovered that a right relationship with God requires that we use judgment when making judgments. We discovered that a right relationship with God requires that we accept His invitation to pursue Him in prayer.

We discovered that a right relationship with God requires a right entrance into that relationship. We talked about the reality that to experience a right relationship with God requires that we choose a way of life that places us on that right pathway to eternal life with God as part of the kingdom of Heaven. And that way, that pathway is Jesus. And while everyone is invited to take that way and pathway, that pathway is narrow, that pathway is exclusive. And unfortunately, few choose that pathway. Instead, many choose to behave and engage in life in a way that places them on a pathway that results in entering a gate that leads to eternal punishment after being found guilty of evil and wrongdoing that flows from a selfishness and rebellion against God.

Then, we discovered that a right relationship with God is revealed by the results that are produced. We talked about the reality that it is the fruit, or the results that are produced in our lives, that reveals what is going on internally when it comes to the place that God has in our lives. Jesus is concerned with our internal heart condition because Jesus knows, and human history has shown, that what is in the heart will eventually spill out. And what spills out of our hearts is the fruit, or the results that are produced as a result of our internal heart condition.

So with this phrase, Jesus is reminding the crowds listening of all of these truths and basically saying to the crowds "With these truths in mind, let's talk about two types of people. Jesus then described the first type of person as someone who hears the truths that Jesus had proclaimed in this sermon and acts on them. Now this phrase "to act" literally means to carry out an obligation of a moral or social nature. Throughout this sermon Jesus has revealed the reality that God makes demands on His people. Jesus point here is that there is one type of person who will act on the demands that God makes on His people by putting into practice what has been demanded of them.

Jesus refers to the person who puts into practice what has been demanded of them as a person who builds his house on a rock. Jesus point is that some people will choose to build and live out their lives upon the commands and demands of God that are communicated to us through the letters that make up the Bible. There are some people who will choose to put into practice the commands and demands of God as they live their lives in relationship with God and others. The decisions that they make on how they invest their time, treasure, and talents will be based upon these commands and demands.

And as a result of those decisions, Jesus states that when the rains, floods and winds come and slam against that house, it will not fall. Now the picture that Jesus is painting for the crowds listening is the picture of a monsoon storm very similar to what we experience here in the summer months. Just like here in Arizona, every Jewish person knew that during certain times of the year incredible monsoon storms would turn normally dry washes into raging rivers that would overflow their banks and threaten their homes. It is never a question of if, but when, for these storms.

But what storms is Jesus referring to? These storms could refer to the crisis of life that tests the strength of our spiritual life. And while that could be true, when we look at the context of where this fits in Jesus sermon, it is more likely that He is referring to the final judgment when the nature and quality of our relationship with God will be revealed for what it truly is. Now when Jesus uses the words "to fall" He is literally referring to something that collapses in on itself. We see this word picture in our modem experience when we see a large building demolished through the use of explosives.

So, in essence, Jesus is stating that the person who hears Gods commands and demands as communicated and explained by Jesus and acts by putting them into practice in their lives will not see all that they have built or invested in implode. Jesus then continues His parable by talking about the second type of person in verse 26- 27. Let's look at it together:

"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. 27 "The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell--and great was its fall."

Jesus then continued His parable by introducing another character into the parable. Jesus explained that, unlike the person who builds and invests their lives upon the commands and demands of God that are communicated to us through the letters that make up the Bible, this person builds their lives on another foundation. It could be the foundation of prideful self­promotion and position; it could be the foundation of money and possession; it could be the foundation of pleasure.

Notice that the houses themselves are identical in nature; the only difference between the houses is the foundations that  they  are  built  on. But, as Jesus communicates in verse 27, the wrong choice of foundation has dramatic and eternal consequences. For those whose lives are built on anything other than the commands and demands of God that are communicated to us through the letters that make up the Bible, when the crisis of life that tests the strength of our spiritual life come, and more importantly, when we stand before God at the final judgment and the quality of our relationship with God is revealed for what it truly is, the collapse of all that has been built and invested in will be of epic proportions and the destruction will be complete.

You see, Jesus told this earthly story to reveal the deeper spiritual truth that for Jesus, it is not what you know; it is what you do that matters. Obedience matters. This evening, we live in a day where we are exposed to the teachings of Jesus in every possible medium. We live in a day when we have more access to more information about the message and teaching of the letters that make up the Bible than at any time in history. Yet, in many cases, many people who profess to have a relationship with Jesus and who attend church look less like Jesus. But why is that? How could that be?

Maybe you are building and investing your lives on the foundation of church attendance. Maybe you are thinking "As long as I attend church, I'm good with God". The problem with that view is that God really does not care about church attendance. Jesus is not in Heaven taking roll. You see, church attendance makes you a Christian about as much as sleeping in the garage makes you a car. As Jesus words in this passage tell us, Jesus is more concerned about obedience that He is about attendance.

Now that does not mean we should never come to church. What it does mean is that we should come to church for the right reasons. We should come to church not because it saves us or because it gets us spiritual brownie points; we should come to church not because we got to go to church, we should come to church because we get to go to church. We should come to church because we love Jesus and want to be with others who love Jesus so that we can worship Jesus in community with other followers of Jesus.

Or maybe you are building and investing your lives on the foundation of what you know about God and His word. Be very careful. There is great danger here. You are in great danger when you can hear the message and teachings of the letters that make up the Bible on the radio, on TV, through a pod cast, or through a sermon and are not be moved to change. There is great danger when you listen to a sermon and say "I've heard that before".

In this passage and throughout His sermon, Jesus makes it clear that obedience is more important than knowledge. Whoever hears these words of mine and acts on them. Not whoever hears these words of mine and memorizes them. For Jesus hearing and acting are inseparable. And it is here that we see Jesus reveal for us a timeless truth about the true nature of what it means to obey the message and teachings of Jesus and the true nature of a lifestyle that is living a right relationship with Jesus. And that timeless truth is this: A right relationship with God is revealed by a life that is marked by a growing obedience to God.

The timeless reality is that the strength of our relationship with God is based on what it is built on. Jesus told this parable to reveal the deeper spiritual reality that building our lives on anything other than the commands and demands of God that are communicated to us through the letters that make up the Bible will result in destruction during the crisis of life.

Jesus told this parable to reveal the deeper spiritual reality that the only foundation that stands through the crisis of life that tests our spiritual life and that reveals the nature and quality of our relationship with God will be the life that is built upon the commands and demands of God that are communicated to us through the letters that make up the Bible. So how did the crowd respond to Jesus sermon? We see the answer in verses 28-29. Let's look at their response together:

When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

Here we see Matthew explain that the crowd responded to Jesus sermon with amazement. Now when it says that the crowds were amazed, their response was not "wow that was a cool sermon". Their response was not "wow, I was really fed today". Their response was not "wow that really ministered to my heart". The word amazed literally means that they were be filled to the point of being overwhelmed with fear.

They were filled to the point of being overwhelmed by fear because they had realized that they had built their lives upon the religious system of the scribes and Pharisees. And that religious system of external compliance that emphasized attendance and head knowledge was a foundation of sand that threatened to collapse like a house of cards.

So, what foundation are you building your life upon?