Matthew 7:24-29 Amplified Bible
The Two Foundations
24 “So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, will be like a wise man [a far-sighted, practical, and sensible man] who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods and torrents came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them, will be like a foolish (stupid) man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods and torrents came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great and complete was its fall.”
28 When Jesus had finished [speaking] these words [on the mountain], the crowds were astonished and overwhelmed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one who had authority [to teach entirely of His own volition], and not as their scribes [who relied on others to confirm their authority].
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Wise and Foolish Defined …
Matthew 7:26-27 The Message
26-27 “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”
At the end of his Sermon on the Mount, the most dramatic ethical and religious teaching of all time, Jesus closes with a parable to note this teaching is nothing if people do not put it into practice. Wise people still heed this biblical advice.
Sometimes it takes a crisis to spur us to act on the truth. I know someone who adamant – they would not quit smoking until they were diagnosed with cancer.
Jesus describes such a crisis in this parable.
In desert lands a rare storm can roll through a mountain pass and sweep away everything that is lodged only in sand.
Jesus pictures a disaster like that here to describe for his audience the crisis of the coming of God’s kingdom.
Interestingly, Jesus concludes the parable not with success, but with failure.
After describing the wise builder, Jesus leaves his audience pondering the example of the foolish one.
Jesus explains to his audience, “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Though not every disaster in our lives is a punishment, sometimes it takes a disaster to get us to pay closer attention to what Jesus is trying hard to teach.
Perhaps the most obvious lesson is we must live wisely, serving God faithfully.
If we are living too foolishly, we need to turn around before disaster strikes.
Understanding God’s Word is a first step, and acting on it must immediately follow. When we obey God’s Word, we stay in touch with our firm foundation.
Build a Strong Spiritual Foundation at Home
Isaiah 2:1-5 The Message
Climb God’s Mountain
2 1-5 The Message Isaiah got regarding Judah and Jerusalem:
There’s a day coming
when the mountain of God’s House
Will be The Mountain—
solid, towering over all mountains.
All nations will river toward it,
people from all over set out for it.
They’ll say, “Come,
let’s climb God’s Mountain,
go to the House of the God of Jacob.
He’ll show us the way he works
so we can live the way we’re made.”
Zion’s the source of the revelation.
God’s Message comes from Jerusalem.
He’ll settle things fairly between nations.
He’ll make things right between many peoples.
They’ll turn their swords into shovels,
their spears into hoes.
No more will nation fight nation;
they won’t play war anymore.
Come, family of Jacob,
let’s live in the light of God.
What and Who are you living for?
What and Who do you see as your primary ‘why’ for all you do each day?
These questions reveal much about what foundation we are building our lives upon. If all we can say is that we are not sure what the answer would be, we likely have not really seriously considered how all we do matters to the Lord.
We have been created in the Image of God on purpose with God’s purpose!
Matthew 7:24-27 states, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Jesus makes clear that what we are living for matters more than we can fully comprehend. He asks what we are putting into practice. Whose words are guiding us? He cautions that if we don’t follow Jesus’s way, life’s storms will come, and we will find ourselves drowning without a home to protect us.
A solid spiritual foundation is vital to our ability to live our life with peace and joy. Here are some ways we build a strong spiritual foundation in our homes:
1. Study God’s Word Together …
2 Timothy 2:14-18 Amplified Bible
An Unashamed Workman
14 Remind the people of these facts, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God to avoid petty controversy over words, which does no good, and [upsets and undermines and] ruins [the faith of] those who listen. 15 Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman [tested by trial] who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth. 16 But avoid all irreverent babble and godless chatter [with its profane, empty words], for it will lead to further ungodliness, 17 and their teaching will spread like gangrene. So it is with Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have deviated from the truth. They claim that the resurrection has already taken place, and they undermine the faith of some.
Jesus tells us we must hear his words and put them into practice in order to build our house on the rock. In our modern context, that means studying God’s Word.
Why is knowing the Bible so important?
The Bible is the Holy Spirit inspired, living, and active Word of God.
Reading God’s Word is the best way to learn who God is and what he desires us to do with our lives.
We learn from the stories of those who walked with God long ago, we read poems that shed light on how we wrestle with God from time to time, we gain wisdom from all those Psalms, Proverbs and the prophets, and we can read the accounts of Jesus’ life and death in the Gospels. There is so much to gain from studying the Bible, the context, culture that existed at the time it was written.
When we know the stories of the Bible, we can begin to know God better and practice his ways.
The Bible has the ultimate power to guide us, correct us, convict us, change us, and motivate us. If we want our homes and our families to have a solid spiritual foundation, we must include prioritize the reading and studying of God’s Word.
2. Embrace the Power of Prayer Together
Matthew 26:40-41 The Message
40-41 When he came back to his disciples, he found them sound asleep. He said to Peter, “Can’t you stick it out with me a single hour? Stay alert; be in prayer so you don’t wander into temptation without even knowing you’re in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there’s another part that’s as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.”
Matthew 26:41 says, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Prayer not only connects us with God, but it also protects us.
When we pray often, we are inviting God’s Spirit into our daily lives, which guards us from harm and temptation. The point of having a strong spiritual foundation is protection. We need something stable to build our lives on so that we are grounded in truth when things get hard. The goal is an unshakable faith.
That faith is built through daily conversations with God.
It’s this back and forth with Jesus that grows solid roots of relationship in our homes and with our families.
James 1:5-8 The Message
5-8 If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.
James 5: 16 – 18 states, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed, Prayers of the righteous have power.
James 5:16-18 The Message
16-18 Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
Prayer is a vital part of our faith not only because it protects us but also because it is powerful! God moves, things change when we pray. Our hearts change, our relationships change, our views change, and even our circumstances change.
Prayer is the catalyst for forgiveness, is the precursor to miracles, and is the bedrock of our relationship with Jesus. Prayer is a vital part of building a solid spiritual environment in our homes, with and among our families, neighbors.
3. Never Get Tired of Serving One Another with Love
Galatians 5:13-15 The Message
13-15 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?
Galatians 5:13 says, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
God is love, and a huge part of what he tells us as his people is to serve one another through love.
1 John 4:7-10 The Message
God Is Love
7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.
We live out that love through random selfless acts of service towards the people we are closest to as well as towards those in our community that need to feel the real and tangible love of God through us. (Matthew 10:38 – 42 The Message)
Matthew 10:38-42 The Message
38-39 “If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.
40-42 “We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God’s messenger. Accepting someone’s help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I’ve called you into, but don’t be overwhelmed by it. It’s best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won’t lose out on a thing.”
Mother Teresa put it this way: “Love is a one-way street. It always moves away from self in the direction of the other. Love is the ultimate gift of ourselves to others. When we stop giving we stop loving, when we stop loving we stop growing, and unless we grow we will never attain personal fulfillment; we will never open out to receive the life of God. It is through love we encounter God.”
We grow to know God more by loving others. Love is an action. It’s giving something of ours away for the benefit of another. To be near God, we have to be near those brokenhearted. We have to serve the least of these. We have to utterly accept God’s love and turn around to freely give that same love away.
4. No Shame in the Gospel, Live from Faith to Faith
Romans 1:16-17 Amplified Bible
16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation [from His wrath and punishment] to everyone who believes [in Christ as Savior], to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed in a way that awakens more faith]. As it is written and forever remains written, “The just and upright shall live by faith.”
Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
In order to draw near to God, we have to have complete faith that he is who he says he is. That requires faith. Faith is fundamental to living a Christian life.
If we consider the great heroes of our faith revealed in Hebrews 11 in the Bible, they all share one thing in common: They did something in their lives that had defied all human logic and trusted God rather than following the world’s way.
Most of the time, the people around them thought they were crazy!
Noah built an ark before God invented rain. Abraham believed he would have many offspring with a wife that was barren. Moses went to free a whole nation by being God’s mouthpiece, all the while struggling with a speech impediment.
David went after a giant as an unarmed shepherd boy. It was an unshakable faith that pushed these heroes to move past what the natural world says is possible and first thing trusted that God is the one that has the real final say!
If everything we do only trusts what we can reason to be true, then we aren’t living with enough faith.
To build a faith that lasts for generations, we have to trust God to show us how he can use us to do abundantly more than we could ever ask, think, or imagine!
When we surrender to God’s way, our lives find a firm place to grow upon. Let God’s gentle Holy Spirit lead, guide you towards him. Jesus told us all we need is the faith of one single mustard seed to see mountains moved (Matthew 17:20).
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 119:105-112 The Message
105-112 By your words, God, I can see where I’m going;
they throw a beam of light on my dark path.
I’ve committed myself and I’ll never turn back
from living by your righteous order.
Everything’s falling apart on me, God;
put me together again with your Word.
Adorn me with your finest sayings, God;
teach me your holy rules.
My life is as close as my own hands,
but I don’t forget what you have revealed.
The wicked do their best to throw me off track,
but I don’t swerve an inch from your course.
I inherited your book on living; it’s mine forever—
what a gift! And how happy it makes me!
I concentrate on doing exactly what you say—
I always have and always will.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 