We're looking at Matthew chapter seven this week.
The section where Jesus compares two different houses,
one that stays standing
and one that falls with a great crash.
And I think the point is pretty self-explanatory
but to give us an illustration,
maybe a more modern day illustration
of what Jesus is looking at,
I want you to think of two well-known American cities,
New York City and New Orleans.
And on the outside they look very similar.
They're both built right on the water.
Both have massive, massive buildings
but underneath the surface, they're incredibly different.
You might know that New York City, underneath the ground,
New York City was built on rock.
It's all rock.
They decided they wanted to build those tall skyscrapers
on a foundation of rock.
New Orleans on the other hand
is not built on a foundation of rock.
The city sits on a foundation of swamp.
It's just swamp underneath the city
and it sits below sea level.
So the city is down here and it goes up a little,
the ground goes up a little bit here
and then here's where you have the levies, the walls
that are there to protect the city
from when the water comes rising up too high.
And so when those levies broke back during Hurricane Katrina,
it really wasn't surprising that there was so much damage
and so much destruction in New Orleans
because
they were sitting on a foundation of swamp.
And we saw what happens when the storms come in
and you're not sitting on a good foundation.
Now both cities look exactly the same
as long as, what's the case?
As long as nothing bad ever happens.
As long as there is no storms.
As long as the waters never rise.
As long as there are no high winds.
As long as there are no hurricanes
then everything is completely safe
and they look exactly the same.
But when the storm comes,
the storm is what reveals the weakness or the strength
of our foundations.
And Jesus knows that the same is true in our lives
is that when the storms come,
when the challenges and struggles, the different things
that we don't quite know how to deal with,
those are the things that really reveal
the strength or the weakness of our foundation.
And He tells us how to deal with that
when He says two things.
He says, "Everyone who hears these words of mine
"and puts them into practice."
So two different things.
And today I wanna focus on that first one
the one of hearing these words of mine
and that phrase makes me think of
a pretty well-known politician
who I recently heard has a favorite Bible verse.
And I'm going to read the Bible verse,
what they say is their favorite Bible verse,
and I want you to think about which book of the Bible
this is in, are you ready?
So the favorite Bible verse is this.
To minister to the needs of God's creation
is an act of worship.
To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.
And of course that very famous Bible verse
is in the book of ...
Yeah you're right.
If you have trouble thinking about which book it's in
it's okay because it's not actually in the Bible.
And yet this politician cites this
as their favorite Bible verse over and over again and again.
I'm gonna read six different phrases
and I want you to tell me which one is in the Bible.
Ready?
Which one of these you can find in the Bible.
So phrase number one.
God just wants me to be happy.
Phrase number two.
Everyone is God's child.
Phrase number three.
God helps those who help themselves.
Phrase number four.
Money is the root of all evil.
Phrase number five.
When a Christian dies, heaven gets another angel.
Phrase number six.
God won't give you more than you can handle.
Which one of those is in the Bible?
If you picked none of them,
you are correct.
None of those are in the Bible.
And yet you hear those phrases very often in life,
even by well-intentioned Christians
who think that they are quoting the Bible
but they're not really.
It's slightly different.
You might hear slight variations of those
but none of those are true statements
that you will find in the Bible
and you might not think that's a big deal
until you remember
that it was back in the Garden of Eden.
What destroyed the world
and what corrupted Adam and Eve
for the length of their time on earth
was when Satan came up to Eve and said
"Did God really say?"
And that was enough.
Just to be slightly off, just a little bit
than what God had told her.
It was enough to ruin all of creation.
It was enough to fill all of our lives
and the lives of our families
with sin
that is so horrible and so destructive.
"Did God really say?"
In the book of John, Jesus says this.
Jesus said "If you hold to my teaching,
"you are really my disciples.
"Then you will know the truth,
and I bet you know the next phrase.
And the truth will set you free.
We hold to His teaching
when we define truth
by what Jesus says to us.
Nothing more, nothing less.
And Jesus promises that the result
is that our hearts will be set free.