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And then we're going to dive into it this morning. Make sure this is on for folks at home. Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your grace that pours out into our lives and into our families and into our church. And may we be people who share that grace.

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Our grace with the world in which we live. We live in a world that so often feels like it's in a continual state of storminess. Sometimes it seems like everything around us is shaky and broken. So we ask that you would direct us to the rock that is greater than we are.

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That as we build our lives and all of those little decisions and big decisions, and in our plans and in our dreams and in our hopes that we would build upon the rock that is Christ, that we would find shelter in the time of storm. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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So probably most of us have this experience. We've heard enough amazing claims about things that we've become skeptical when we hear amazing things. It may be a product with claims that are too good to be true. We've been burned.

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Right? It looks great in the late night TV infomercial or the ad in front of the YouTube video, but then you go ahead and find it, somebody gives it to you as a joke, and it turns out to be worse than you could ever possibly imagine.

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So we've learned to doubt things that sound too good to be true. But then there are things that look great, but then you get a few years down the road and you realize that those things that seem so great were really, really terrible.

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In fact, if you look at a lot of the toys right after World War II, like in the early 50s, like one of my favorite examples of this is the, and this is for children, the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Toy Lab, right? Designed to, this is from the packaging, allow children to create and watch nuclear and chemical reactions using radioactive material.

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It was great, unless you open little jars with radioactive material, which then crumbled, and then they were all over your house. Anyway, it made it like a year or two, and it wasn't taken off the market because of the danger, but because they just weren't selling well enough, right?

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So it looked really cool. I mean, as a kid looking at that packaging, I was like, "That would be great." But then the claims turn out to be dangerous.

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We become skeptical because of hidden costs, right? Maybe you've seen that batteries not included, or accessories sold separately, or the fine print that changes everything.

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Or maybe the people and products don't deliver, right? The quality is not what's promised. Sometimes it's outright dishonest.

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And every time it happens, we say, "Well, I probably should have known better. It seemed too good to be true."

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Our experience in this world has earned us a healthy skepticism. The problem with that skepticism is that it often comes at a cost.

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Sometimes we miss genuinely good things because we've been skeptical. About a month ago, we went up with the kids to a horse expo in Pennsylvania.

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We're walking through the vendor area, and one of the issues specifically that we were having is where our horses are.

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There's a lot of burrs, and everything's tangled. Generally, you use mane and tail spray from tractor supply.

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There was a display there. They said, "Check this out. It's miraculous. It makes everything smooth, and it makes everything wonderful.

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Here's some horse tails we have. You can test it on and see how great it is." I'm looking at it, and I'm looking at the price, and I'm looking at the claims.

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I was like, "There is no way that this is a real thing." We just walked on by. We got home. Rachel talked to a friend.

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They're like, "It's the most amazing thing ever. You should have bought some." But because it becomes so skeptical, because all the times have been burned,

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we begin to miss things that are really and truly amazing. You see, so much of our life has trained us to look at everything very, very critically.

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And so when Jesus says, "Hey, there is good news," we react with, "Is there really good news, or simply prove it?"

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Listen to what this says in Matthew 23. "And he went through all Galilee, teaching in the synagogue, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and teaching and healing every disease and every affliction among the people."

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So these verses, and we'll read the rest in just a minute, but they're setting us up for the Sermon on the Mount, that Jesus has been proclaiming the good news of the kingdom.

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When it says gospel, that word simply means good news. And the Sermon on the Mount, as we move through it, is full of extraordinary claims.

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Right? Who's welcome in the kingdom? And it opens with the Beatitudes of the hungry and the sorrowful, and those who are poor in spirit, but at the same time declares there is hope for those people.

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There's more than that. There's transformation, and it's filled with promise, and that's just like the first nine verses of the Sermon on the Mount.

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And then we get to the impact of the good news that it transforms us to be salt and light in a broken world.

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Jesus shows us that his teaching is more than just some sort of superficial ideas, but rather it dives down into our heart.

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He takes the Word of God seriously and diagnoses our broken life. He doesn't come to us, we find in the second half of Matthew 5,

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where we're standing with a broken bone and massive injuries and says, "Here's two Tylenol and a Band-Aid,"

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but rather Jesus goes down under all of our excuses and all of our external self-righteousness and says,

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"Let me talk to you about your heart." It's not just about adultery, but it's about lust.

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It's not just about murder, but it's about anger, and it's about forgiveness. And Jesus deals with our hearts.

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And then when He comes to religious behavior, there's a picture that runs through all of it,

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through whether it's giving, whether it's prayer, whether it's fasting, of a Father who sees you and knows you,

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and you don't have to be showy and external and worried about others' approval,

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but rather you come to your Father, and He's not a vending machine, but a Dad who loves you.

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And He says you don't need to worry about tomorrow, not because tomorrow isn't real,

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but because the God who feeds the birds and makes the lilies grow knows exactly what you need,

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and you're worth more to Him than all of these things.

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And He says, "Ask, and it will be given. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you."

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And it's like Jesus knows, and I believe He does, that we're wondering, is God really like that?

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A good Father who knows us, who loves us, who calls us when we're sorrowful and broken,

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who comes down and diagnoses not just the external problems, but our hearts.

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And Jesus, knowing that, says, "Hey, you parents, your life's a mess, and you still love your children and give good things.

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How much more will your heavenly Father, whose life is not a mess, give good things to His children?"

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The claims Jesus makes in the Sermon on the Mount, they're not small things.

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They're big, and they're earth-shattering.

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And as we begin to consider the claims of Jesus, it's easy for our skepticism to ride and say,

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"I've heard this before. Isn't it too good to be true? What's the catch? What's the fine print? What's the monthly reoccurring payment?"

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And then Jesus begins to answer our skeptical hearts.

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We say, "How can this be true?"

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And one of the things that's so wonderful and so terrifying is that Jesus knows our hearts, and that's terrifying,

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but it's wonderful because He loves us anyway.

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And what I love about how God deals with us is He doesn't simply say, "Get over it or figure yourself out."

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He deals with us according to our need.

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And so for some of us, He comes, and we'll see in this sermon, He comes with logic and examples,

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and in other cases, He comes with Scripture.

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In some cases, He comes with demonstrations to answer our skeptical hearts.

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Have you ever stood by some water?

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I think every man should do this and throw rocks into the water.

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If like half an hour goes by, what have you been doing? Throwing rocks in the water.

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It's fascinating.

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If you've ever thrown rocks into water, you notice that the ripples begin to spread out.

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And so as we look at the claims of Jesus, as He answers our skeptical hearts,

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I want us to sort of look at those as ripples.

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And we're going to start with the smallest ripple and ripple out into the entire Scripture.

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One of the things Jesus does to answer the skepticism of our heart in this sermon,

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He directs us to things that we can see, hear, and experience.

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Things like salt, and how it works, and light, and how it works, and birds, and lilies, and being a parent.

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And what Jesus is doing when He says that, He says, "I'm saying some amazing and wonderful things,

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but you see the truth in it because you've experienced what salt is like,

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and what happens when it loses its saltiness, and how light works, and how you deal with light,

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how you see birds, and how you see flowers, and how you deal with your children."

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He uses those things we're familiar with to help us understand the truth of His claims.

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He's saying, "Test my words through your experience."

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But the Gospels, as you begin to zoom out to the next triple, show us Jesus' authority in action,

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where we began just a minute ago as Jesus knew the kingdom. Look at what happens.

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He proclaims the Gospel. He heals every disease, every affliction among the people.

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His fame begins to spread, and they bring Him the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains,

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oppressed by demons, those having seizures, paralytics, and He heals them.

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And then immediately after this, look at what happens.

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Matthew chapter 8. Jesus, in Matthew chapter 8, the sermon gets done.

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Jesus will heal a leper, a centurion's servant, and Peter's mother-in-law.

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He'll calm a storm. If you want a summary, this is after He heals Peter's mother-in-law that evening.

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And many who were oppressed by demons, and He cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.

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Jesus does not just make these claims and say, "Look at your life and see your experience, and let that speak the truth of my words,"

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but you see it demonstrated in His power. And if you zoom out from that, not just to the immediate context,

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but to all of the Gospels, what you find is that Scripture begins to stand as the support for all that Jesus has done.

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It's just not just the Gospels, but it's all of Scripture. In fact, in Matthew 8, right after the verse that we just read,

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we find this. This was to fill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah.

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He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.

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You see, the Old Testament prophets describe someone who would bring good news to the poor,

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comfort those who mourn. That's Isaiah 61.

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Jesus doesn't arrive out of nowhere, but Scripture is a long, unified account to who Jesus is

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and what He has done so much so that in the Gospel of Luke, as Jesus is teaching some of His disciples,

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He says, "Don't you know that everything that was written about Me in the Law of Prophets,

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like it's all about Me. It all directs you to Me."

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When Jesus, in His first sermon in Luke chapter 4, He will say, as He reads in the book of Isaiah,

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"This Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

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We need to zoom out to one more ripple. We've seen how Jesus directs us and verifies with experience,

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how He does it with His power, how we see all of Scripture coming together,

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and the ultimate guarantee is ultimately the resurrection of Jesus.

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And notice how it fits with the others.

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There's the personal experience, because Paul is going to list witnesses.

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It's based on the testimony of Scripture, but he says this,

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"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received,

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that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,

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that He was buried and on the third day rose again in accordance with Scripture."

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It fits with Scripture, witnesses from those who have seen and experienced

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and who ultimately gave their lives.

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And what you'll see if you dig a little deeper, not just what the Bible internal testimony says,

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but what the external testimony says, whether that is history or archaeology,

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or how all the Bible fits together with such miraculous and wonderful design,

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one of the things you find is that this book is different.

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Every promise in the Sermon on the Mount has a stamp of the authority of Jesus.

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He doesn't just say it, but He does it, and ultimately He walks out of the tomb confirming it.

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So the big question for us is, we have these amazing claims.

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Jesus has given us a glimpse of the answers to those, and so it's what now?

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And as chapter 7 moves through, it's like, where are you walking?

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What path is your life taking?

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What kind of fruit are you bearing?

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And ultimately, where are you building?

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And in asking these questions, Jesus is not trying to manipulate you or threaten you,

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but He's showing you a better way and warning you of the consequences of continuing to head toward danger.

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And He warns us, but He does it in a wonderful way.

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Yes, there is only one path, but Jesus is the door to that path.

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He walks with us as our shepherd on that path.

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And because He says, "Follow me," anything we encounter on that path, Jesus goes first.

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In the garden, He uses an example that makes sense, right?

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Apples don't grow on pear trees, right? Your fruit matters.

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But also, He'll say, "On the night before the cross, I am the vine, and you are the branches.

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In me, you bear fruit." And it's not just that you bear fruit, but that everything flows out of the strength given to us by Jesus,

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and He's the gardener who is near to us and who prunes us.

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And we come to these two builders, and the question is, "How are we building?" Right?

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Two builders, two houses, two results, two locations.

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In terms of the parables of Jesus, it's pretty simple.

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"Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock,

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and the rain fell, the floods came, the wind blew and beat on the house, but it did not fall,

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because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them

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will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came,

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and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." Right?

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Pretty simple passage of Scripture. Good location, bad location, trouble comes from every location.

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Here's why the good is good and the bad is bad. We have to understand that this parable is not reviewing

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building contractors, right? Mr. A guy, he's got an engineering degree, he's got it all figured out.

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He's good. Mr. Doofus over here, he's just not very smart, builds in the wrong place.

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That's not the point Jesus is making in this parable. Right? Here's the reality for every single one of us,

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is every single one of us, through our decisions, both big and small, and our priorities and our goals and our hopes,

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and our dreams. We're building our lives. The second reality for this is that every single one of us will face

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great difficulty, opposition, judgment, and storms in our life. In fact, you don't have to go very far.

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Just go to the prayer time that we just spent this time hearing prayer requests of people who are walking

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through some of the worst days of their life. Right? Storms come for everybody. It's not an if. It's a when.

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It's not, "Am I a builder?" It's, "You are a builder. Where are you building?" And the question at the heart of this

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parable is what will happen to your life when the storms come? And the parable that Jesus uses ultimately

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for us, if we dig just even a little bit, is pretty easy to understand. You've got to have a good foundation.

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You're buying a house. What do you do? A home inspection. One of the things you ask about.

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How's the foundation? Giant crack running through the basement wall. Is that something I need to worry about?

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We understand foundations pretty intuitively without having to think about it much.

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But this story Jesus gives us, sometimes it seems a little strange. Why would this guy pick this spot?

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And the wise guy pick this spot? So growing up in Arizona, out in the desert,

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you would find what they call, what we call dry washes.

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It's kind of like a dip in the sand. Usually the sand is pretty smooth. Not a lot of huge rocks in them.

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They're sandy. You're out camping.

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You can go up in the big flat area where the wind hits you.

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You lay down in your tent in your sleeping bag, and there's a rock sticking right up in the middle of your spine.

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Or you can go down a little bit below the grade, and it's nice and sandy, and the sand is soft.

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The chupacabras can't find you. You're out of the wind, right?

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It's great.

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Until 20 miles away, a storm comes, and it rains, and a flash flood comes down that wash.

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That's the parallel to the building. In fact, it's exactly what's happening.

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The terminology is different.

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But in the terrain of the desert, in the arid land that Jesus is speaking of, there's rock.

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And just like in Arizona, there's these dry washes, these are these areas where there is sand.

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The problem is, you look at this and say, "Why would anybody build in a flood zone?"

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Here's the reality. In the times when it is dry, danger feels far away.

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And in the immediate moment, it's far easier and far simpler to go, "Look, I've got a nice flat spot here.

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I don't have to break any rock. I don't have to level any ground.

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I don't have to carry all my stuff up a hill. Here is the spot."

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And in the moment when the danger seems far away, and you've got to get a house belt,

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and you have a choice between three months and two weeks, right, it's very easy for us.

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We go, "How can anybody make a bad decision like this?" But we do it all the time.

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Like we saw it tragically happen less than a year ago, right?

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Remember Cure County, Texas in July of last year, a camp near the Guadalupe River in the floodplain?

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Massive tragedy because the rain comes and the river floods.

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And everything is too close, not just property damage but the loss of life.

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This is not just an ancient thing. This is how we so many times make the decisions in our life.

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Well, it seems like everything is far away.

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Jesus, when He talks about these storms in the immediate context of the Sermon on the Mount, He's just got done talking about judgment.

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There's going to be a place where we stand before God.

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And the terrifying words that come right before this, that are to direct us to the hope that is found in Jesus,

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is that we must know Him, and not just know Him, but do His will.

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But in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, there's another storm.

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It's a storm of opposition and persecution that seeks to push us off the path.

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And then sometimes, biblically, there's other storms. There's times in Psalm 1,

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where we talk about the tree that's fruitful, but it's also dry and difficult.

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And sometimes our storm isn't what's coming, but what doesn't seem to be there.

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It's one of the reasons the Psalms talk so much about the solid rock.

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Jesus is not just informing us. He's calling us to live differently.

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And this parable ultimately calls us to action.

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And the first action it calls us to is our building requires a strong foundation.

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We've seen it here, right in this text. There's a good foundation. There's a bad foundation.

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We've seen that earlier in the Sermon on the Mount. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures,

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where moth will eat them, rust will destroy them, guys will break in and steal.

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But lay up your treasure somewhere that is safe.

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The foundation that Jesus describes here is not just a set of characteristics or principles.

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And I want to help us a little bit with this, this morning.

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So we'll try it. I think we're going to do it like three or four times.

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So I'm going to read the first part of this.

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And then I want you to read those last three words. So we'll try it with this one.

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Everyone who hears these words of mine, okay.

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And then the second part, Matthew 7:26, one more time. Everyone who hears these words of mine.

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Right, so the foundation ultimately that Jesus is bringing to us is these words

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that he brings. And it's not just his words, ultimately, it's himself.

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1 Corinthians 3, "No one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Christ."

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Ephesians 2, "That he is the quarterstone through which the whole structure is built together."

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1 Peter 2, "The living stone."

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Psalm 18:2 that we read this morning, "The rock."

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Right, the foundation Jesus is referring to is these words of his.

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Now, what's interesting is that a building requires us to build.

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And that may sound obvious, but so many times we don't live like it.

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And it's more than just simply knowing. We just did some fill in the blank. Let's do it again.

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So I'm going to read most of it. You read the last two words.

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"Everyone who hears these words of mine and..."

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And then this is the other one. "Everyone who hears these words of mine and..."

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That's the difference between the rock and the dry wash when the floods came.

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We can respond in a whole lot of ways.

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Distraction, denial, it's not urgent. Hiding from our fears, but Jesus does not let us do that.

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In our pride that says, "I'm strong enough," Jesus says, "Look what happens when you depend upon yourself."

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Or maybe the issue is this, it's difficulty, and you say, "I don't know if I can."

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The rock is Christ, and He's just called us to evaluate our lives three different ways: your path, your fruit, and your foundation.

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He's calling us to live differently. So here's the reality. We're going to face the storm.

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We can try to deny it, we can try to distract ourselves from worries about it, we can fearfully panic, or we can turn to Jesus and build upon it.

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Remember the book of Jonah? It's not a very long book.

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He's called to go to Nineveh, and he refuses and instead gets on a boat going the other direction, fleeing from God.

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And if you remember what happens in that moment, God sends a giant storm, and everybody's afraid that they're going to die.

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And the pagan sailors fear God in that moment more than the prophet of God, Jonah does.

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And the solution to the storm is they're going to throw the guilty guy overboard.

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And what happens is they throw the innocent man, or the guilty man, Jonah, over the side of the boat, so the innocent sailors on the boat can be saved.

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The guilty guy goes in the water, gets what he deserves. The innocent sailors sail through the storm.

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In Matthew chapter 12, Jesus makes the Jesus-Jonah connection explicit.

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He says, "Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish,

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and will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

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Jesus takes the story of Jonah in that storm and flips it around.

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In Jonah, the guilty is thrown into the storm, so the innocent can be saved.

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But in Jesus, the innocent goes out into the storm, the storm of our sin, and our faithlessness, and the cross,

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and the brutality of what he experienced as he stands in our place, so that the guilty can be brought in.

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The only truly innocent person who ever lived is thrown out into the storm and into death itself,

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so the guilty can be brought safely through. The storm that should have taken us takes Jesus.

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And he comes through that storm three days later in the resurrection, and he says to us, "Where are you building your life?"

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Build it on the one who has come through the storm and has gone into the storm so that you could be

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brought out of it and to find peace. What's fascinating to me is just right after this sermon.

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Jesus ends with this story about this storm, and you find this. "He got into the boat. His disciples followed him.

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Behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so the boat was being swamped by the waves, but he was asleep.

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And they went and woke him, saying, "Save us, Lord. We are perishing." And he said to them, "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?"

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"He rose, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm."

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Jesus is here in a literal storm in the boat.

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And he stands and rebukes the wind and the sea, and there's great calm.

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And what's interesting about this word "great calm," the word "great,"

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in Matthew chapter 8, talking about the calm, is the same word "great"

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that's used when the house crashes down, and "great" was the fall of it.

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It's the same kind of "great."

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Great was the fall for those who don't build their lives on Jesus.

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Great is the calm.

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One is what happens when the storm hits the wrong foundation.

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The other is what happens when the storm meets Jesus.

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And if your life is built upon that rock, yes, you're going to be in the midst of the storm,

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but you're in a place that does not move, that shelters you, and that cares for you with it.

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The rock that holds us fast.

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Hear these words from the psalmist.

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God is our refuge and our strength, a very helpful, present help in times of trouble.

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Though we will not fear, though the earth gives way, and though the mountains are moved into the heart of the sea,

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though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

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The storm is real, the fall of the house is great, but the rock holds.

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And it's not just a rock. It's Jesus, the one who went out in the storm so that you could be brought in,

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the one who in the boat is asleep with his disciples.

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And when they wake him up, he says, "Oh, you of little faith," and he's not mocking them or berating them.

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What he's saying is, "Don't you know that when I'm with you, even in the midst of the storm, you're going to be okay?"

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I want you to know that Jesus is the rock, that he is the one who is strong enough to bring you through the storm.

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Father in heaven, be with us. As we evaluate our lives in light of your word and your truth, may you put your feet upon the solid rock.

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You lift us out of the pit of destruction, and you set our feet on the rock, and may this be our reality.

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Help us to trust you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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We're going to sing, "I set my hope on Jesus," and as we do sing that, I hope for those of you who are in Christ,

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that this is a reminder and a reassurance and an encouragement. If you are not in Christ, I encourage you to see the good news of the gospel.