Time to Choose Pt 3: How Will You Build Your House?

you may be seated and if you would open up in your bibles to the gospel of matthew chapter 7 matthew chapter 7 we'll be picking up in verse 24 we're looking at the last section of this sermon on the mount the last few verses of the sermon on the mount and a great place to not only end uh this month but this year i think with a little bit of a challenge for our lives we said that through this last section of the gospel of matthew chapter 7 we're going to be the sermon on the mount jesus brought us to a point of decision he said it was the time to choose and he did so in four ways and i turned those into four different questions that i think we should be challenged with the first question was what path are you going to take the narrow

path or the wide path which leads to destruction the narrow one leads to life the wide path leads to destruction he then asked who are you going to listen to because the world is full of false prophets those who will pull us away from the things of god those who will pervert what the only way that we can know for sure is to test them by the fruits of their ministry to test them by the content of their teaching and the fruit of their life we then came to another question what is your life going to say because it's easy to say that jesus is lord it's it's it's easy to make a confession of faith and sometimes we can take grace and make it very cheap but our lives should

be marked not only by the fact that by the words of our mouth we confess that jesus is lord but by the actions of our lives living according to what he has told us doing god's will well today we come to the fourth question and the fourth question that we come to is the question of how will you build your house and he's going to give us a little bit of an explanation of what he means by that so we pick up in verse 24 of chapter 7 and this is what it says he says 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 the rain fell the floods came the winds blew they slammed against that house yet it did not fall

for it had been founded on the rock 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 the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against the house and it fell and great was its fall when jesus had finished these words the crowds were amazed at his teaching for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as their scribes and so as he presents us with this last question there's three things i want us to pay attention to we're going to see the comparison we're going to see the application and then we're going to see the conclusion and what we take note of here is the fact that as jesus presents this last question of

how you're going to build your house he does so by presenting us with a parable a parable or a story about two different builders hopefully you took note of it it says that there were two of them one was wise one was foolish and uh each of them built in a little bit of a different way and so as we compare them i want to first of all tell you that jesus has built his house on the of verses 7 and ten and actually take a look at these two builders and what they had in common how they were like i took note of three things the first thing i took note of is that each house had a builder it seems like a pretty common thing to to take note of but each one had a builder they were called by two different names perhaps you took note of those two different names

the first guy was named the wise man the second guy was named the fool now i really appreciate the word fool or foolish because you know what the root word of the word fool in the greek is it's the word morrow do you know an english word we get from that we get the word moron from that. I'm not saying it's okay to call people a moron. I'm just saying it's a biblical word. That's all I'm saying. I'm just pointing that out. So the next time that slips out of

your mouth, just think there's a moron, but also remember that you might also be guilty. So that's the name of the two different builders. Now, the second thing that I take note of is that each builder had a project. Each builder built a house and the end product looked the same on both of them. Each of them, as they built this house, looked very similar to the other one.

They both had walls. They both had a foundation. They both had a roof over top of it. If they were built today, they both had electrical running through them. They both had plumbing running through them. They both had sheet rock up on the walls. They both had an HVAC system. From all accounts and purposes, if you looked at these two houses that these two builders built,

you wouldn't find that many differences. Sure, there were some design differences. There were some different ideas that were thrown in. One was more of a Joanna Gaines sort of a person. The other was a guy, right? Like you had some differences in the houses. But other than that, they were two different houses. From all outward appearances, you would say two very well-built houses. We also take note of the fact that each of these houses

faced the same thing. Did you take note of that? Each of them faced the same storms, whether you were the wise builder or whether you were the foolish builder. Take note of what it says. Verse 25, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they slammed against the house. Take note of verse 27. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew, and they slammed

against the house. That means that though these are two different builders that built two different houses, they both faced the same issues. And we'll get into some of those issues in just a minute. But now here's what I take note of that's different about this. These houses. The first thing that I take note of is that they were both built on different foundations. Did you take note of that? The wise builder, it says in verse 24,

built his house on the rock. If you were to translate this literally, it literally means a rocky surface or a rocky cliff. The idea is that underneath of the surface of the dirt, there were strong rocks that he could really build on. The second builder built his house on sand. Now here's what we take note of about that, because to understand it, we must understand a

little bit about the culture at that point in time. If you were to live in Israel at this point in time, and live in Israel at a point in time in which it was not the rainy season, you would find that all of the ground is hard. Because the sun has baked this sand and made it almost feel like a hard surface, so that if you didn't do any investigation, if you did not take time and pour time, energy, and effort into it, both surfaces would feel very rocky in nature. But you see, the first builder, the wise man, took time to examine the surface that he was building on to make sure that even below that sand, even below what seemed like a hard surface, there was actually

bedrock that he could found his house upon. The second foundation was built of sand, which initially looked really good and it looked really strong. And you didn't see any issues until the storms revealed the issue. Because here's what happens to soil that is packed hard through the sun and through dryness is once the rains come, it reveals the true nature of the soil. And so the

first difference is that the foundations look very different on each house. And then of course, the second difference was the result of all of the storms on each house. Did you take note of the result? In verse 26, it says, it did not fall, or excuse me, verse 25, it says, it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And of course, in verse 27, it says, and it fell and great was its fall.

Two builders, two houses, they looked exactly the same on the outside. They faced the same storms of life, but they had two different foundations. And because they had two different foundations, they had two very different end results. Well, let's give a little explanation and explain what these two foundations look like. And then of course, in verse 27, it says,

the first thing I take note of is the fact that the builder is you. The builder is me. See, these are not just some average builder. This is not just some guy actually building a house. What's being referred to here is you in your life. How are you building your life? Because then we realize something. What's the house that he's referring to here? Well, the house that he's referring to here

is your life. And I think when he talks about your life, he talks about it in two different forms. I think he not only is talking about your own life, but he's also talking about your own life. And I think he's talking about your own personal life. In other words, you, the individual that you are, and how are you building your own life? Because I think that's a really important portion of what

he's speaking of. But I think that there's a broader explanation. And the broader explanation is that the building that he's referring to is not only your life, but your family. The ones that you call your loved ones, the kids that you're in charge of, the household that you're in charge of, that first ministry that you have been given in your life. He's referring to your family, because we know that one will always affect the other. And of

course, we look at these storms and we think about what these storms actually are. Because what he's actually talking about here is not actually rain and wind and storms. What he's actually talking about is the events that we go through in our lives. As I was thinking about this this morning, I was thinking about some of the storms that I have seen people go through in 2021, that I have gone through in 2021, that I have helped walk some people through this last year. And as I thought about these storms of

life, there's a handful of them that I started thinking about. What do these look like in our lives? What are these difficulties that we all face? Listen, whether we're a believer in Jesus Christ or not. Because coming to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior does not guarantee us a happy life. I think that's, as we've mentioned in past weeks, one of the greatest issues with the presentation

of the gospel today, is that we present the gospel as a way to have a better life. Meanwhile, the gospel is not a way to have a better life. It's the only way to have a better life. It's the only way to have a better life. It's the only way to have a better life. It's the only way to have a better life. You're still going to face the same storms. You're still going to face the same difficulties. And as

we've seen in the past, it may mean that you even face a few more difficulties. So what do these difficulties look like in our lives? The first one that came to my mind is the financial difficulties that we face. Because I think that in the Western culture that we live in, one of the greatest ways that God tests the foundation of our house is through financial difficulties. I've shared with

you all before, I'm a terrible financial person. Matter of fact, I know exactly when not to sell a house and when not to buy a house. And the reason why is because I did it absolutely 100% wrong. The first time that we bought a house, we bought when the market was at its absolute highest. It was the most expensive, kind of like it was last year or the beginning of this year, right? The absolute most expensive time to buy a house. And so we overpaid

for a house. And then God moved us down here. And when he moved us down here, we got in trouble. And we got a little upside down on our house. And we got in trouble. And we got in trouble. And we got in trouble. And we had to sell our house. And we sold at the absolute worst market ever when it was absolutely at its bottom. And so it cost us $8,000 to get out of our house. It should never

cost you money to sell your house, but that's exactly what it did for us. It took all of our savings. And you know what God was doing in that process? He was testing the foundation, not of the physical house that we were living in. He was testing the foundation of the spiritual house that we were each building in our lives and that we were building for our family.

What is it going to be founded upon? Because I'm not going to lie. There was a couple of times where I was like, oh Lord, it feels a little bit like shifting sand right now. And I had to make sure that my roots were going deep and that my foundation was firm upon Jesus Christ. Because if not, those are the things that can destroy a house. Perhaps you know what I'm talking about. Perhaps you too have faced some of those financial

difficulties and you have found that the foundation of your house has been somewhat challenged, somewhat compromised. The second thing that I took note of, or the second thing that I think is a difficulty that we face is that medical diet. I don't know how many people I've talked to this year that have faced a difficult diagnosis in their life. They faced having to hear the news that nobody wants to hear. We've heard the word

once today. Perhaps you've heard that word cancer and you say, well, what am I going to do now? Perhaps it's something different in your life. I don't know what it is, but sometimes when you receive that medical diagnosis that something's never going to be the same because of what you're having to face, it can shake the foundation of your house. And you can find yourself going,

what am I going to do now? Because I didn't plan for this. I didn't see this coming. I didn't realize this was what was going to happen. But listen, God did. And if your foundation is firm, then you won't be shaken by that kind of thing. The next thing that I take note of, the next thing that can shake the foundation of our house is tragedy. I didn't know another way to say it.

I didn't know another word to use. But tragedy shakes the foundation of our house, does it not? I've walked a lot of people through this. I've walked a lot of people through this. I've walked a lot of people through this. I've walked a lot of people through a lot of loss this year. I myself have walked the road of a lot of loss this year. And I'm here to tell you right now, there is nothing that can shake the foundation of

your own personal house more than dealing with tragedy. It's nothing to see a family be completely torn apart after a loved one dies because they can't decide who's going to get all of this stuff. It's nothing to see a family torn apart after someone dies because each person grieves in a very emotional way. It's nothing to see a family who is very emotional in their grieving, doesn't understand the one that's very cognitive in their grieving, and vice versa. And the emotional person,

it takes them longer to get over because they don't know how to handle all of the emotions that they're going through, and they feel all of the feels. And the cognitive person can get over it in a month because they process things in a little bit of a different way. And because you don't understand each other, your home is destroyed because you're dealing with this tragedy. Not to mention the fact that when we face the unexpected loss of a loved one, we all have that one.

Question in our mind, why? Sometimes it can shake the very fabric of your faith.

Not only that, but I think that this aspect of the loss of property, simply because of what we've seen in the last month, I think that sometimes that can shake the very fabric of who we are. We've seen it happen all over the Midwest, have we not? Those pictures that we saw from Kentucky, those pictures that we saw from Western Kansas a couple of weeks ago of people's homes completely destroyed. Listen, there's nothing more that can make you question the goodness of a good God.

As much as seeing everything that you spent your life and your time and your money and your effort and your energy pouring into to watch a storm wipe it out in 15 minutes, there's nothing that'll make you sit back and say, Lord, are you really there? God, are you really still good than seeing something like that happen in your life? You know what else is a storm that sometimes we can face? Mental illness. Wait, Ryan, I'm a Christian. I shouldn't go through mental illness. Really? Because depression

is still the most commonly diagnosed mental illness. I'm not going to go through mental illness. I'm not going to go through mental illness in the nation today. Listen, also among Christians, because just because you love Jesus doesn't mean that you won't suffer from some sort of mental issue. It doesn't mean that anxiety won't plague your life. It doesn't mean depression won't plague your life.

It doesn't mean a whole litany of other emotional and mental disorders won't plague your life because your mind needs as much care as your body does. But sometimes when you start dealing with that, when you're dealing with those issues, those issues of depression, those issues of the suicidal thoughts, and you start dealing with those issues, those issues of depression, those issues of the suicidal thoughts, and you start dealing with those issues, those issues of the suicidal thoughts, and you start dealing with those issues, those issues of depression, those issues of the suicidal thoughts, and you start saying, maybe I'm not really a Christian. Maybe I don't really know Jesus because it's

shaken the very foundation of your being. Those are storms that we go through. The next one that I've seen has affected a lot more people than I would like to admit, and that's marital issues. I have watched marriage after marriage after marriage destroyed this year. I actually had a guy tell me, sometimes I think this town is cursed for marriages, as he recounted for me

about himself and four other of his friends whose marriages fell apart because of infidelity.

Listen, those things begin to shake the fabric of your faith. Those things begin to shake your foundation, but do you know what I have found? I have found that if you have not built your own personal life on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, you have not built your own personal life on the rock of Jesus Christ. You're probably also not building your family life on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, and if your personal life and your family life isn't built on that, it's going to fall apart. Or if your personal life and your family life isn't built upon that, when it starts

to fall apart, you'll have nothing to stand on. The last thing that I'll mention to you is this. The last thing that I'll mention to you is just plain old failure. Failure in life. I don't know how many times in my own life I personally have failed. I've failed in my own life. I've failed in my own life. I've failed in my own life. I've failed in my own life. I've failed in my own life. I've

where I have poured my heart and my soul into something to sit back and go, well, that didn't end up like I thought it was going to. That didn't go according to plan. Perhaps the job that you've poured your life into, you just got fired from. Perhaps the event that you thought you were going to throw for your family that was going to be such a big thing that was going to be so amazing, it was going to really bring the family together, completely fell apart. And you see things in your life, you see areas of your life,

and when you look at those areas of your life, you don't even like to talk about them, Because when you look at those areas of your life, there's one word that comes to your mind, and one word only, and that's failure. And it can sometimes shake the foundation of your faith. And of course, then there's the outcome. And we know that when he talks about your house being destroyed or your house standing, he's not just talking about a physical house being destroyed or your physical house standing.

He's talking about your own life. And I think that this standing or being destroyed can take place in two different realms. It can take place in the realm of the temporary, because you know as well as I do, that if your house, if your life is built upon sinking sand, then when tragedy hits you on this side of eternity, when all of the things that I just mentioned hit you on this side of eternity, your life is completely destroyed. But you know what's in eternity?

Eternity is destroyed, because it was not founded upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It was founded. It was founded upon the righteousness of yourself and its sinking sand.

And so we've seen the comparison. Now it's time to make the application. It's time to make the application. As I do so, I'd like to read through the passage again. Notice what it says, verse 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. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and slammed against the house,

and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Therefore, 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. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they slammed against that house, and it fell, and great was its fall. Now as we look at the application, I think that there's a two-fold portion of what he's talking about with the application.

There is both the taking in of the word of God, and then there is the acting on the word of God. So I would like to take these each individually. Number one, we must take in, what the word of God has to say. Did you notice what he said? Whoever hears these words of mine. Well, what does it mean? What does it mean to take in God's word? Well, I think, again, there's a two-fold aspect of this.

As we take in the word of God, there must first of all be the corporate teaching of God's word. Wait a second, Ryan. I thought you were going to talk about personal devotional life. I will. Give me a minute. But the first thing we need to talk about is the corporate teaching of God's word. Now as I look at Scripture, I find, first of all, that the corporate teaching of God's word

is very much exampled in Scripture. It's exampled for us all over the place. As a matter of fact, I started thinking through this about all of the places where you see God's people gathered, hearing what the word of God has to say. I've simplified it down to three different instances. The first one could actually be the entire book of Deuteronomy. You realize that that was actually Moses

standing before the people as a gathered congregation, declaring to them everything that God had done from the delivery from the nation of Egypt up to bringing them through the wilderness to the point in which they were standing at the edge of the promised land. That was all of God's people gathered together hearing Moses speak on these things. Why was it so important for them to be able to do that? Because as they heard that as a congregation, they would look at each other and realize that each of them were taking this in.

There was now accountability because they knew who all had heard the message. There was conviction because you couldn't just stand next to somebody and say, that was you. You had to have them also look at you and say, and that was you too. There was corporate conviction. And can I say that when God's people gather like this, there is that movement of the spirit

that it feels like could be produced in no other way than God's people being gathered together because what does scripture say? Whenever two or three are gathered in my name, I am right there in their midst. And that's what took place as Moses delivered the word there in the book of Deuteronomy. Well, there was a second example that came to mind. It's one that I've used,

before it has to do with a guy by the name of Josiah. Josiah became king when the nation was apostate right before they were delivered into the hands of the Babylonians because of their sin. And as Josiah became king at the young age of eight, he was preserved by a high priest who kept him away from all of the idolatry, but still had not been given the law. When Josiah was 26, he sent people into the temple to begin rebuilding the temple, remodeling the temple so that they could get rid of all of the idolatry, and restore the worship of God.

While they were doing so, while they were remodeling the temple, they found something in there. They found the book of the law. And they said, someone needs to take this to Josiah. And so they brought it to Josiah, and they said, hey, good news. The good news is, all the repairs are happening. We're really making good headway with it. But I need to show you something that we found.

Because what we found was the book of the law. And as they read the book of the law to him, as he read the book of the law, he became distinctly aware of how sinful the nation had been. And so what did he do? He took it, and he tore it, and he tore his clothes. And he went and cried out to the Lord, and confessed the sins of his people to the Lord. And of course,

the prophet came to him and said, because of the way you reacted to God's word, because of the way you reacted to the law, judgment will be stayed for a little while longer. It still has to come, because the sins of the people are too great. But it will not come until after your reign ends. So you know what Josiah did? Josiah could have just taken that and gone,

whew, I'm glad I'm not gonna get destroyed and all that. But he wasn't content to do that. What did he do? Well, we're told in the book of 2 Kings that he called all of the nation together. And what did he do when he called all the nation together? He stood up on a platform so that as many people as possible could hear him and gathered all of the people, and they gathered close.

And he opened up the word of the law. And you know what he did? He read the word of the law to them. And do you know what happened? Revival began to take place in the nation of Israel. Why? Because they were corporately hearing God's word together. Because that's how God intended it to be done. It's for God's people. It's for God's people to hear God's word as one body

so that there could be both conviction and accountability and that God's spirit could move among the people. Speaking of which, it reminds me of my third instance that I'd like to tell you about. You see, Jesus had ascended into heaven and he told his disciples, here's what you need to do. You need to go hang out in Jerusalem, tarry there until the coming of the Holy Spirit, and then you're gonna be witnesses for me.

And so that's what they were doing. For 50 days, they stayed up there in the upper room, waiting on the Lord, seeking him and praying. And one day, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell. Great tongues of fire landed on each of them and they began to speak in tongues, other tongues. And all the people said, whoa, what the heck is going on with these guys?

They must already be drunk. And Peter said, listen, it's not even 10 o'clock. No one's even cracked a cold one yet, okay? No one's drunk up in here. What you're experiencing is the move of the Spirit of God and he began teaching them not only from the book of Joel, but also from the teachings of Jesus, exactly what was taking place. And do you know who he was doing that to?

The congregation of the children of Israel. And as he did so, the Holy Spirit moved. And remember what happened? As he declares the truth of this move of the Holy Spirit, he said, now repent that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. And what happened that day? 3,000 people got saved. Why? Because the Spirit was moving among the people of God

as they heard the word together in the congregation. You see, it's exampled in Scripture. But not only is it exampled in Scripture, it's commanded in Scripture. We're told in the book of Hebrews that we should not forsake the assembling together of the brethren as many have tended to do. You see, all over the world right now, there are churches that are still shut down.

That breaks my heart. I used to get mad about it. Now I'm just sad about it because it hurts my heart to think that there are churches that are shut down. Every now and then, though, I think you should stay shut down because you don't do anything good. I won't tell you which ones. But there's some of them that I'm like, y'all should just stay shut down and send them to a good church

that actually teaches the Bible. But that's not what God wants for us. He wants for us to gather together. He wants for us to gather as a body because when we come together, not only does the Spirit move amongst us because where two or three are gathered together, my Spirit is there with them. But also because as you're hearing the word of God, your sin begins to be exposed.

And as your sin is exposed, you've got somebody sitting next to you who maybe knows you and they know that your sin just got exposed and they do one of these.

But you know it's them too and you're like, right? Like that's kind of what happens. That's why it's important. If I'm sitting in my living room wearing my sweet Christmas jammies right now and listening to the word of God and nobody's there with me, I'm like, yep, that's pretty convicting. Oh well, no one knows. But you know what else I don't have? I don't have the accountability

and the support of the brethren. Because if I'm sitting next to you and I hear a word that convicts me and I know that you're a trusted brother or sister in Christ, you're right there and I can say, you know what, I need some prayer for this because I know what's going on in me and I need a little bit of help. See, that's why we gather corporately as the body of Christ. It is essential for our growth and it breaks my heart.

As much as I love the online stuff and I said this this morning and I know there are some people, you are sick and you can't be here right now. That's a beautiful thing because the Rona is rolling again and I get it. You can't be here and if you got the Rona, don't be here. We don't want you here. When you get better, we want you here but until then, stay home.

I get that. I get that there's some people that have physical ailments that keep them from coming to church or you're not in physical town right now and you can't be at church and this is a beautiful thing but what I'm afraid it's become, what I'm afraid it's become is the excuse for not attending church. And listen, you're the one that misses out because you're the one that misses out on corporately hearing God's word together because if you want to be any good in your life, you must take in God's word for yourself with the brothers and sisters in Christ. If you want to have anything to give to your family, you need to be hearing the word of God for yourself.

That's why we provide the things that we do so that kids can go and hear God's word on a level that they understand or your tiny person can go and cry in a room where two other people who haven't heard him or her cry all week can go, it's gonna be okay and they'll be fine for an hour and a half. It's fine, okay? I did nursery for years and when you do nursery, you know one thing, kids are gonna cry and that's okay because that's why they make earplugs, right? I mean, I'd like to say that's a joke but what else?

But that's why we provide that stuff because you need to, you need to be able to hear God's word for yourself without the distraction of your children and they need to be able to hear God's word for themselves on a level that they can understand. That's why we provide those things because we need the corporate teaching of the word of God. But not only do we need that, here's the part you were waiting for, but we also need personal study of the word of God. Again, this aspect of personal study is commanded in the word.

We're commanded to hide God's word in our heart. We're commanded to hide God's word in our heart. We're commanded to study, to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Why are we to do that? Because it needs to be a part of us too. We're commanded to do that in the word of God and it's essential for our growth.

And so, as we come to the end of one year and we get ready to begin another year, here's one of my challenges to you. It's time to make a plan for what your devotional life this next year is going to look like. Listen, you may think that sounds legalistic. I heard a guy say one time, I really don't do personal devotional times because it's a little bit legalistic.

Legalistic, right? Is eating every day legalistic? I don't think it is. And yet I find myself going, you know what's really important for my daily growth? Eating, I like it. The word of God is the same way. You should be in it all the time. But here's what happens. If you don't make a plan, the same thing that happens will happen in your Bible reading time that happens at your house.

You ever have one of those weeks where you didn't have time to plan your meals for the week? Right? And so you didn't plan a meal, so you didn't go to the grocery store. Now maybe this is only in the Nichols household. I have a feeling it's not just in the Nichols household. And so what do we do? Every night we go, what's for dinner? I don't know. Let's just go to McDonald's.

Right? And by the end of the week, you're just like, oh my gosh, I'm sick. I cannot eat any more garbage. I just need like an apple and a string cheese for the next three days. Because you never made a plan. It's no different in your spiritual life. If you don't start to make a plan about what you're going to do, then you know what's going to happen? Come March, you're going to go,

man, I really intended to be in God's word this year. And now three months in, I haven't done anything. I haven't been in God's word. I should be in God's word. You still don't make a plan. You know what happens? June comes along. You know what you say in June? Man, I really wanted to be in God's word, but I'm halfway through the year. I'll just wait till next year.

Right? Because that's what we do. So you need to begin to make a plan. So I want to spend just a few minutes talking to you about how you should start to make a plan for your devotional reading time. Okay? There are more resources than you can imagine. I believe that you should pick a book of the Bible, a section of the Bible, or the entire Bible to read through this year.

Now, if you own a study Bible, I can almost guarantee that most of them have a Bible reading plan in the back to read through the Bible in an entire year. Ryrie even has a, oh, what do you call it? A chronological reading plan. A chronological reading plan that you can go through. So go to the back of your Bible and say, hey, let's just follow this reading plan.

It will even give you the date that you're supposed to read it. You say, Ryan, I can't read through the Bible in a year. Not with that attitude you can't. Listen, if you can binge watch an entire season on Netflix, right, you can read through the Bible in a year. And I guarantee you, everybody in here has binge watched something on the Netflix or the Amazon Prime.

And some of y'all are going, I don't have either one. I have Hulu. You've done the same thing. Right? So pick a plan and go through it. So perhaps you're going to go through the Bible in an entire year. But maybe that's too much for you. Maybe you need to read through the New Testament in an entire year. So there's plans for that too where you can read through the New Testament.

Also, we've got out here on the table, every three months, I put out new little devotional books. They're called Our Daily Bread. And maybe the way you start is you read one of those a day. You can read that in about three and a half minutes. It gives you a verse, a quick little reading on the verse. And then, at the bottom, it also gives you a read through the Bible

in a year reading plan. What a great thing. Maybe you start for three months with just reading the verse and reading the little devotional that it gives you. It's more drinking milk than eating meat, but you've got to start somewhere. Maybe you choose that. There's also a wonderful thing that you can buy at the Christian bookstore. It's called a one-year Bible.

I like the one-year Bible because the one-year Bible is just one Bible that's got it all right in front of me. It's been quite a few years since I've used the one-year Bible, although that's kind of what I'm thinking about doing this year because it lays it all out. It gives you a little section from the Old Testament, a little section from the New Testament, a psalm, and a proverb. And you can choose to do as much or as little of that as you want to.

It says you can get through it in 15 minutes a day. I've never been able to get through it in 15 minutes a day because I'm a slow processor. I'm like, come again? Plus, I read first thing in the morning, and I'm a slow processor first thing in the morning, more than usual. And so, it takes me about a half an hour because I also like to write stuff down about it.

I'll get to that in just a minute. But choose some kind of a plan. Maybe you're like, Ryan, I've never done any of this before. And decide what you're going to do is along with me, read through the book of Matthew. You know about the pace that we go. Just pick that section. Read over it every day throughout the entire week so that when you come here on a Sunday morning,

you've already started thinking about it, and now you're going to take in what else God has to say through the studying that I've done on it. There's a, uh, a book that I have. It's called A Haley's Bible Handbook. As you are getting into your own personal study time, I think you should go purchase A Haley's Bible Handbook. It's going to give you a synopsis

of every book of the Bible. But if you get to the end of Haley's Bible Handbook, there's a section that's called The Most Important Part of This Book. What it says is the most important part of this book is for you to gain the understanding that the only way you'll grow in your personal walk is if corporately as a church you are reading through the Bible together. Now, I don't think that necessarily means we all have to be in the same section at the same time, although wouldn't that be fun if we all showed up and were like, hey, what did you read in Genesis this week?

Well, I read this. Well, I read this. You might screw around and have a little Bible study on accident just having a conversation, right? But being in God's Word together is really important. But not only are you going to read it, but I always say that you should write something down about it. Now, there's a handful of people I've never been able to convince to do this

because they say, what if I write something personal and somebody reads it and they judge me by it? Well, then they haven't read the Bible themselves and they're not worth listening to, right? Because what did we read at the beginning of chapter seven? Don't judge, right? So we have to be careful about that kind of thing, judging other people by the things that we read.

But I was listening to David Jeremiah teach on this last year and he said, I learned a long time ago the importance of journaling, the importance of writing things down. He said, I started typing out what God showed me in the scriptures as well as things I was going through and learning, typing through them every day. He said, every year I print all that off and I put it in a stack. It's in my office and my wife has been instructed on the day that I die, she is supposed to have a large bonfire and burn every piece of paper because I don't ever want anybody to read what all that has to say.

But I'm a big believer in writing things down. It helps you keep track of where you're growing but it also helps you process. And so, for our own personal growth, we need to make a plan as we move into this next year for how we're going to grow in the Lord. So, the first thing that we do in application is we take in God's word both through the corporate teaching and the personal study but now comes the hard part.

We have to act on it. In other words, obey God's word. There's a danger that we can have as Christians and the danger that we can have as Christians, especially Christians that show up to church every Sunday, is we can have the danger of over-familiarity. Over-familiarity means that you love hearing what God's word has to say and you've heard the lesson over and over again but you've never put it into practice.

That over-familiarity can be a real problem because failing to put God's word into practice actually makes God's word somewhat pointless in our lives. And yet, many of us as believers in Jesus Christ really struggle with that. Let me give you a little bit of an example. I love to read articles. I like to read articles but that's not the point. I like to read articles

on physical fitness and physical fitness and wellness and on dieting. I think I've shared this with you guys before. My favorite thing to do is to read those, especially this time of year. We're coming upon the time of year with resolutions, right? I don't like the word resolution. Resolution sounds very 1985. I prefer the word goals because goals feels like 2021, right?

At least it does to me. Maybe there's another word now for it that's more 2021. Perhaps I'm only talking 2009. I like to use the word goals. One of the goals I always like to set for myself, as a matter of fact, I tried a t-shirt on last night and I said, I gotta lose. Wait. I remember when this t-shirt fit. And so I was like, I should make a goal this year

to lose some weight. So here's what I always do. I start reading articles. I love to read them. I especially like to read articles that downplay the diets that I think are dumb. I'm like, yes, finally somebody proved my point. But anyway, I like to sit down with a glass of milk and a plate full of chocolate chip cookies and I like to read an article on dieting.

And I'll go, oh, that's so true. Oh, I struggle with that. Oh, yeah, that's why my body feels that way. And as I'm eating my chocolate chip cookies and I'm drinking my milk, I'm like, that's the right thing that I should do. And then I put the magazine article away, pour myself another tall glass of milk. This time I add chocolate to it and I grab a handful more

chocolate chip cookies and think, one of these days I'm gonna do that. That's what we do with God's word. We say, that's really good. As a matter of fact, that pointed out all the issues I have in my life. I should do something about that someday. Later. I'll deal with that later. Well, scripture speaks a lot about what we should do with God's word. There's a couple of places.

There's a command that's given to us. Go over to Psalm 119. Psalm 119.

And we will read the entire psalm together. That's not true. We'll never make it. I want you to look at verse nine. But actually, I was sharing this with first service too. I could sum all of Psalm 119 up in two different phrases. Know what God's word has to say. Obey what God's word has to say. Basically, Psalm 119 is a whole lot of ways of saying those two things.

And that's exactly what he says here in verse nine. He says, how can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your word. What does the psalmist say here to us? He says, how can I live a pure life? Well, the only way I can really live a pure life, the only way I can live a life that God wants me to do is if I continually obey, keeping it, obeying what God's word

has to say. But we're also given a warning about what happens when we don't. Go over to the book of James. You probably know the verse, but let's go there anyway because it's fun to turn pages. Go over to James. I want you to look at chapter one. James chapter one. Again, if you can't get there in time, just jot it down. James chapter one. And I want you to look at verse 22.

He says, but prove yourself doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

You see, James here gives us the same warning. I wonder where James, the half-brother of Jesus, I wonder where he heard this from. Perhaps it was because at some point in time, even when he didn't believe in Jesus, he heard what Jesus had to say. Because Jesus said, you can't just hear the words that I have to say, you also have to act on them. You have to act on

what God's word has to say because that's what it looks like to really build your house on the rock. That's what it looks like to build on the firm foundation. But do you know what else occurred to me as I was thinking about what Jesus had to say? When I was thinking about Jesus saying that now we have to act on what he has to say, I began to think about how impossible it is to do that.

I began to think about how impossible it is to live according to what God's word has to say. You see, we could take this now and we could turn it into a list of works and we could turn this into something very legalistic and we could say, now you have to try really hard to obey what God has to say. Because I don't know about you, but every time I read God's word, I think, wow, that's really hard to do. As a matter of fact, the Sermon on the Mount has kind of been that way.

Would you agree? When we went through the Beatitudes, we were like, man, how can I ever have those godly kingdom attitudes because those are so opposite of me? And then Jesus said, if my righteousness doesn't exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees, I'll never make it into the kingdom of heaven. As a matter of fact, he says, you must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

And then when he started showing us that murder actually begins in the heart and that when you have hatred in your heart, it means that it's the same as if you'd killed someone and we all just realized that we're guilty of murder. And then he said, even to look with lust on another means that you've already committed adultery and we started realizing, man, I'm actually an adulterer and as much as I don't want to do that, as much as I don't want to struggle with that, I still struggle with that. We also saw how he said, don't judge other people and we were like, that's a great idea but that guy's a moron, right? And so we still struggle with being judgmental towards people.

And as we read through all these things, I don't know about you but all I can think of is two things. Number one, I'm guilty and number two, I can't. So I think that if we really understand what Jesus is saying here, we must go back to the very first thing that he told us in the Sermon on the Mount because to me, that's the key to acting on what his words had to say. Go with me back to chapter five.

In chapter five, verse one, this is what it says. When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain and after he sat down, his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and he began to say, he began to teach them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And when I read that, I can relate with that because being poor in spirit simply means I have a realistic estimation of who I really am before God. It means that I have the distinct understanding that I never can achieve what God wants me to do.

I never can be perfect because I know that in myself, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. And you see, I think that when we come to that point where we are poor in spirit, we're as close to being obedient as we ever will be because we then realize that not only do I not have what it takes to save myself, I don't have what it takes to keep myself safe. I don't have what it takes to keep myself safe. And I'm reminded that what's begun in the spirit must be continued in the spirit.

That I am kept by the power of God through faith. That as I come to the realization of my own inability not only to be saved but to keep myself saved, as I come to the end of myself, all I can do is bow down before a heavenly father and say, Lord, I can't, but your word says that you can. I think that that is the first step to hearing God's words and acting on them because then I begin to be empowered by that Holy Spirit. I begin to be empowered by him and I begin building my life on the foundation of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, not the foundation of my own righteousness.

And as I build my life on the foundation of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and I allow him to be the one who holds me up, I allow him to be the one who upholds me by his righteous right hand, well, then, all of a sudden, my house isn't shaken when all of the storms and the rains and the winds come because it's built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, not because of how hard I tried but because of how much I finally gave up.

He then closes out the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew does with this commentary. He says, and when Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as their scribes. As Jesus got up to teach them, the people continued to be more and more amazed at what he said, not because he was so flowery in the way that he said it, not because his delivery was so amazing. No, what were they amazed by?

They were amazed by the authority with which he spoke. And I don't think it means that Jesus was an overly powerful speaker. What it means is that he delivered the truth of the word of God and he did so in a confident and authoritative sort of way. You say, right, that's because he was Jesus. That's true. I think that's part of where the authority came from.

But do you know where I think the authority really came from? The authority came from the fact that he simply told the truth. This is what the word says. This is what we do with it. You see, at that point in time, the prevailing way that people taught, the prevailing way that the scribes taught was to simply give man's opinion on everything. They simply told

all of the interpretations of what the law said. They simply gave their own spin on what the law said and only taught man's doctrine and no longer God's doctrine to them. Therefore, when Jesus showed up and taught them as one having authority because he didn't say this is what Rabbi so-and-so says. He said this is what God says. All of a sudden they went, whoa.

That's why when people hear the teaching of the word of God, when they hear God's word laid out and explained, they go, you mean that's what it says? Because the authority of the word of God begins to do its work in their life. And that's the way Jesus will continue to do his ministry. Well, in the same way that Jesus brought them to a challenge point, to a point of decision, I'll close this out with a point of decision.

Because I think it's time for examination.

How are you building your house? What does your foundation look like right now? How much have the storms of this life rocked the foundation of your home? For some of us that are sitting here, sitting here today or watching online, your foundation is built on your own righteousness. Your foundation is built upon the fact that you attend a church. Your foundation is built

upon the fact that you own a Bible. Your foundation is built upon the fact that you're overall a pretty good person and that you think your good outweighs your bad. I'm here to tell you right now that whether it's the tests that you face on this side of eternity or the tests that you will face on the other side of eternity, that, is sinking sand and you will find that your house will fall and great will be its fall. There's some of us that are here this morning that have found that your foundation was a little bit rocked this last year and you've noticed some cracks in the foundation.

You've noticed that there's been a few places where maybe it's not as strong as it could be because you have found that the things that I mentioned as much as you don't want them to have rocked your life, they kind of rocked you a little bit. And you actually found yourself questioning some things about Jesus and salvation and the word of God and whether or not it was true. You have found that your foundation was a little bit rocked. I have good news for you.

I listen to commercials a lot. I really like commercials because they're usually funny and I kind of appreciate them. And there's commercials both on the TV and the radio all the time right now about foundation repair. You guys heard some of these commercials? It turns out no matter how cracked your basement walls or foundation are, they can drill piers down in there

and they can repair that foundation. And you know what I got to thinking as I was putting this message together? If we've learned how to do that with houses, maybe it's because God knows how to do that with lives. Maybe you're here this morning and you're going, man, I need some foundation repair. Listen, it's time to come to Jesus. It's time to come back to Jesus with those things

because you've been finding all of your hope in the things of this world. You've been finding your foundation on all of the wrong things. You've been hearing everything God's Word has to say. Maybe even in the last three months of us going through the Sermon on the Mount, you've been hearing what God's Word has to say, but you've not been putting it into practice.

Or you've been trying really hard to put it into practice and you keep failing because you forgot to start at the beginning with being poor in spirit. Then this morning it's time to come back to Jesus. It's time to allow Him to show you the cracks. It's time to allow Him to show you the places that are a little bit damaged. It's time to allow Him to do some foundation

repair in your life. He'll do it the same way He's always done. It'll start with confession and then it'll continue on with hearing what He has to say and then acting on what He has to say by confessing your inability in and of yourself and accepting His ability to do it in you. Amen? Let's all stand.

Well, Christmas is over. It's time to put the trees away. Time to put the decorations away. And I don't know who needs to hear this but you need to take your lights off your house before the end of January. It's time to do all those things, right? And for the rest of the world they've decided talking about Jesus is what they're going to be done with too. Brothers and sisters,

if that's your foundation then don't stop talking about it because we don't just need one time of the year. He's our foundation always. Father, we come before You and just thank You for the time that we've had in Your Word this morning. I pray that You would use Your Word as You see fit in our lives. That You would draw us near to You and that we would obey

the things that You have called us to. Lord, let Your truth sink deep into us fashioning us the hearts of men and women of God. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that You may abound through the power of all joy in believing through the power there is hope there is peace in there is joy receive all joy through the power through the power of The Lord bless you. Have a great week.