Words Without Roots

Transcript

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[0:01] Well, welcome to sermon time. I'm so glad that you're here. Though you're not here, I feel like you... Well, welcome to sermon time. I'm so glad that you're here. Though you're not here, I feel like you in some way are here. Because I'm thinking of you while I'm doing this, and I know that we'll be together when you watch this. And so I'm glad you're here. I'm glad to be able to be reaching out to you in this way. And I'm looking forward to the time when we will actually all be together in the same room. But until then, we'll do it this way. So I want to introduce what we're looking at today. We're looking at Matthew 7, 21 through 29. This is our final of 12 sermons on the Sermon on the Mount. The series ends today, so that's pretty exciting. And next week we have Palm Sunday worship, and so Holy Week begins. And so this has been a good time for Lent for us to also be focusing on discipleship. I want to...one more time, I want to take us back through where we have been in these three chapters of the Sermon on the Mount. It's truly astounding. We started with the Beatitudes. We talked about being salt and light in the world. A long section on the Law and its intensification. This idea that we can't keep the Law.

[1:30] And the Law drives us to seeking Jesus' grace at the foot of the cross there. Then the teaching on non-retribution. We're going to actually look at this some other day too. Not taking revenge, not returning violence with violence or hatred. Loving your enemies, turning the other cheek. And then a section which I think is also worth thinking about a lot more. Private spirituality. Not doing your works of pious... But behaviors so other people can see, but God alone sees it. The idea of wealth and possessions and having a generous eye towards other people. Really powerful stuff. A life free from worry, which seems almost impossible right now, but there it is. Judging others with fairness and developing wise discernment. Asking, seeking, knocking for those things that God wants you to have. The good fruits and the narrow path. And today, all of this kind of comes to a head where Jesus talks about how our actions need to match our words. Our actions have to match our words. And again, this is all about discipleship. The indicative of a life that's devoted to Jesus. So that's the introduction. That's where we are today. We're looking at matching our actions to our words. And so I'm going to go to the reading now.

[2:53] Again, Matthew 7, 21 through 22. And it goes like this. Jesus says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?

[3:23] Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the wind blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the wind blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock.

[4:11] When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this word. And we ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, amen.

[4:36] Well, I love how this starts. Where people say, Lord, Lord. These words that we have, like somehow magically saying these things, creates this connection between us and Jesus. Jesus. In the old days, in Israel's history, the people would say, this is the temple of the Lord. The temple of the Lord. They would say, we're in the temple. This should protect us because we're in this temple. And God says, you can't say the temple of the Lord and yet have lives that are broken and unjust. That doesn't work. You can't cover over your sin by using great words. And so Jesus is saying here, it's not enough to call on Jesus' name. He's looking for more than words. He's looking for more than somebody who knows his name.

[5:23] He's asking, have they done the will of the Father? Have they gone through the small gate? Have they walked on the narrow path? Is there fruit on the tree that anyone can see? And there is another side of it too. The other side is that there actually may be fruit. Somebody might have something that they could point to. They'll say, did we not prophesy in your name? And drive out demons and perform many miracles? And that actually is compelling to me. On the face of it, it's persuasive. It comes down maybe to how we interpret the word prophesy or prophecy. It's less a prediction about the future than it is maybe using language for power. And so you would use a prophetic voice to call evil to account or to activate the conscience of the person that you're talking to, much like Nathan did. And so you would use a prophetic voice to call evil to account. And so you would use a prophetic voice to call evil to account. And David instantly realized his own guilt.

[6:31] It's possible to attach Jesus' name on the end of some pronouncement that we make. But that doesn't mean that Jesus is the source of it. You know, there's this whole stream of Christianity that struggles with it. And actually all Christians struggle with it on some level. But there's some that say, I want to do it a little bit more than others. And they'll use words like this. They'll say, I have a word from the Lord. Or the Spirit told me this. And then always be careful for what comes next because it probably is more about them than God. But not always. You have to be discerning. You have to use good judgment. So I know someone who was told by a man that the Lord told me that you should go on a date with me.

[7:17] Well, she didn't. She didn't. But in my mind, that ranks as one of the worst pickup lines ever. The creepiness factor just went through the roof on that one. And by the way, I understand, and not from personal experience, that the number one pickup line actually is, would you like to dance? Which is nice, right? Because it's kind of open-ended and it kind of means you want to get to know somebody and dance with them. So in case you unmarried people need it, right?

[7:53] That's a freebie for you. Also, evidently, originality counts too. And would you like to dance isn't original. So you're kind of on your own there. Just, you'll work it out. You'll work it out. Anyway, we can abuse holy words to get what we want.

[8:09] That's a real problem. Or someone who knows a lot of scripture and they know a lot of Christian jargon and they let it slip out a lot. Because they're not really practicing a private spirituality. But they have some really bad habits at the same time. And it creates this kind of conflict in our minds. And people say, gosh, they know a lot and they talk a good game, but I don't know.

[8:36] Maybe there's something that they really want. And they come up with some magical and, shall we say, creative scriptural reasoning for why they should get it. That happens. Or they actually do do some deeds of power. Healings, exorcisms. But these also do not come from Jesus' power. And if not from him, then where do they come from? And that's kind of a scary thing to think about.

[9:05] Here's what Jesus says. He says, talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. You have to know the word, yes. And you have to say the word, yes. But you have to do the word. You have to do the word. And then you have to give glory to God alone.

[9:31] And leave yourself out of it. If you have a good tree, you will have good fruit. That's what happens. You just will. Now here's the scary thing. And there's a lot of scary. And we should pay attention to it. Is that this ranks up there with the most dire warnings in all of scripture.

[9:57] If we don't do the word the way we say the word. And we ask Jesus to grade us on the effort. He's going to say, I never knew you. Now let that sink in. I never knew you. I think we've gotten maybe to the point where we gloss over that. We just don't know what that means. We don't know what to think about that. And so we let that phrase, I never knew you kind of just slip by us. But I think it's not to be slipping by.

[10:36] I never knew you. Isn't it amazing that the soft spoken Jesus who hugs children and comforts the wearies sometimes says things like this? Like, I don't know you. I never knew you. And this all fits together really in a way. That's another topic for another day where he can say both these things and still be Jesus. Today we don't have soft Jesus. We have tough Jesus. I never knew you. Not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom.

[11:07] These words in the Sermon on the Mount are important. They're binding on us. And not just here, but the whole gospel and all the gospels and all the word of God. Doing the will of the Father. The Father is what Jesus is all about.

[11:22] And doing the will of the Father is what this Sermon on the Mount is all about. Now, next we have a parable, a very short one about the wise and the foolish builders. And this one is straightforward. It's easy to understand. It's not a very mysterious parable. It's not one that you have to sort of puzzle through. And when I was growing up, I heard this one a lot. I think because it's easy to teach to children. And I think that sometimes I have left this parable in my childhood where things are simple and maybe not very consequential.

[12:03] For me, it was about being a good builder. I had that archbook. Do you ever have that archbook at home? And there was a little man with a hammer and a saw and he was busy building this house. And he had cut a foundation deep enough. And he was going to the rock and he was building this great house on top of that. And that one survived. And the other man was working too, but not spending as much time digging.

[12:26] But he built a house too. And he had a saw and his hammer and he looked busy. And then the water came down and it went past the one house, but it destroyed the other house. And actually, it kind of looked like the foolish man was on a water slide, like at raging waters or something like that. It looked a little fun. Not at all that scary. Not scary really at all in the book because you don't want to terrify the children.

[12:51] But of course, if we look at it again as adults, it is scary. It is consequential. It's consequential in the sense that there are real consequences for our words, for our motivations, for our actions. And it follows this harsh word that Jesus may say, talk is cheap. And I never knew you. I never knew you. And the final line really brings it home. That house that was not built on the foundation of Jesus, on the foundation of his word, on the foundation of doing the word, it fell with a great crash. Or I think a better translation you'll find elsewhere, and great was its fall.

[13:41] Wow. Great was its fall. Wow. Wow. We have a great God. We have a great King. We have a great Savior and Lord. And we sing of the greatness of the blood of Jesus. And I love how great and big those things are. But turn it around.

[13:59] What if the great falling, for those who don't do the word, has the same magnitude as the great reward that comes when we enter the kingdom? I want us to be quick to remember. Remember. There is always grace.

[14:21] But it can't be cheap grace. That's building on sand. The truth is we will never measure up to all of this. Jesus knows that. Jesus lived up to all of it but we can't. We are forgiven for falling short. We are forgiven for our ignorance, I believe. We are forgiven when the law shows us our sin and we fall on our knees at the Cross and are washed clean with the blood of Jesus. clean by the blood of Jesus. That all happens. Grace is there.

[14:54] Here's what Jesus is saying. The word needs to sink into us. It needs to enter our DNA. It's the indicative. We've been talking about this whole time. Go back to the earlier sermons and we explained that a little more, this idea between indicative and imperative. When you believe this, your life looks like this. That's the indicative. You are both poor in spirit and a citizen in the kingdom of God at the same time.

[15:30] That's how I want to sum up this whole sermon on the belt. And that's how Jesus sums it up. It is about doing what we say. Doing what we say. And giving God the credit. I think by some miracle that this was the right word for the time in that we're right now. And I want to talk about the time that we're in right now. I'm talking about a time, and if somebody watches this years from now, I'll just let you know that we're in a time of sheltering in place because there's a disease that's spreading throughout the world and it's quite dangerous. And we're very concerned. So this, I think, is a word for the season we're in right now. And I'll tell you, I'm a little worried about us here. Maybe a lot worried. Maybe I don't even understand in my own self how worried I am. So I'm working through that. We're cooped up. We're apprehensive. Life has changed. And a lot more changes are probably going to come our way. We'll see.

[16:34] That is nothing. I want you to hear me. Whatever you're experiencing in Silicon Valley, California, as big as it is, and it is big, it is probably, small, compared to what will happen to places where we send support as a church. And I'm going to read you some of the places that we send support. We send support to Mexico, to a school in India, to Nicaragua, or people from Nicaragua, the South Pacific, one place that we can't name, and Liberia. And there's probably some more beyond that that happens through, an organization that we give to that blesses all sorts of places. I don't think I'm being an alarmist to say that the healthcare systems in these countries will be pushed past the breaking point. I see joblessness and poverty and lack of access to food and civil unrest all going up in the next months.

[17:39] We need a generous eye now for those places. This is really on my heart. But test for yourself if it is from the Lord. I don't want to abuse the name of Jesus by saying, the Lord told me to say this. I'm not going to do that.

[17:53] But it's where my heart is. The world is really going to struggle in the next months, maybe years, more so than I think Silicon Valley ultimately will. I think it is the time to look at the Sermon on the Mount and say, blessed are the merciful.

[18:18] Wow. How blessed it is to have a generous eye, a good eye. I want you to be thinking, how can we increase our support to missionaries and charities that are going to be on the front lines in these distance places in just a few weeks, if not already.

[18:37] Be thinking about that. And I'll be thinking about that. Ah. I'm going to be thinking about that. There's a heavy heart there. Well, for the sake of ending this sermon and this time that we're in together, I want to tell you now we're done. We're done with the Sermon on the Mount, but I don't think it's done with us. These three chapters, this Sermon on the Mount, what an amazing gift this has been to us. I cannot believe it. I have rediscovered a section of scripture and it has become so powerful to me. I can't explain to you, and I think you know this, when you teach something, you learn it in a deep way. And that has happened, praise God. That's one wonderful outcome of this for me is just having to study it more, teach it, and learn more.

[19:26] Here's your challenge. And it's a simple one, I think, because you might have some time. Read the Sermon on the Mount again this week. It's three chapters of Matthew. It's not that long. Read it again in the coming week. Read it this week. I'm going to make a recording of a reading in case you'd rather listen to it. You can find that on the church website. Read it or listen to it. As you encounter these words again, remember that this is a description of what a life of discipleship looks like.

[19:56] And ask myself, if my life does not match what I am reading, what am I going to do? What must I ask for or seek for or knock for? And God gives freely to the birds and the flowers how much more? Will God freely and gladly give us these things too? Amen. Let's pray.

[20:22] Father, thank you again, not just for this word, but for this whole word, the Sermon on the Mount. Teach us to be obedient to the will of the Father. Teach us to do what we say. Help this world that we're in. Show us how to be generous.

[20:40] Show us how to be your disciples. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.