2006-04-09 Communion Dedication – Baldwin Christian Church
Matthew 7:24-29
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Blessings (v24-25) and cursings (v26-27); God has set them before us ever since the Garden of Eden. Like Adam and Eve, we can choose to live, or we can choose to follow what we think is right (Proverbs 16:25). In the Garden, they chose what they thought was right, and they had somebody eager to help them make that decision (that old serpent). We still have many people eager to help us learn what is right. They dig up some old fossil of a mudskipper, and boldly declare they’ve found the missing link that finally proves the theory of evolution is a fact. They piece together some old document that says Judas was actually the greatest disciple, so they boldly declare that it casts doubt on the Bible.
Blessings and cursings are set before us every day in the form of choices. I’m not necessarily talking about instantaneous choices, like whether or not you choose to hit the brakes when somebody cuts you off in traffic. I’m talking about conscious decisions, the ones you have time to think about, like the things you consider doing after someone cuts you off. Do you honk at them, tailgate, maybe make a not-so-friendly gesture, be aggressive and try to get in front so you can cut them off, making them hit their brakes, or do you take that moment to pray with thanksgiving? (Hopefully with your eyes open if you’re driving) Do you let a moment of anger control the rest of your day, and then let your bad attitude rub off on someone else’s day? It’s your choice to make. When I’m angry, I can choose to stay angry, and be a “cursing”, or I can let that anger be my cue to start blessing instead, and start praying for all the people that I’m angry at.
The way I choose to speak, do, or act, has consequences. My conscious decisions reap cursings and blessings on myself, and others, every single day. To those of you who choose to live by the words in the Sermon on the Mount, what does Jesus call you? He likens you to a wise man. If you re-read chapters 5, 6 and 7, you will probably scratch your head at some of the things that Jesus wants us to do. It’s not the kind of behavior that the world expects. It’s curious, and that’s where God’s Wisdom shines, in curiously different people. Most people will read those chapters
Usually, when we read these chapters (Matthew 5,6, & 7), we pick out the verses that sound good to us, and maybe even quote those verses, but we ignore the difficult ones. We want to claim the name and authority of Jesus, but we don’t want to do what He tells us to do. We make that choice many times during a day, and a good way to determine whether we’re building a house on sand, or rock, is to examine the “I want”, or “I know” factor in the decision, and pray for wisdom.
I want to be called “the salt of the earth”, but I don’t want to leave the comfort of my shaker (Matthew 5:13), because I know I could get hurt. I want to be called a “child of God”, but I don’t want to love my enemies, bless those who curse me, do good to them who hate me, and pray for those which despitefully use me, and persecute me, (Matthew 5:43-48) because I know it wasn’t my fault to begin with. I want to have treasure in heaven, but my heart is really attached to these treasures on earth (Matthew 6:19), because I know God would want me to be comfortable. I want to be “full of light”, but I also want to look away from the light sometimes (Matthew 6:22), because I know He will forgive me. I want “all these things” that He promises me, but I don’t always want to seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33), because I know He’s happy just to see me in church on Sundays. I want to point out everybody else’s problems, but I sure don’t want to cast the beam out of my own eye (Matthew 7:5), because I know their problems better than they do.
Jesus was not “preaching” on God’s word as a scribe, as a man who knew the Scriptures. When He finished this sermon, folks were astonished at His teaching; they sensed an undeniable authority behind the words, as an author would speak about his own book, and they were right, because Jesus is the Author. He died to offer you this same authority, to receive His Holy Spirit by faith, and to realize that we can speak, do, and live in the power of His wonderful name. He died to give us life, so we can stop worrying about the thing that don’t matter, and choose to do what’s right in His eyes.
Today, we will all be confronted with decisions; some small, some not so small. We can choose to be a blessing, or we can be a cursing; we can choose the way of life, or we can choose to do what we think is right.