today. He grew up in a Methodist parsonage, but he tells us that at one point, when he was a young man, he drifted away from the church.
During that period, he fell in love with a beautiful young woman. He asked her to go on a Sunday morning picnic with him.
I love her response: "If you want to be with me on Sunday morning, we will be together in church!" Well, he wanted to be with her, so he went with her to church that Sunday morning, and they have hardly missed a Sunday since.
She brought him back to God and to the church. She knew how to take up the torch, how to share Christ, how to feed his sheep. And God's church has been blessed by this great couple ever since—all because she had a sense of God's direction and the courage to go in God's direction.
The Risen Christ is here with us right now. He has some incredible promises and some special gifts for us. Won't you receive them? Won't you accept them? He promises to be with us in every circumstance of life, and he promises to give us encouragement, forgiveness, and direction.
3
The Promise of a Rock-Solid Foundation
Building on the Rock
MATTHEW 7:21, 24-27
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. . . . Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall."
Some years ago, in a small town in Central Europe, a visitor saw something that fascinated him—something that seemed very strange to him. He noticed all the native villagers performing the same highly unusual ritual. As they passed by a certain ordinary looking wall, they would nod casually in the direction of the wall, then make the sign of the cross as they walked on by.
Some would be walking briskly, others more slowly, but they all did the same thing. They would nod at the wall and make the sign of the cross as they passed by. When the visitor asked why they did this, no one knew. "We've always done that," they said. "It's a tradition, a time-honored ritual in our village. Everybody does it! Always have!"
The visitor's curiosity got the best of him and he began chipping away at the layers of whitewash and dirt that covered the wall until, underneath the grime, he discovered a magnificent mural of Mary and the baby Jesus! Generations before, the townspeople had had a beautiful reason for bowing and making the sign of the cross at that place. It had been an altar of prayer in the heart of the village.
But succeeding generations didn't know that. They had only learned the ritual. They continued to go through the motions without knowing the reason behind them. They performed the practice, but it had absolutely no meaning for them and made no impact on their lives at all. That's an appropriate parable for many people today, in their approach to religion, isn't it?
Their faith experience is not much more than a vague nod in God's direction. They casually perform some of the rituals of faith, but they don't really know why. And the rituals have become so routine, so casual, so matterof-fact, that there is no power, no strength, no inspiration in them at all—a little nod here, a token gesture there, but no depth, no spirit, no life!
But in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shows us dramatically that this kind of shallow, nonchalant approach to faith won't work. There are storms ahead—the rains of trouble will fall, the floods of stress will come, the winds of challenge will lash against us. Shaky, unstable, wavering, casual routine faith won't hold together. The storms of life will rip it apart and smash it to the ground. We need a strong and stable house of faith, built on a rocksolid foundation!
Here's how Jesus put it. He said: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' [i.e., not everyone who makes a casual nod in my direction] will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. . . . Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock."
Now, what is this rock-solid foundation that Jesus is talking about? What are the promises? Well, this is the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, and he is obviously referring to what he has just taught in the preceding chapters. As a matter of fact, he says that: "Hear these words and do them, and you will be wise and strong, but if you hear these words and don't do them, you will be foolish and weak."
Now, when we go back and read through the Sermon on the Mount carefully, we discover several recurring and dominant themes. Let me underscore three of them.
First, There Is Rock- Solid Commitment
All through the Sermon on the Mount, there is the call to commitment: "Be peacemakers"; "Let your light shine"; "Enter the narrow gate."
Let me ask you: Do you have a rock-solid commitment? How would you rate your commitment to Christ? On a scale of one to ten, with ten being absolutely terrific and one being very poor, how would you rate your commitment to God and the church?
Do you really put God first in your life? Do you really love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Are you really committed to God's kingdom, and to the doing of God's will? Are you really committed to living daily in the Spirit of Christ? Do you really love that person next to you right now as much as you love yourself? Are you wholeheartedly committed to supporting and upholding the church with your prayers, your presence, your gifts, and your service?
At the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus points out vividly that a commitment built on shaky, shifting sands will not work. A rock-solid commitment is needed. An unflinching, unwavering commitment to Christ is what we must have to stand against the treacherous storms of life.
Some years ago, I received a call one morning from some dear friends. "We've just received the results of Mom's tests," they said. "It's bad news—real bad. She has six months to a year to live, and we want you to come and tell her the situation." She was fifty-seven years old. She was at home, and when I got there, she was seated by the window in the den, watching her granddaughter playing in the backyard. As I sat down with her, I was trying to figure out how to say it, how to tell her. And the following conversation took place.
"Well, Jim," she said, "It looks like you drew the short straw. I know you've come to give me the bad news."
"Well," I answered, "I do have the results of your tests."
"How long do I have?" she asked.
"Now, you know it's hard to be precise on these things, but the doctors say six months to a year."
"I'm not surprised," she said. "That's about what I expected."
We were quiet for a moment, and then I asked, "How do you feel inside right now?"
She said, "When I look out there and see my granddaughter, I feel like crying." And I told her I felt like crying too, and we did cry a little, but then she went on, "Jim, I'm not afraid. All my life I've gone to Sunday school and church. I'm a believer! I'm committed to Christ with every fiber
