A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 51

Chapter 51 – Building on a Rock

 

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! (Matthew 7:24-27)

It's all about the foundation. In order to stand strong, we must have a strong foundation, especially in our faith. I think the problem lies in that we think we have a good strong foundation, but then when we are tested, when we are asked to go outside our comfort zone, suddenly our foundation is nothing but sand.

According to Oswald Chambers, “the way to put foundations under our castles is by paying attention to the words of Jesus Christ.” (p. 326) If you’ve been following along these last 50 weeks, you’ll know where I’m going with this. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is our instruction books; it’s the words that we can use to build our foundation. Pay attention to these words. Send time with your bible. Dig deep into the words of this sermon. It’s only with a solid foundation that when a true crisis arises that you’ll stand there like a rock.

And with this foundation of rock solidly in place, you can stand up for the oppressed, for the marginalized, for the unhoused, for the foreigner. With a good foundation, you can fight for justice and for peace.

Living out Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount will take determination, faith, love, and commitment.

Are you ready?