Jump Start # 185 

Matthew 7:25 “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.”

  The wise man and the foolish man! Many of us first learned of this story when we were children in a Bible class. We sang a song and with our fingers made the rains come down and the floods came up. Then with great excitement we slapped our hands together when the ole’ foolish man’s house went ker-plat! What memories! What a fun song…

  But now we are adults and we don’t go back to that story very often. Let’s do so today. This is how Jesus ended his great sermon on the mount. It ends with a story, a parable. The story is pointed to the audience. They have been listening to Jesus, now what are they going to do? Did the message make a difference to them? Did they believe? For three chapters Jesus has been showing the righteous life that God wants from all of us. His topics have been wide spread. He’s talked about prayer and lust and giving and divorce and worry and influence and beatitudes and judging and now He ends with this story.

  Notice there are some differences in the two men:

One is wise and the other is foolish. One builds upon the rock and the other upon the sand. One house stands and the other house collapses. One man heard and did, that’s rock building. The other man heard and wasn’t changed and did nothing, that’s sand castles. The difference was doing what Jesus said.

  But we must also notice the similarities. It rained on both men. Both men had to deal with the rising flood and the blowing winds. Coming to Christ is not a promise of sunny days and gentle winds. No. The floods rise. You’ll face driving rains and harsh winds. The difference is the foundation. Standing upon Christ you can and you will survive. That is the promise of this passage. We often pray for the storms to cease. But they don’t. We wonder if God hears us or loves us. Instead of keeping us from the storms, he supplies us with all we need to keep the storms from coming within us.

 Foundations. That is a concern to builders in earthquake areas. They must do special things so the structures will stand. Foundations is a concern for those who want to go to Heaven. We must do special things so we can with stand the storms of life.

  What this passage is driving at is the impact that the words of Jesus has upon us. How can we hear Jesus and not be different? Those precious words impact us. They affect us. We change, we build, we alter our life because of those words. And it makes a difference. When the storm comes, we are still standing.

  Sometimes we don’t know what a person is made of until the storm hits. Then you see. Some go to pieces—must be people who used sand to build. Some get angry (sand people). Some become destructive by abusing self, others even take their life. But some keep on going. They still cling to the Lord. They don’t give up. They don’t seem shaken at all. We wonder, “How?” It has to do with what is under them and when we look, we find rock. Not just any rock, but the rock, Jesus Christ. That makes all the difference in the world!

Roger