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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

The Wise Christian & His Shovel

As we open the Word of God together, and be able to search the Scriptures, and be able to discover a message from God Himself to each 1 of us.

As we begin this morning, I'm going to ask you to use your imagination.

Come with me in your mind's eye to a sandy place.

Well, it's a unique setting, I understand, but Jesus chose that setting for this particular story that we're going to take a look at today.

It's a place where both the wise and the foolish look to build a house.

But this morning let's not be too quick to put ourselves on top of a rock.

Because that's actually not where we begin.

My message today is entitled, The Wise Christian and His Shovel.

Father in heaven, Lord, how good it is to be in a place where the living God is also abiding and to be welcomed into your presence.

And Lord, as we abide with you, we ask that you would speak.

Speak, Lord, for we, your servants, we, your worshipers, are here to listen, to in our hearts, Lord, to catch that still small voice that convicts hearts, convict us, Lord.

Please open your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Matthew.

If you don't have your Bible, there is a Bible there in front of you.

We're going to be taking a look at various verses today.

And as we go to Matthew chapter 7, I would venture to say that most of us, if not all of us, know the classic children's song.

I must have been in a beginner's class when I learned this song.

That was actually not part of my plan, but the timing was pretty good, wasn't it?

The wise men build his house upon the rock.

But then we have, the foolish men build his house upon the sand.

The parable is found in Matthew chapter 7, verses 24 to 27.

It's right here in Matthew chapter 7 beginning with verse 24.

And Jesus said, Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.

And the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house.

And it did not fall, for it was founded on the what?

Verse 26, but everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the what?

And the rain descended, floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell.

The story quickly leads its listeners to a place where 2 men must make a fundamental decision.

You know as a kid whenever I heard this story, and if you grew up in church, well, you probably heard this story several times.

I always envisioned 2 men showing up at the scene, surveying the land.

For after all, they're looking for a lot to build a house.

And they're looking and determining where to build the house.

And in my imagination, what I see is a land that has various sand dunes of various heights And then I also envision several large boulders, rocks of all sizes, scattered among the sand dunes.

Well as we read this parable there in Matthew 7, just with a single reading of the parable, If you read that parable for the first time, that's all it takes to actually be quick to pick up on various similarities.

It is a parable of contrast, we're going to get that in a minute, but there's a lot of various similarities.

First of all, they both, the wise and the foolish, they both came to the same sandy place.

There is no indication in the verse or in the passage that 1 was in 1 town and the other 1 was in some other town or in some other state.

No, they showed up at the same place to determine where to build a house.

They both, well, built a house, that's a similarity, And they both experienced a downpour.

What contrast do we notice in that short parable?

Well, for starters, it's probably the most obvious 1.

Consequently, 1 decides to build his house on the sand and the other on the rock.

And sometime later, there's a storm that comes and it just pounds that neighborhood, that little residential area in the sandy place, just pounds that place.

In a contrast, another obvious 1 is that 1 of them, 1 of the 2, experiences tragedy, while the other 1, well, he lived happily ever after.

So as we take a look at the similarities and focus in on the contrast, I'm going to ask you a question.

What could we say, looking at the passage, what can we say is the most weighty difference between the 2 gentlemen, the wise 1 and the foolish 1?

What is the difference that really ought to be the most significant, the most important, the most valuable, and the most crucial for you and I in the 21st century, millenniums later, to be able to understand and really focus in on if indeed the parables of Jesus were intended to teach us lessons on how to live.

What lesson is there that we cannot afford to miss?

Is it that 1 chose to build on the rock and the other 1 on the sand?

That's the most important difference, someone might think?

But not what I have come to conclude in that passage.

You know, if you think about the story, it makes you wonder, Don't you think?

It makes you wonder if the lots that were there were first come first served.

So that the wise men, early to bed and early to get up, you know the saying, right?

So, is it safe to conclude that the wise 1 got up early in the morning and showed up first.

And when he showed up first, he sees the rock.

Right there, that's, I'm calling the shot, that's my house right there.

Or we could simply say that there was plenty of rocks in that territory and they simply came and the 2 men looked around, surveyed the land, and they had options.

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The Wise Christian & His Shovel

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