Luke 6; 46 to 49

Luke 6; 46 to 49

In the run up to today’s gospel reading Luke tells us that Jesus has spent the night on a mountainside praying and then he’s selected the 12 apostles.

On his way down from the mountain, Jesus comes to a level place where a great multitude of people have gathered to hear his teaching and to be healed of their diseases.

After healing many people, Jesus delivers what is commonly called his sermon on the plain which he ends with this parable about two men who build houses with different foundations.

Why does he end his sermon with this parable? Well I think Jesus is concerned as to whether people are actually taking on board what he is saying.

Lots of people like coming to see him and to hear his teaching, and no doubt rejoice at being healed.

But how many of these people actually then go away and put his teaching into practice?
In particular some of these people give the outward appearance of acknowledging him as Lord but they do not then actually do what he says.

I think this can be true of people today.

Jesus’ teaching reaches their ears but does not change their hearts because when it comes to it, they are unwilling to repent. Although they may call Jesus Lord, they do not want to allow God to direct their lives and to face the implications of what this might entail.

They’re quite happy listening to his teaching but in reality they want to keep God at arms length in their lives – at a safe distance from the cost of discipleship.

Matthew also records this parable in Chapter 7 of his gospel.

He tells us that immediately before telling this story Jesus says to the crowd of people listening to him; "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.

So initially we can interpret this parable in the context of judgement.
The rock in the story can be seen as Jesus himself. The bible refers to God as a rock in both the 
Old and New Testaments. For example the Psalmist says; “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.”

Thus the first man who hears Jesus’ teaching and acts on it, survives the day of judgement.

He has taken Jesus seriously, repented, and made the effort to put his words into practise. He is able to stand on the day of judgement, because his life is built on a firm foundation, on God himself.

The second man has also heard Jesus teaching but he has failed to act on it or put it into practise.

When judgement comes his life is swept away because it has no foundation.

Jesus words therefore are supremely important because how we respond to them will determine whether we stand or fall on the day of judgement.

What he says is of eternal significance to our lives. We can hear what he says but unless we take his words seriously and put them into practice we are in danger of one day going to hell.

So what did Jesus say?

In short he claimed to be God and said that people could only be saved by repenting and believing in him. He also said that one day he would one return to judge the world.

This is why it is so important for us not only to listen to his words but also to act upon them.

This why Campbell and I encourage you to read your bibles, particularly the gospels, and to study them.

This is why Campbell has produced weekly study notes for us.

Jesus’ words are of vital importance not only for our own eternal destinies but also for the eternal destinies of those we love.

And this is why those who are Christians should make every effort to reach out with Jesus’ words and his love to those around them.

Sadly though many people are so focused on this life and this world, that they fail to understand the significance of eternity.

Our lives in this world are mere flashes in the pan compared to what awaits us in eternity.

Jesus words have the power to save both us and those we love eternally, but only as we take him seriously and do what he tells us to do.

In the same way that we can read about dieting, unless we put the diet into practise, it won’t do us any good.

The person who hears his words but doesn’t act on them is a fool because he fails to recognise the tremendous importance and eternal significance of what he is hearing

However this parable is not just about surviving judgement day. It’s also about surviving the trials and tribulations of life.

As we take on board what Jesus says and apply it to our lives we will be better able to stand the storms that life throws at us.

My old vicar used to say that when he came across people with bibles that were falling apart he generally found that they weren’t.

In his letter, James says; “Do not merely listen to the word ... do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

“But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”

So as we study and put Jesus’ teaching into practice in our lives, we will be blessed. Although we may face all manner of troubles, as we walk in obedience to Christ and to his teaching we will be able to navigate these troubles and survive them.

Christianity is fundamentally about a relationship with Jesus. We come into that relationship by acknowledging his sovereignty in our lives and we continue and grow in that relationship by seeking to live in obedience to what he teaches and asks us to do.

As we seek to walk in obedience to him he blesses us, and as we study and apply his word we get to know him better and come to understand his love for us better.

In life part of the way we get to know people is by the words they speak. The words that come out of their mouths reveal their characters. It’s the same with God.

He’s given us His word in the bible so that we can get to know him better by studying it and doing our best to apply it to our lives.

Of course it’s not easy to do this and we very much need the help of the Holy Spirit to help us to live as God desires.

But the better we get to know him the more secure we feel in his love and the more we are able to trust him with our own lives and the lives of those we love.

King David was able to say; “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for your rod and staff they comfort me.”

As we come to realise how much God loves us and to recognise his faithfulness and goodness we can start to face whatever life throws at us with a tremendous inner confidence.

I was very impressed by a lady vicar I met when I was doing my Reader Training course. She clearly had a vibrant relationship with God and she told us how she’d reacted when she found out her daughter couldn’t have children.

She turned to God and asked him to guide them through this problem and to help them to learn anything that He wanted them to, from it.

Her attitude was that God loved her and her daughter and that he knew all about this problem. She had faith that God was in control of the whole situation and could open her daughter’s womb at any time if He so desired.

She knew from reading her bible that God is an expert at opening the wombs of women who struggle to conceive.

Obviously she and her daughter were upset but this lady’s faith was in God and she was confident that He would see them through it.

I mention this story as when we know that God loves us and that our lives and destinies are secure in His hands, what would sometimes seem insurmountable problems from a worldly perspective, can take on a different light.

God can heal and deliver us, or give us words of promise to see us through situations that without him would seem very bleak indeed.

For the Christian there is also an eternal perspective on the problems life throw at us.

As Paul says in his second letter to the Corinthians, “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

In the context of eternity and one day living with God in heaven, the problems we face in this life are by comparison light and momentary.

Ultimately even when death comes it is the gateway to heaven – a place of perfect peace and happiness.

I remember seeing Roy Castle who was a committed Christian, being interviewed before his death from cancer.

He said that he’d had a wonderful life in this world but he was expecting heaven to be better by far. He wasn’t afraid of death because he’d built his life on Jesus.

So this parable tells us that the wise person builds their life on God and seeks to live in obedience to him. Doing this will not only help us to stand when we face problems in this life but will also ensure that we stand on the Day of Judgment.

The foolish person ignores Jesus teaching and finds that not only may they be overwhelmed by the problems life throws at them, but also when judgment comes their lives will be swept away.

So the final question to ask is, are we wise or foolish?

Do we come here week by week and listen to what Jesus says but then fail to apply it to our lives, or do we take his words seriously and give them the proper attention that they deserve?

We are fortunate to have this parable and others like it as it is a warning to us.

Whether we heed the warning or not is up to us.

God loves us and wants to bless us but this can only happen as we take his words and teaching as recorded in the bible, seriously, and with the help of the Holy Spirit make the effort to apply it to our lives.

In the name of the living God. Amen.

Psalm 34

Happiness has been in the news recently with the government publishing its happiness index. 

Most people are motivated by a desire to be happy in life and accordingly they try and do and achieve things which they think will make them happy.

Many seek happiness in money. If only I could earn more or win the Lottery then I’d be happy. It’s true that a lack of money can cause unhappiness. The trouble however is, that those who do earn lots and win the Lottery frequently find that it doesn’t really make them happy and sometimes in the long run it actually brings them unhappiness.

Many seek happiness through their career or life style – by achieving status and living in a nice 

house, but find that a certain emptiness deep within remains, and lasting happiness eludes them.

And of course many young people today seek happiness in celebrity culture. If only I could be famous and get my picture in Hello magazine then I’d be happy. The trouble is that many celebrities aren’t happy.

As we seek to please ourselves and satisfy our own desires, although we may find temporary pleasure, in the long run we are often disappointed and a deep emptiness and longing for something more fulfilling remains.

The Psalmist has different ideas about where true happiness can be found and that is what I believe today’s Psalm is essentially about.

According to the Psalmist our happiness comes not from leading self-centred lives, but from leading God-centred lives. “Happy are those who take refuge in him,” he says in verse 8.

And in this Psalm I believe the Psalmist presents us with a key. It’s a golden key, a precious key that can unlock happiness and those things which will make us happy.

It’s a key to answered prayer and to deliverance from our fears; it’s a key to lacking no good thing; it’s a key to many days to enjoy good; and it’s a key to being rescued from our troubles and afflictions.

It’s not a key to avoiding trouble or affliction, but it is a key to being delivered from them.

So the question for us is how do we lay hold of this key? What do we have to do to unlock this happiness that the Psalmist describes?

The first thing the Psalmist suggests we should do is to learn to thank and praise God for all the good things he’s done for us and given us.

“I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth” – that’s verse 1.

We should adopt an attitude of gratitude. Thankyou Lord for my life and for creating me. 

Thankyou for my family and friends. Thankyou for food and shelter. Thankyou for the beauty of the world around me. Thankyou for all the good things you have poured into my life. Thankyou for dying for me on the cross.

Bless you Lord for your love and goodness to me.

Adopting an attitude of gratitude is part of the key to happiness. Being thankful to God builds up our faith – like a tyre being inflated with air – and enables us to receive things from God more easily.

If we moan at God about everything that is wrong with our lives and forget to thank him for the good things it makes it harder for us to receive from him.

Adopting an attitude of gratitude opens our lives to receive blessings from God as an open flower can receive sunshine.

The next thing the Psalmist says we should do is to seek the Lord and look to him - verses 4 and 5.

Nowadays lots of people seek solutions to their problems by reading self help books, by meditating or doing Yoga or by visiting mediums and spiritualists.

They are looking in the wrong place for help. In fact visiting mediums is likely to make our problems worse and open our lives to negative spiritual influences.

No, we should seek the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the Holy one of Israel, the creator of the Universe.

As God says in the book of Isaiah – “Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no saviour.”

 We can call him Father or Lord or simply Jesus.  However we address him, He is the only one who can answer our prayers and save and deliver us from all our fears and predicaments.

About 18 years ago I had a nasty lump under my arm which was removed in a 2 hour operation. 

By the grace of God I’d felt  the evil in the lump leave my body before the operation, but the experience rattled me and I was afraid it could happen again, so I sought the Lord and asked Him to deliver me from my fear.

A few months later on Easter Day I walked home from Church alone – as my family had stayed at the Church - and when I got home I felt that God wanted me to read Psalm 41. As I did so, He spoke to me through it.

He told me that he would protect me and preserve my life, that he wouldn’t abandon me to the power of my enemies, and that when I was sick he’d restore me to health.

He removed my fears and like the Psalmist, I rejoiced.

I can think of other occasions in my life where God has delivered me from my fears, not because 

I’m special, I’m most certainly not - but because I sought and looked to Him and because He is loving and gracious and kind and He longs to bless us.

As the Psalmist says in verse 5, “Look to him and be radiant, so your faces shall never be ashamed.”

Look to the one true God, the creator of the universe, because He can save and rescue you and enable you to rejoice and be happy.

The next thing the Psalmist says we should do to find happiness, is to fear the Lord.

“O fear the Lord, you his holy ones, for those who fear him have no want.” (verse 9)

To fear the Lord is to have a healthy respect for Him which leads us to trust in Him and to obey Him.

To fear Him is to realise that everything we do and every thought we have is laid bare before his eyes, and therefore we seek to live in a way that is pleasing to Him, because we know that one day we will have to give an account to Him for how we have lived.

To fear the Lord is to seek to live in a morally upright way that honours God.

As the Psalmist says in verses 11 to 14; “Come O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Which of you desires life and covets many days to enjoy good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”

Why should we do this? – because as the Psalmist says in the next verse –“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their cry.”

God’s ears are open to the cry of the righteous.

To be righteous isn’t just to be morally upright however.

Righteousness is a humble openness to God and to his will, to be seeking to walk in obedience to God by faith.

Paul says in his letter to the Romans that righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

So if you have placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and are walking with God by faith, He sees you as righteous and his ears are open to your cry.

I wonder what your cry to God is ?

Perhaps you need delivering from a fear or a desperate situation. Perhaps your life is a mess and you are in despair and you want God to reach down from heaven and change your circumstances.

Perhaps you are a poor soul such as one described by the Psalmist in verse 6 – not one who is necessarily materially poor – but one who recognises that you don’t have the resources to bring about your own deliverance

If that’s you and you are walking with God by faith – rejoice because his ears are open to your cry.

He hears the cry of your heart and he will act. He will respond to your prayer.

And it’s OK to cry out to God as the Psalmist puts it.

It’s OK to be honest with Him and to share our hurt and fear and disappointment. It’s OK to let our tears fall before Him.

God responds to that sort of prayer.

Do you remember what the writer to the Hebrews says about Jesus’ prayer life?

“During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.”

Of course as I said at the start of this sermon – the Psalmist doesn’t promise a life without trouble or affliction but he does promise deliverance and rescue from them as we put our faith in God.

As he says in verses 17 and 19; ‘When the righteous cry for help the Lord hears and rescues them from all their troubles... Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord rescues them from them all.’

Sometimes God may rescue us dramatically. He may speak a Word directly into our lives that sets us free from our fear or He may send someone to minister His love and healing to us.

Sometimes He may speak to us through a dream or a vision and then we know in our hearts that all will be well.

Often the rescue is over a period of time – sometimes several years – and then one day we wake up and we realise that those things that once hurt and distressed us are now not nearly so significant in our lives and we realise that God has been acting gently and slowly to heal and deliver us.

However God chooses to rescue us, we become aware that the Creator of the Universe has intervened in our lives and changed our situation and like the Psalmist we can turn to him in and praise and bless him for his deliverance.

And as we go through the afflictions the Psalmist talks about in verse 19, we can be confident that God will enable us to cope with and live through whatever we are experiencing, in the knowledge that He is working for our good.

As Paul says in his letter to the Romans; ‘we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’

One of my favourite passages in the bible is from Isaiah chapter 43 which speaks of the same deliverance the Psalmist is talking about;

‘But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

When you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour... (and) you are precious in my sight, ... and I love you.’

We may go through all sorts of difficulties and trouble in life but we will not be overwhelmed or destroyed by them as we put our faith in God.

 As we adopt an attitude of gratitude, as we look to him and seek him, as we fear him and walk in righteousness before him and as we cry out to him, he will rescue and deliver us from our troubles and we will have many days to enjoy good.

Life may throw all sorts of things our way but as we trust and walk humbly and obediently with God with a song of praise on our lips we need fear no evil because the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the Holy One of Israel will be on our side.

And ultimately we will be happy.

So today I invite you in the Psalmists words to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good.’

 I invite you to take hold of the precious golden key outlined in this Psalm – a key to answered prayer and to deliverance from our fears; a key to lacking no good thing;

a key to many days to enjoy good; and a key to being rescued from your troubles - as you put into practise the advice of the Psalmist.

Just as the disciples managed to weather the storm because Jesus was in the boat with them, so we too can weather the storms of life if Jesus is in the boat with us, if he is in our lives, and we are trusting in him.

Jesus commanded the storm to be still and he can do the same for us.

Ultimately the true place to find lasting happiness is in a relationship with the living God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.